Kirk Cousins has thrown his way into some elite company this season, and the Raiders have very little to show for it. The veteran quarterback ranks third in the NFL with 1,877 passing yards and has 16 touchdown passes, yet Las Vegas has suffered four consecutive losses.
Meanwhile, the ground game tells the other half of the story. The Raiders have 523 rushing yards, 30th in the league, and their 3.0 yards per carry beats only the Green Bay Packers. They have stayed under 75 rushing yards for four straight weeks, and Cousins threw 44 passes against the Rams while the team ran just 17 times.
Raiders coach Klint Kubiak sees the imbalance, and he wants it fixed.
"We need to take advantage of the run better. We've got to get better there. Quit throwing
it so much," Kubiak said Wednesday.
Coming from someone who calls the plays, the line reads like a confession as much as a plan, and he made the same point right after the loss to the Rams.
"You can't win in this league having to throw it as much as we're throwing it," Kubiak said.
Kirk Cousins sees it from the quarterback's side
Cousins interpretes the same problem and lands on a different fix. To him, the best way to help the run game is to throw it better, starting with the downs that keep drives alive.
"Well, when you convert third downs, you stay on the field and give yourself three more plays, which could be three more runs to get the run game going," Cousins said. "If you can score early, you can get ahead on people. Now you give yourself a chance to play from a lead, which allows you to run the football, which goes back to the red zone and four-point plays and things."
Those four-point plays are the gap between a touchdown and a field goal, and the Raiders keep leaving them on the field.
They went 3 for 14 on third down against the Rams and are 3 for 10 in the red zone over their last two games.
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Klint Kubiak says Raiders need to 'quit throwing it so much'
