Any shot the Raiders had at favoring a more balanced offense than they had last season seemingly went up in flames in the third preseason game, against the Arizona Cardinals.
That is when coach Lane Kiffin confirmed that if the Raiders try to live by the pass, they are going to die a slow, certain death.
"Unfortunately, I saw what I already knew,"
Kiffin said, in part. "If we try to just throw the ball around, you are going to get penalties, you are going to get your quarterback hit, he is going to start running around a lot. And he will be in trouble."
Perhaps not surprising, Raiders offensive players are split on Kiffin's condemnation of his passing offense and his vow to resort to a run-oriented offense for the second straight season.
Left guard Robert Gallery said he and his linemates prefer to run the ball as often as possible, especially in offensive line coach Tom Cable's zone-blocking scheme.
"As linemen, we love it,"
Gallery said. "We would rather run the ball. That's the type of team we are. That doesn't mean we're never going to pass, but that's what's going to make us good."
Last season, the Raiders led the league in rushing for a part of the season and finished the season sixth. They ran the ball 53 percent of the time and passed as often as they did only because they were behind so often.
This season, the Raiders' starting offensive line features four returnees and their backfield includes Justin Fargas, Darren McFadden and Michael Bush. Fargas rushed for 1,009 yards last season. McFadden and Bush each averaged 5.8 yards a carry in college.
Also, offensive tackles Kwame Harris and Cornell Green are regarded as much better run blockers than pass blockers, and the Raiders lack experience at wide receiver beyond starters Javon Walker and Ronald Curry.
Walker said he understands Kiffin's concerns. Just the same, he believes the Raiders have the potential to develop into a balanced offense once quarterback JaMarcus Russell finds his comfort level in his first year as the starter.
"That's something that we keep working on in practice,"
Walker said. Russell "is going to keep growing. I know I can make plays. So if I get the opportunity, I'm going to be right out there and making the plays that I know I can make."
"That's something that the coaches, obviously, are going to have to have trust in and have faith. This is a league where you can't rely on one thing or the other."
Even so, Kiffin said, it's much easier to win games when the offense is churning out time-consuming drives.
"It's not the type of running game where you can just run a couple times and things are going to break,"
Kiffin said. "It's a running game that wears on people. Last year, we continued to improve as the games went along, our average yards per carry. We weren't very good in the first quarter. That's the system. You have to wear down (defenders), get them on the ground, and get them tired."
The Raiders would not mind having a more balanced offense, Gallery said. But there comes a time when you have to play to your strengths.
"If you're good at something, that's what you want to concentrate on,"
Gallery said. "You don't want to go into every week saying, 'Oh, they have a good run defense, so we're going to have to throw it.'"
"No, you want to be who you are, make people stop you. There are going to be games, not many, where they're going to stop the run, and we're going to throw it. … We want to run the ball. It's going to open up the pass. That's our identity."
