With the team that sits atop the AFC East generating the most buzz regarding its use of the no-huddle offense, a team that’s only one game out of first in the AFC West quietly has embraced it, too.
And we say quietly because, frankly, no one is paying attention to the Raiders. But maybe we should be. At least a little.
In a come-from-behind win over the Jaguars on Sunday, the Raiders scored 17 points by putting the pedal to the metal. Still, coach Dennis Allen isn’t ready to use it more extensively.
“It’s something that, on a week-to-week basis, we try to determine how much we’ll use it,” Allen said, via the Associated Press. “Obviously, we were not executing in the first half on offense. It was the worst half of football we’ve played offensively. But we knew we needed to do something to try to change some things up and the no-huddle worked good for us.”
The Raiders also used the attack during their only other win of the season, another come-from-behind Black Hole victory over the Steelers.
“It’s worked well in some situations and in others it hasn’t worked well,” Allen said. “It’s kind of a feel on how the game is going. In the game [Sunday] . . . it seemed to increase our focus offensively and we executed better offensively. So it will remain part of our offense and some games it will be more part of what we’re going to do than others.”
The Raiders’ no-huddle puts the play-calling in the hands of quarterback Carson Palmer, which has helped divert criticism of offensive coordinator Greg Knapp. And so Palmer has been prudent in his praise of the guy who decides periodically to yield to the quarterback who arrived by way of Cincinnati last season.
“We tired [the Jaguars] out a little bit, especially in their secondary,” Palmer said. “It got them tired, kept things off balance and it was a great halftime adjustment by Coach Knapp.”
It resulted in a great win for a team that has been largely ignored this season. If they beat the Chiefs in Kansas City this weekend, the Raiders will move even closer to being not ignored.