Silver Minings: Jon Gruden has plan to increase scoring in 2020

Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden was discussing the Raiders’ chances to becoming true playoff contenders in 2020 and one of the areas he pointed to was their play on goal-line offense.

As the Associated Press pointed out, the Raiders were dreadful at the goal-line in 2019. Gruden put it on himself to fix it this season.

“We stunk last year, I stunk inside the 1-yard line,” Gruden said in a Zoom interview with media on Thursday. “That will really help our offense if I can call some better plays and give these guys a chance to poke it in from inside the 2- or 3-yard line. That’s where your points per game and all the statistics will improve.

“We got stuffed twice in Green Bay. We got stuffed against Denver. We got stuffed against Tennessee. We got stuffed too many times down inside the 2-yard line. That’s all my fault. We have to address our tight, tight, tight goal line offense to be a good scoring team.”

Gruden’s honest assessment is definitely interesting, but he is simplifying it a bit. The Raiders averaged 19.5 points a game in 2019. If they added three touchdowns in those missed goal-line situations, they will still have averaged 21.0 points a game. They still would have been in the bottom half in the NFL in scoring, so more than clutch play at the goal-line is needed for this offense to take the next step.

But is clear it is an area Gruden wants to improve upon.

In other Raiders’ links:

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• Looking good: Raiders’ logos are being placed at the new digs.
• Gruden loves the new ink: 2019 rookies Clelin Ferrell, Josh Jacobs and Maxx Crosby all got Raiders’ tattoos this offseason and Gruden is all in.
• More Brown support: Another day, another complaint about Raiders’ tackle Trent Brown not being on the NFL Network Top 100 player’s list.
• Get hyped: Check out this Raiders’ hype video.