In Jacksonville Sunday two teams will face off with both looking to climb their way out of the NFL cellar. The Raiders and Jaguars each sit with two wins on the season. The only thing separating them in the fact that the Raiders (2-5) have had their bye week and therefore one fewer loss than the Jaguars (2-6).
Each team’s season started very different. The Jaguars jumped out to a 2-1 start while the Raiders began the season as 0-3, becoming the last team in the league to get their first win.
Since then, the Jaguars haven’t pulled out a win, while the Raiders have gone 2-2 in the last four, but are coming off their worst game in a long time in New Orleans. They were shut out by the Saints 24-0 and the Raiders didn’t even play a snap in opposing territory until the final drive when the Saints let them run out the clock.
That means the red zone touchdown percentage for that game as at zero because they never reached the red zone.
Ah, yes. Red zone TD efficiency. It’s something that has plagued the Raiders for some time. It had improved in their three-game stretch against the Broncos, Chiefs, and Texans. But even with those improvements, their season average sits at 52.2% and drops to 45.5% on the road.
Those percentages land them at 22nd in the league.
Two spots below the Raiders at 50% is the Jaguars. And their average oddly is even worse (40%) at home.
The thing is, the Jaguars have an excuse. They have no true X receiver and no defined number one receiver either. Hence why they just traded for Calvin Ridley despite Ridley being suspended all of this season.
The Raiders have two good X receivers, one of whom is a true number one receiver. With Davante Adams and Mack Hollins on the field together, there’s no reason the Raiders shouldn’t excel in the red zone. Especially when you add Josh Jacobs and Hunter Renfrow to the equation.
So, as has been the case much of the season, the Raiders would figure to have the advantage, if only slightly.
Then again, we said that prior to last week’s game and they lost by 24 points. The Jaguars haven’t had even a two-score defeat all season long.