After a really strong showing in Week 1, Jimmy Garoppolo struggled in Week 2. The offense scored a touchdown on the first drive of the game but was unable to have much success from that point on.
One of the big reasons why the offense struggled was their inability to create big plays. They just didn’t create any chunk plays in the passing game and couldn’t sustain any drives against the Bills. Take a look at Garoppolo’s passing chart via the NFL’s Next Gen Stats from Week 2 and see if you can come up with any conclusions:
Buy Raiders Tickets
One thing that stands out here is the lack of passing attempts down the sideline. Most of Garoppolo’s completions were in the short middle of the field. He just didn’t challenge the Bills down the field very often as he attempted only two passes beyond 20 air yards.
The other noteworthy thing from Sunday was that both of Garoppolo’s interceptions were near the line of scrimmage. One pass was tipped and the other was taken out of Josh Jacobs’s hands on a checkdown. Both interceptions were a tad fluky, so there is no major reason to worry.
But if the Raiders are going to be successful on offense this year, they need Garoppolo to push the ball down the field more often. They can’t afford to just be a dink-and-dunk offense, especially with the receivers they have on the field. Look for Garoppolo to be more aggressive in Week 3 when the Raiders host the Steelers.
