McDaniels on the Collapse of the Running Game in Loss to Pittsburgh

The Las Vegas Raiders posted just 58 yards on the ground in their 13-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday.

Las Vegas Raiders running back Josh Jacobs was not able to impact Saturday's game the way he's been able to do throughout the rest of his remarkable 2022-23 campaign.

The league's leading rusher finished with just 44 rushing yards in the club's 13-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday night.

Raiders Coach Josh McDaniels said the game plan was there from the start, but Pittsburgh's defense created too much of a challenge for what has been a dominant run game for Las Vegas.

"I give them credit," McDaniels said in his Monday press conference. "They were kind of – in a nutshell, we would put one group out there, and then they would put a group out there with one more big guy than what we had. I don't want to get into the specifics of it, but there were times where they were out there with three defensive backs and a 4-4 front against our personnel grouping, and it made it very difficult to just keep slamming runs in there because you're either going to ask Mack Hollins to block a linebacker, which is just not good football in that regard. 

"So part of their plan, like I said, they did a decent job of trying to discourage that as much as they could. We felt like we made some adjustments that helped us as the game went on. But we didn't have the ball much in the second half, and that's our fault. We kind of created a negative play and then it was third-and-long, and then a penalty. We had a third-and-25, so, I mean, those situations are our responsibility. When you can't play the game first-and-10, second-and-5, third-and-2, first-and-10, second-and-4, it's hard to find any rhythm quite honestly. 

"And I would say in the second half, we didn't do a very good job offensively of establishing any rhythm. We were behind the sticks too much. We didn't make enough positive plays. We hurt ourselves with negative plays and penalties. And for that reason, he didn't get the touches that we certainly want to give him. I love the guy. He should have the ball more than any other player in our team, and he has. And so, I love his passion, his fight. He wants he wants to help us win in any way that he can, and we got to do a better job of being productive so we can stay out of those situations where the running game becomes difficult to stick with."

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