Silver And Black Pride
Quarterback under duress and sacked. The ground game smothered and rendered ineffective.
That’s the type of stuff that can scuttle an offensive coordinator — especially one that’s brand new to the team and orchestrating an offense in hostile territory, of all places. Oh, and not to mention inclement weather.
It was a perfect storm of events that should’ve sunk the Las Vegas Raiders boat. Turns out, the rain pelting the field and players had nothing on Chip Kelly.
The Silver & Black play caller didn’t flinch, remained bold, gave quarterback Geno Smith the ability to let it fly in Foxborough and that steered the Raiders to a 20-13 victory over the New England Patriots this past Sunday.
Conventional wisdom says football teams run the ball when the rain starts to fall. Kelly bucked that trend, and in turn, the Patriots, too. And that type of boldness from their offensive coordinator is exactly what the Raiders need to not only attain victory, but establish an identity for the 2025 campaign.
Are you familiar with the phrase “scared money don’t make no money”? The gist of the saying revolves around playing it safe and being overly cautious will not lead to significant growth or gains. That’s an apt expression when it comes to Las Vegas and its Week 1 win.
Instead of wilting to the pressure New England applied to his offense, Kelly went about his work. He dialed up plays to torch the Patriots’ blitz. At times, said calls were even the play action variety. That could’ve been logically mocked considering Las Vegas ground game was stymied by the Patriots defense. On the surface, it looked like an exercise in futility.
But Las Vegas sold the run look so well, it created the one situation that renders even the best intentions from ad defense moot: Eye violations.
New England got caught looking and Las Vegas took advantage.
When the Raiders needed it most, the synergy between the offensive coordinator, the offensive line, and quarterback were on display. Kelly dialed it up, the offensive line gave the quarterback time to operate, and Smith the courage to stand in the pocket and fling that thing. While there are many parts of the Raiders that are young, having that veteran signal caller who, despite getting smothered by the Patriots defense to the tune of four total sacks, paid dividends in the road opener.
“Yeah, I think it’s all the time we spend together, all the time in the meeting rooms, just hearing his voice and directly from him exactly what he wants to get accomplished with each and every play,” Smith said on Thursday when asked about his comfort in Kelly’s offense — intricate as it can be. “When I think about Chip, man, like he’s so cerebral and such a smart coach, and he’s always thinking of the next thing, the next layer to attack the defense. And that’s something that I’m always doing as well. So I think we mentioned that...
