Offensive Coordinator Bill Musgrave
Prior to practice Wednesday, Oakland Raiders offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave met with the media to share his thoughts on the offense as of late. He gave credit to the three members of the offensive line for their recent accomplishment of making the Pro Bowl, and talked about the offense's struggles in the red zone in past weeks.
Here are the quick hits from his media session:
**Musgrave spoke about three members of the offensive line getting the Pro Bowl nod.
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"Well, the O-line is the engine to our vehicle. So, they've meant everything. I think all of our skill guys realize that they couldn't make one play without the O-line getting it started and also finishing it late in the downs. They've done a terrific job. We've had to mix and match at times due to injuries, like every other team in the universe, and they've done a nice job of continuing to work together."
He talked about the chemistry between center Rodney Hudson and quarterback Derek Carr.
"Those two are a dynamic duo, Rodney and Derek. Like having two quarterbacks on the field. They identify the defense, make the calls, work with one another. They both have veto power over anything that we send out there to the field and it's just a tremendous combination between center and QB."
Musgrave discussed why the offense has struggled in the red zone lately, and that they're working on fixing the issues
"Oh, a number of factors. We're ready to get back on track, that's for sure. We want to come away with touchdowns when we get down there. It's tough enough to get down there. We want to finish the right way. So, we're working hard on that, count on being better moving forward. You say uncharacteristic, but a couple uncharacteristic mistakes. We don't want to just sweep them under the rug. We want to address them, get them fixed and get back on track like you alluded to."
**He shared how the offense has tried to stay effective in the pistol formation since Carr's finger issue.
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"We're doing the best we can to put us in the best position to win. Since Derek hurt his finger, we're 3-1. We want to keep winning these games and one of the factors in winning these games is ball security. That's a real vital issue. As we know the pinky and the thumb are really your locking mechanisms to hold onto a football and so when you got a pinky or a thumb that's injured, you just have to be as smart as you can to secure that football, because that's important to the way that we win these games. That relates to everybody, not just the Raiders."
Musgrave said that defenses have been playing close attention to Amari Cooper, but the team would like to get him involved more.
"Well, I think we've been running the ball more, which is good. And Amari's really been working. A couple plays were designed to go to Amari and they happened to be completions to someone else due to the coverage. That's one thing we want to do each and every week is feature our premier guys and get him his touches. So, we need to make up for lost ground there."
