Struggling Raiders offense looks largely the same in first game under interim coordinator Greg Olson

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The offense for the Las Vegas Raiders looked marginally better in the team’s first game since Chip Kelly was fired. And the unit still finished with less than 200 yards for the third time this season.

The end result was a 31-14 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.

The Raiders finished with 156 yards of total offense and averaged 3.4 yards per play under interim offensive coordinator Greg Olson, with nearly all of that coming on their two sustained touchdown drives.

“Offensively, to have an expectation we’re going to flip flop it all of a sudden and be ripping it, we’d like to have seen that. But that didn’t happen, and we’re a ways away,” coach Pete Carroll said.

Essentially, Las Vegas (2-10) was what it has been — an offense that looks effective only when getting the ball into the hands of All-Pro tight end Brock Bowers. It once again struggled to do anything else, whether that was protecting quarterback Geno Smith, blocking for rookie running back Ashton Jeanty or trying to involve its wide receivers in the passing game.

Bowers had four receptions for 63 yards and two touchdowns on Sunday. He had a 24-yard catch on a corner route set up by a creative play-action late in the second quarter, moving the Raiders down to the 5. After Jeanty lost a yard on a rushing attempt, Bowers was all alone in the middle of the end zone for a TD reception that tied it at 7.

On Bowers’ second touchdown reception, another 6-yarder, he pulled the ball off the turf with one hand for a spectacular play midway through the fourth quarter.

“Brock Bowers is a tremendous player, we see it week in and week out,” Smith said. “He makes plays all over the field, does things not many guys can do, and we got to continue to find ways to get him in space and get him the ball. But he’s a great player.”

Everything else the Raiders tried on offense tended not to work.

Jeanty had 31 yards on 15 carries in the team’s sixth consecutive loss, with five of his attempts resulting in no gain or a loss of yards. He also had four carries that gained 1 yard each and two carries that gained 2 yards each.

Smith was 18 of 23 for 165 yards and the two TDs to Bowers. He also threw an interception when cornerback Donte Jackson athletically tipped the ball twice along the sideline to get it into the hands of safety Tony Jefferson.

“You know, we all just got to play better,” Smith said. “I got to play a lot better, I got to be better for the guys. That’s really it. We got to be more consistent. I got to be more consistent, down in and down out.”

Those struggles were most apparent on third down, where the Raiders were 2 for 8, with one conversion apiece on each of the touchdown drives.

“Third down was atrocious for us on both sides of the football,” Carroll said. “We couldn’t convert and we couldn’t stop them to get out of there. Some of those third-and-shorts, that’s been a little bit of a theme throughout the year, third-and-2s and 3s, right in there.”

The only concrete improvement Carroll could really point to on offense was the operation and communication with Olson at the helm.

“We had no problem functioning and all that,” Carroll said. “And in a couple days’ time, that’s a nice accomplishment by those guys, but we’ll get a lot better.”