David Zalubowski) / Associated Press
Las Vegas Raiders running back Kenyan Drake scores a touchdown as Denver Broncos cornerback Kyle Fuller (23) and inside linebacker A.J. Johnson (45) defend during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Oct. 17, 2021, in Denver.
Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021 | 2 a.m.
Kenyan Drake sprinted out of the Raiders’ backfield, made a couple of cuts and hauled in a Derek Carr pass over his shoulder for a 31-yard touchdown reception.
The successful wheel route was the type of play Raider fans expected to see from the high-priced free agent running back when he signed with the team in the offseason, but now-former coach Jon Gruden hadn’t utilized him much. In his first game calling plays, offensive coordinator Greg Olson gave Drake more playing time, which helped Las Vegas to a 34-24 Week 6 victory against the Denver Broncos.
“Great setup by Oly,” Drake said, deflecting praise after the game. “I just had to do my part.”
Concerns went beyond football when Gruden resigned prior to the game after the leak of hateful and offensive emails. But for fans, focus quickly shifted back to the field, where life without Gruden seemed hard to imagine after more than three years in which the coach was intimately involved in every aspect of game planning.
Interim coach/special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia’s style is the direct opposite. He’s included in everything going on with the team, of course, but he’s taking a more hands-off approach, leading in an overseer-type role.
That didn’t mean much change on defense, where Gruden had already granted first-year coordinator Gus Bradley near-autonomy. The big question was how the offense would operate, considering Gruden had previously been in complete control on that side of the ball.
Olson served in an advisory role and hadn’t called plays since 2016 with the Jacksonville Jaguars, when, in an ironic twist, then-Jaguars head coach Bradley was forced to fire him before the end of the season. But in his debut at the helm of the Raiders’ offense, Olson showed no rust.
In fact, Las Vegas’ offense was the best it’s been all season, snapping an 11-game streak—dating back to last season—in which it failed to score on its opening drive. And the Raiders never stopped producing after that, scoring in a variety of ways throughout the game: a deep bomb to receiver Henry Ruggs III, a long run by Drake and a power-run at the goal line by running back Josh Jacobs.
“He just kind of made things simpler,” Drake said of Olson. “We didn’t come into the week with a lot of dropbacks, a lot of different things like that. We kind of reduced the amount of things we needed and just went out there and played ball.”
Gruden’s offense was frequently characterized as “complex,” and the players seemed to respond to Olson whittling down the playbook. The passing game will always be dependent on Carr reading routes through his progressions, but Gruden often admitted to trying to manufacture looks for certain players.
Carr said there will always be “the Waller factor,” with the Raiders trying to feature to star tight end Darren Waller, but the quarterback hinted that otherwise, Olson was more flexible in terms of who got the ball.
“The way Oly goes is that, if someone needs a break, we are going to keep playing football,” Carr said. “I think [Drake] just capitalized when he was in there instead of, We need to get KD the ball. We don’t talk about that much in our room.”
Bisaccia said he wants to stay fluid and potentially tinker from a strategic standpoint if necessary, but no such shift needs to be implemented yet. The Raiders performed perfectly from his preferred setup.
The caveat to all this, as Bisaccia himself pointed out, is that Las Vegas won’t be able to maintain the element of surprise, which he said left Denver “trying to figure out what we were going to do.”
Olson’s tendencies with the offense are now out there for opponents to scout, and by the sound of it, they might be a less-daunting study compared with Gruden’s overload of different looks. Some trickery and misdirection can throw opponents off slightly, but ultimately, as Ruggs repeatedly intimated, it’s going to come down to execution.
Olson, with freedom granted by Bisaccia, looks capable of putting the Raiders in prime position to execute. “Everyone is different,” Ruggs said. “Coach Gruden calls his plays how he wants; Oly calls his plays how he wants. What we do is line up and run them. Derek has the green light to change any play if he doesn’t like it, so we’ll just trust each other and trust the coaches.”
This story appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.
