One area the Las Vegas Raiders must greatly improve if they plan on making a run into the postseason is turnovers. Josh McDaniels’ squad ranks second in the NFL with 11 total turnovers, and quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo has been the main culprit with seven interceptions.
It is impossible to win in the NFL while turning the ball over at a high rate, giving the opposition short fields, and putting your defense in an unfavorable position. Against the Packers, the Raiders were on the positive side, forcing three turnovers, but Garoppolo did still throw one interception himself and has committed one in each of the four games he has started this year.
McDaniels has not lost confidence in his starting quarterback but did admit that the coaching staff and Garoppolo have to work on fixing the issue. “I mean, we’re not overdoing it. But we have to address the things that we think we can do better,” the Raiders head coach said. “There’s a litany of those things, I’m not just talking about the quarterback position.
“We just came off of week five and I’d say there’s a lot of things that a lot of players can do better to help our team improve collectively. And for us as at the quarterback position, clearly the number one thing that we want to do going forward is take care of the football.”
McDaniels would continue, noting that they want to turn this weakness into a strength for the Raiders. One is too many. We know that, and he knows that,” McDaniels added. “He’d be the first one to tell you that. And so, again, right now it seems like an area that we’re not doing very well in. It wouldn’t be a strength yet, but we want to turn it into a strength.
“And so, we’re going to keep doing all the things that we’ve done to try to prepare the quarterbacks to do the right thing. And then ultimately challenge them in practice with some funky looks where they have to maybe throw it away or take the right check down, or whatever it is, just so we can continue to work on it and develop a good habit.”
Simply put, the Raiders have to do a better job of taking care of the ball, or they will continue to cost themselves games. McDaniels knows it, as does Garoppolo, and now it will be on them to fix the issue heading into Week 6 against the Patriots.
