Raiders vs. Chiefs: Values go old-school
Gruden and the Raiders are expected to run the ball straight at the Chiefs
The first time Jon Gruden and Andy Reid were head coaches on opposite sidelines was in 2001. Gruden was in his fourth year as head coach of the Raiders. Reid, who worked with Gruden on Mike Holmgren’s staff with the Green Bay Packers, was in his third year with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Both teams would win their respective divisions and go to the playoffs, and Gruden and Reid were considered among the brightest young offensive minds in the NFL.
Even then Gruden was miscast as a proponent of the “West Coast offense,” which was the foundation of the system Holmgren imported from the 49ers and ran in Green Bay. Gruden borrowed heavily from the offense, but would laugh at the connection, noting his use of extra tight ends and a smash-mouth running game.
“You know how many plays we use three tight ends?” Gruden said at the time. “If that’s West Coast, I’m Jimmy Carter.”
The Raiders beat the Eagles at Veterans Stadium 20-10. Playing without the injured Tyrone Wheatley, the Raiders ran the ball 47 times for 202 yards and kept the ball for 40:09. The Eagles and their talented young quarterback Donovan McNabb had the ball for all of 19:51.
So it comes as no surprise to Reid, the Chiefs head coach since 2013, that the Raiders’ current three-game winning streak has come with 112 carries, 572 yards and six touchdowns on the ground.
“Jon trusts it and he’s going to call it,” Reid said. “He’s always had a good running game.”
ESPN created “Gruden’s QB Camp” starring the man himself because it highlighted football’s glamour role. Gruden has spent his adult life teaching the position. But as the pre-teen son of a running backs coach in Sandusky, Ohio, Gruden wore a Cleveland Browns jersey with Leroy Kelly’s No. 44. Unless the score dictates otherwise, he is equally committed to run and pass. In what has become a pass-first league, the Raiders have run the ball 49.9 percent of the time, the highest percentage in the NFL.
Given that the Raiders will spend the week of practice without 10 defensive players on the COVID-19 reserve list, running the ball and maintaining possession will be a major factor if they hope to sweep the Chiefs and climb within a game of first place in the AFC West.
The Raiders are fourth in the NFL with 282 carries and 1,282 yards, fifth in rushing attempts and fourth in rushing first downs with 78. And they’re doing it the old fashioned way, with a quarterback in Derek Carr who has made more plays with his feet but still has only 118 yards on 27 carries.
Lead back Josh Jacobs is the NFL's fourth-leading rusher with 700 yards and 182 carries, with Devontae Booker chipping in with 304 yards on 49 attempts.
The Raiders will run with Carr under center and with Alec Ingold as a lead blocking fullback. They'll run out of the shotgun. They'll mix in an occasional run-pass option (RPO) just to prove they can and in case Marcus Mariota ever plays in a game.
Fox analyst Mark Schlereth, a former NFL tackle with Denver and Washington, could barely contain his glee when he called the Raiders 31-26 win over the Chargers and Gabe Jackson and Rodney Hudson pulled to the outside and led the way for a 23-yard touchdown run by Booker.
“Jon Gruden is all about giving you a lot of eye candy to look at and then running it down your throat,” Schlereth said.
Gruden sees no sense in exposing Carr to unnecessary punishment when he's got a big, deep offensive line and hard running, nononsense backs.
“Our quarterback is not going to be exposed to the read options and RPO hits that some of the others are taking,” Gruden said. “We're just not going to play that way with Derek. When you have a running back like Josh Jacobs, you have a responsibility to surround him with the proper equipment. He needs a blocking tight end, he needs a blocking fullback. We take pride in being able to run the ball in a two-back set, which is a little bit old-school.”
Gruden turns on the sarcasm just to make it clear he's got the new-fangled RPOs in his playbook just in case.
“If you watch us carefully, we are able to spread it around and do some of these really modern, really cool, RPO-type runs, which is a thing of the world right now I guess,” Gruden said.
The Raiders offensive line under Tom Cable is big enough to push people around and agile enough to get to the outside. Known primarily as a zone-scheme coach, Cable said blocking schemes are mixed and matched based on the opponent.
Carr's influence in the running game cannot be understated. He's in his third year with Gruden, and the two think alike. Carr can and will change plays from pass to run, and from one run to a different run depending on what he sees.
“There are times where we do things like that and I absolutely love it, man,” Carr said. “I dreamed of that just watching Peyton Manning play. He just had total command of a game. The coaches knew he was going to get them to good run plays and into good looks, and it's a cool feeling for me to be able to do that kind of stuff at this point in my career.”
It's not unusual for Carr to come to the sideline after a big running play and celebrate with Cable as if he'd thrown a touchdown pass.
When the Raiders beat the Chiefs 40-32 at Arrowhead Stadium in Week 5, Carr had his biggest statistical game, completing 22 of 31 passes for 347 yards and three touchdowns. Included were a 59-yard touchdown pass to Nelson Agholor and a 72-yard rainbow to Henry Ruggs III.
Amidst the aerial display, the Raiders ran it more than they passed it, with 35 carries for 144 yards. They had a 20:31 to 9:29 time of possession advantage in the second half which helped take Patrick Mahomes and Co. out of their rhythm offensively.
Could the Raiders possibly do it again? Knowing Gruden, he'll try. Running the ball is in his DNA.