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OAKLAND – The Buffalo Bills have a dominant defensive front, which was a hot topic leading up to Sunday’s game with the Raiders. How the Raiders would handle the likes of Mario Williams and Jerry Hughes would go a long way in determining a victor.
That assumption was correct. The Raiders were able to keep their quarterback clean and run at will, so it’s no shock that the Silver and Black emerged with a 26-24 victory at O.co Coliseum.
Quarterback Derek Carr was sacked only once. The Raiders ran a season-high 36 times for 140 yards. Latavius Murray had 86 yards on 23 carries – he had 108 yards of total offense – and Darren McFadden had 54 yards on nine carries.
[INSTANT REPLAY: Raiders hold off Bills for third win of season]
The Raiders were able to churn out yards on the ground, which was key to this victory.
“Especially against this defense,” Carr said. “Obviously you turn on the first quarter, first half, we’re like man, it’s going to be tough sledding today. Our guys kept fighting and when that running game is going it helps everything, it helps everything out. Defense can’t do certain things that they want to do and then when they do try and stop the run, you can take advantage of the certain things that they’re trying to do. (Offensive coordinator Greg Olson) and our offensive staff did a great job of, really knowing when to call what. They did a great job, you’ve got to give them a lot of credit.”
Credit also goes to the offensive line, which did a solid job creating rushing lanes as a comfortable a pocket as possible against Buffalo’s talented front. A strong performance came a week after the team struggled to protect against the Kansas City Chiefs. It was a good way to rebound against a difficult front.
“We had to take care of business up front, and we were able to do that,” left guard Gabe Jackson said. “That was so key. We knew it was going to be a physical game, and we were able to hold up and keep running strong.”
Murray has been a significant addition over the past few games, providing stability the Raiders missed when McFadden and Maurice Jones-Drew carried the rock. More important, the Raiders showed a commitment to the ground game that paid dividends.
It was nice to stick with the run game,” Murray said. “We had a few big runs in there, but we were able to produce steadily throughout the game. That’s the type of offense we want to be. It was nice to be able to do that.
“We know what we’re capable of. It all starts up front, and those guys on the line had a terrific day. We had lanes to run through. We took advantage of them like we should. We know we can do as a run game. It was nice to produce like that.”
