What We Learned About the Oakland Raiders Thursday Night

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Dec 8, 2016; Kansas City, MO, USA; Oakland Raiders running back Latavius Murray (28) rushes against the Kansas City Chiefs during a NFL football game at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /

Raiders O-line

The Raiders put this offensive line together to deal with the defensive front-seven of the Chiefs. And overall, the O-line handled them, holding the Chiefs to one sack. Edge-rushers Justin Houston and Dee Ford didn’t wreck the game at all.

But interior D-lineman Chris Jones and Rakeem Nunez-Roches (one sack) played well. Left OG Kelechi Osemele didn’t play due to illness and Vadal Alexander was a weak link in his stead. But the weak-link starter is right OT Austin Howard, who’s not the same coming off an ACL tear.

Houston came in with four sacks in his previous two games but got his pressures when lined up on Howard. But neither he nor Ford, who has 10 sacks on the season, did too much when lined up over left OT Donald Penn. There would have been less interior pressure had Osemele played.

The Raiders offensive line really handled the Chiefs front-7 in the running game. They opened up plenty of holes for Raiders running backs to rush for 135 yards on 31 carries. That’s another area the Raiders would have done even better at had Osemele played.

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