The Las Vegas Raiders are looking forward to their upcoming bye week.
“We need to get healthy. We need to reset. We need to self-scout,” Raiders coach Antonio Pierce told reporters on Friday, via the Raiders website. “We need to look at ourselves on what we can fix in those last eight games.”
But first comes the business of taking on the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday in Cincinnati.
Beware ????#LVvsCIN pic.twitter.com/L6UkfBzNZf
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) October 31, 2024
A win would be a welcome sight. It would snap a four-game losing skid and send off the Raiders on a positive note.
“You don’t want to have a loss and then sit for two weeks. You don’t that to linger. That’ll be the fifth game in a row,” Pierce said. “The guys have the right mindset. Right attitude. The right focus was really good for us. The energy is good. They understand the task we have in front of us. We’re on the road against a good offense and a team that has been in the playoffs.”
The run game is an area the Raiders want to focus on this week. The Bengals rank 24th in the league in yards allowed on the ground. The Raiders, however, enter the game 31st in rushing yards.
“We’re not doing a lot on the running game,” Pierce said.
Piece said the goal is to be more committed to the run game and stick with it despite some struggles.
Some of those struggles can be attributed to the shuffling of the offensive line. Center Andre James is out for the game with an ankle injury, prompting the team to move Jackson Powers-Johnson from guard to center.
“We’ve been shuffling the O-line quite a bit due to injuries. We’ll do our best to keep some continuity there and let the guys practice throughout the week play where they have been practicing,” Pierce said. “Whenever you have change consistently, that doesn’t create guys being comfortable. Communication goes into it. Feeling one another. Understanding your partner. That’s critical.
“There could be communication issues because you’re playing so many different players.”
Paul Delos Santos is the Las Vegas sports insider for Dice City Sports. Follow him on X at @PaulDelos_.
