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Latavius Murray ran for 112 yards and two touchdowns on four carries. Remember that day? Boy, was it fun.
The Raiders beat the Kansas City Chiefs, and the 2013 sixth-round pick finally proved his worth.
The Central Florida product was hurt his rookie season. At the time, people said he looked like he was running on bunions.
That was then. Now is totally different.
Murray might be the Raiders feature back of the future, and it’s not based on one great night. He’s averaging 5.4 yards per carry, largely over the course of three games as a feature back.
[RELATED: Remaining games could help Raiders' Murray secure '15 carries]
It’s the gritty work that deserves acclaim, and it proves he’s no flash in the pan.
“He’s been a positive addition to the running game,” offensive coordinator Greg Olson said. “Latavius is a young player, one with a bright future.”
The Raiders certainly hope so, because playing old backs didn’t work out. Darren McFadden and Maurice Jones Drew averaged 3.18 yards per carry, which finally forced the Raiders to lean towards Murray.
The second-year pro has done yeoman’s work during a three-game home winning streak, including 86 yards on 23 carries in a victory over the Buffalo Bills.
“It’s about building that confidence with one good run game after another,” Murray said. “We know that we can help the offense when we run well. That’s the goal.”
Quarterback Derek Carr has noticed a change in how defenses treat the Raiders attack. They can’t sit back and assume the Silver and Black will produce through the air anymore.
“Teams just can’t sit and drop everybody into coverage,” Carr said. “That’s why you see – especially the San Francisco game is a good one to look at, play action game was big time in that one -- that’s a big reason, because of the run game. We were able to hit the play actions and take big chunks, so this whole thing correlates, works together.”
[RELATED: Raiders run game dominates stout Bills defense]
Murray impacts all that. He still needs to improve some in pass protection and with his receiving skills, but he’s clearly an upgrade over what the Raiders had.
Here’s the obvious question: With a coach fired and the season already swirling the drain, why didn’t the Raiders go to Murray earlier?
“Early in the season, it took us a while to figure that part of it out,” interim head coach Tony Sparano said during an interview with Sirius XM radio. “He’s a guy that was hurt all year last year. Latavius has really come into his own, and I think he can handle the workload of being a No. 1 guy.”
