Anyone complaining about 5-2?
That’s where the Raiders stand Sunday after a 33-16 road win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, a game in which they weren’t scintillating but were still light years ahead of an opponent that looks in need of an overhaul.
The beauty for coach Jack Del Rio and his staff is even following their most convincing win of the season in terms of margin of victory, they can spend the next week reminding the 53-man roster of all the areas in need of improvement.
The Raiders will do that from a four-star hotel, practicing each day at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., with a very real chance to be 6-2 at midseason after they visit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Make no mistake, at the moment the Raiders don’t really look like a team worthy of that kind of record. But on the other hand, you are what your record says you are. Style points, yardage totals, dropped passes and penalties don’t count.
So it’s OK that Sebastian Janikowski kicked four field goals while the Raiders twice settled for three points in the red zone when they could have had seven.
It’s acceptable that offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave, no doubt with Del Rio’s blessing, took the air out of the offense in the second half and played the clock when it became apparent Jacksonville would be incapable of mounting a serious comeback with Blake Bortles playing poorly at quarterback.
Judging from social media, couch coordinators everywhere were aghast at the Raiders electing to go inert for much of the second half and sit on lead rather than put their foot on the gas.
But the final score says it was the right thing to do, and it’s not something that Del Rio, Musgrave and Co. will do every week.
A decision to play it safe is done with consideration of the opponent and it’s ability to come back, and Jacksonville was at no time a legitimate threat to make a game of it.
Roll back the clock to 2006, when opponents realized the Art Shell, Tom Walsh Raiders offense had no prayer of mounting a serious threat. Marty Schottenheimer, Mike Shanahan and whoever else was on the other side often went into a four-minute mode by midway in the third quarter, so certain were they of victory.
Grousing is part of the job of the fan. A coach’s job is to win.
More instant analysis from the Raiders Week 7 win:
— Statistically it was a better day defensively than the final numbers showed, with Jacksonville piling up much of its 344 yards when the outcome was not in doubt.
Still, that’s 100 yards fewer than their average going in to the game.
— Another number which is much more important than whatever the Raiders did or didn’t do on offense in the second half — a 3-0 turnover margin. Could have been four if Malcolm Smith had held on to an end zone throw by Bortles that was stolen by Julius Thomas.
— The Raiders were tied for third in penalties going into the game, but are making another run at the top with 11 more against the Jaguars. The Jaguars did them two better with 13.
— The Raiders had 84 yards rushing in the first half and had their best sustained running drive in an 11-play, 75-yard drive in the second quarter. Nine of the plays were running plays.
That drive actually helped jump-start the Raiders offense when the passing offense wasn’t sharp early on.
The Raiders finished with 144 yards, and that came mostly because of a 27-yard first down run by Marquette King on a rare short-hop snap from Jon Condo.
If there’s a criticism of the Raiders offense in the second half, its that they couldn’t line up and run the ball effectively while playing conservatively.
It perked up late to put the game away, and Latavius Murray finished with 59 yards on 18 carries with two touchdowns after returning from turf toe.
— The Raiders grade their running game not on yardage, but on “efficient” runs. An efficient run is a 4-yard gain on first down, half of the yardage remaining for a first down on second down, and making a first down on a third-down or fourth-down run.
In the first half, the Raiders were 10 of 16 (62.5 percent) efficient, and were 6-for-13 in the second half _ that’s 16 of 29, or 55.6 percent overall. The benchmark as established by coach Mike Tice is 56 percent.
— Carr finished 20 of 37 for 200 yards after spending the second half throwing short of the stake and avoiding turnovers. He had a huge 56-yard strike to Michael Crabtree to set up the touchdown that the Raiders up 20-6 at halftime.
— Dropped passes were a problem. There five with varying degrees of difficulty, including one by Clive Walford in the end zone that would have been a tough catch in traffic but still hit him in the hands.
