The Raiders didn't abandon the run vs Dallas, they never even established it

It's pretty common for coaches to catch criticism when they abandon the run. And that's something Pete Carroll and Chip Kelly can't be accused of doing Monday night against the Cowboys...because you can't abandon something you never attempted to establish to begin with.

For instance, just take a look at the first quarter. The Raiders had three possessions in the quarter. And the defense got two stops -- one for a three-and-out and the other for turnover. That is the kind of situation, you'd expect to see the Raiders deploy a somewhat balanced attack. What you wouldn't expect is what we saw, which was the Raiders run it just one time in 15 plays. That's right, that's 14 drop backs to one rush.

This is especially odd when you consider they have Ashton Jeanty in the backfield against statistically the league's 29th ranked rush defense.

Come the second quarter, the defense was unable to keep the Cowboys down anymore, resulting in three straight TD drives in one quarter.

The first TD for the Cowboys made it just a 10-6 game. Still plenty of time to try and establish the run. And on the next drive, they did hand it off a couple times. The first time to Raheem Mostert that went for four yards and then to Jeanty for an 11-yard gain. It showed they could get yards on the ground. So, they of course stuck with it after that. I'm just kidding, they didn't. The 11-yard run by Jeanty was literally the last time the ran the ball in the first half.

The end result was Geno Smith dropping back 32 times and their sixth overall pick rookie running back getting two carries. And a 24-9 deficit at the half.

The final numbers had Jeanty with six carries, which matched his lowest rushing total of the season. The other time he had six carries was the 31-0 defeat annihilation at Arrowhead in Week seven.

But this is even worse than that game. Because in that game he had most of his carries (four) while the game was still in reach. The Chiefs would go on a long drive in the second quarter to take a three-score lead, at which point you expect teams to go into desperation mode and leaning more heavily on the pass game. That was a plan from the start in this game.

To be fair, the Raiders offensive line is a complete wreck. They have been bad all season, but now they're without both of their top linemen. Kolton Miller and Jackson Powers-Johnson are both on injured reserve. JPJ is the latest to be sidelined and the Raiders' answer was the move Jordan Meredith back to guard and put in Will Putnam put in at center, giving the former undrafted free agent his first career start.

However, the problem with the offensive line is not limited to run blocking. And when you're dropping Geno Smith back to pass 46 times. He was sacked four times and averaged just 5.6 yards per attempt.

I guess if there's any defense for it, it's that if nothing is working, you just push the ball down field and hope to hit on enough to put some points on the board. And in that regard, the problem seems to be a combination of the Raiders receiving corps just not being dynamic enough and Geno Smith just not getting the ball to them when they're open.

Smith had one interception, but had several other passes that were late and/or in traffic that couldn't have been intercepted.

There are no easy answers. Last week it was Brock Bowers seeing just three targets. This week Bowers was flexed out more and saw ten targets, catching five passes. The week before the finger was pointed at the defense for giving up six straight scoring drives.

Every week it's something with this team. This week it was choosing not to even try to get the ground game going with your phenom running back. It just leaves you wonder what it will be next week that will make you shake your head.

This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Raiders didn't abandon the run vs Dallas, they never even established it