The Las Vegas Raiders (2-7) are hoping that a much-needed bye week and offensive staffing changes can provide a spark in the season’s second half.
One of the series of changes that the Raiders made in the immediate aftermath of their 41-24 loss at the Cincinnati Bengals was to elevate passing game coordinator Scott Turner to interim offensive coordinator.
As Turner takes over the play calling duties, he also assumes the task of trying to restore confidence in Las Vegas quarterback Gardner Minshew who Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce confirmed will start again this Sunday at Miami.
Turner detailed the Raiders’ plans to help restore Minshew’s confidence.
“I think everyone, when you lose five games in a row and you’re 2-7 and you go into a bye, I think everyone kind of needed a little bit of a reset. And you look at the games, and like I said, I talked about the competitiveness of the games. One play here and there can kind of throw a game good or bad,” Turner explained.
“And so, I think when you look back and you show those guys, ‘See, hey, look at all these positives, look at all the good things you did,’ and then give them solutions to eliminate the negatives. The other team’s always going to make plays. That’s going to happen in every NFL game. I think you guys have seen enough to know that.”
Turner said that the Raiders have positive plays that they can build on, but that Minshew and Las Vegas are giving too many negatives away to the opposition.
“But what you can’t do is you just can’t give them plays. Some of the plays late in the down, whatever, we just got to be better, whether if it’s not in our favor to get to the next down, and then when it is in our favor, we got to capitalize on them.
“And again, there’s been good. We just got to build on that. And that’s what you got to focus on, kind of let them reset, let them get away from it. We did that. And now hit the ground running and try to put these guys in situations where they feel confident that they’re going to be successful,” Turner said.
That starts with Minshew who Turner said needs to be more consistent.
“Just consistency. He knows we’ve got to obviously take care of the football. And then just the consistency of it. I’m not going to get into the schematic details and everything like that, but just one play at a time and don’t try to do too much, just kind of take what they give you and move on to the next play,” Turner said.
Minshew admitted it’s been tough at times to keep the confidence up when there’s a rotating door at quarterback and when he and the team aren’t getting the results they want.
But, the sixth-year pro has ridden the NFL’s ups and downs before.
“It could be tough, man, no doubt about it. But I’ve been there before, been through it, and excited for the opportunity ahead. That’s really all we have. We got these days to prepare, and we got a game coming up. We’re focused on that and letting it rip,” Minshew said on Wednesday.
Minshew said the verbiage and bones of the offense should remain the same with Scott Turner taking over the play calling, but that there could be some tweaks in the way the game is called.
“I think kind of the approach for calling the game might be a little different, a little bit different flavor to it. So, we’ll kind of see how that develops as we move forward,” Minshew said.
The Raiders also hired former head coach and Scott’s father, Norv Turner, to the staff as a senior advisor during the bye week.
“It’s awesome, man. Those guys have been great. Obviously, kind of a wild situation with Norv getting in here, but he’s been awesome, man. So much knowledge and he’s fun to kind of joke with and mess around with in the quarterback room. But that dude knows his stuff, and I think he’s really going to help us,” Minshew said.
The Raiders travel to Miami this Sunday for a 10 a.m. PT kickoff inside Hard Rock Stadium with the game televised on CBS.
