Bo Hardegree Bounces Back After Scoreless Game
After scoring zero points against the Minnesota Vikings, many eyes were on Offensive Coordinator Bo Hardegree and the Raiders’ offense a few days later against the Los Angeles Chargers.
The Raiders would respond with a resounding 63-21 victory over their division opponent, but Hardegree credits their performance against Los Angeles to the lessons learned against Minnesota.
“I learned that turnovers and penalties don’t help drives,” Hardegree said. “I would be calling plays at certain spots in the field, where I’m like: ‘Alright, this is where — let’s get to this, and then let’s move down into the red area.’ And then we’d kind of get there, and then a play or two, or a call or two, would kind of fall back behind the sticks. You just learn from it, and you battle back, and you get the group, and you get them going, and you just reset.
“We have to do whatever it takes to affect the opponent and put our guys in the best position to make plays. We’ll just go out and do what we have to do as far as the execution standpoint, from a play caller and a player perspective.”
There is a lot that goes into calling plays on game day. Hardegree made it clear he didn’t second guess himself after Las Vegas’ disappointing outing against the Minnesota Vikings.
“Well, the first part of that, it’s all situational when those calls are happening,” Hardegree said. “What third down? What are we? Is it a quarto call? Do we have two downs? Does third down go to second down? Is it: ‘Got to have it’ on third down? All those things come into play when you’re putting your plan together, so you have those certain calls.
“So, if it’s a call, that’s OK in front of the sticks because you know you have another call. Is it a run? Or is it something that needs to stretch past the sticks? So, all those things kind of come into play when you’re kind of putting everything together.
“I don’t believe in second-guessing. You don’t have time to, but you do have time to reflect on what happened on a short week, but you learn.”
The Raiders have lacked execution across the board this season, but their loss to the Vikings drove home the importance of executing correctly. The harsh lesson was a motivating factor for the offense against the Los Angeles Chargers.
“I hope everybody learns,” Hardegree said. “I’ve talked about that before. But from an execution standpoint, a schematic standpoint, and then just obviously, for us, the most important thing that came out of that was we have to put two positive plays back-to-back. That’s important. That’s the art of offensive football.”
There are few things worse for an offensive coordinator than scoring zero points after having an extra week of preparation. Hardegree, however, showed his mettle and helped navigate the Raiders to a record-setting offensive performance against the Chargers.
The Silver and Black will return to action versus their AFC West rivals, the Kansas City Chiefs, on Christmas Day at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Don’t miss it on Monday, December 25, at 1 p.m. EST/10 a.m. PST.
Please tell us your thoughts when you like our Facebook Page WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE.
