Raiders Befuddled Seahawks With Their No-Huddle Offense

Most football teams prosper when they come together and communicate.

The Oakland Raiders are better when they don’t.

Against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, the Raiders sputtered early, but really took off in the second period after going exclusively to the no-huddle offense.

When it was totaled up, the Raiders had put together 531 yards of offense, the most against a Seahawks team since San Francisco gained 580 yards seven seasons ago. And the final score was a one-sided 34-14.

“We’ve used it (the no-huddle) only about three times this year and every time it’s been successful,” Raiders coach Mike White said. “It wasn’t because of anything Seattle was doing, it was because we’ve been practicing it and after we started going to it it worked so well.”

As the Raiders used it, the no-huddle was not to speed up the game - because they repeatedly exhausted the play clock - but to limit the Seahawks’ capacity to substitute defensive players.

“We knew they were going to do it,” Hawks coach Dennis Erickson said. “They just came to the line, saw what we were in and ran the best play possible for that particular defense.”

The whole thing depends on the ability of quarterback Jeff Hostetler to read the defense and arrive at the best way to exploit it.

“We’ve been moving toward becoming a no-huddle team,” White said. “I think the game has been taken away from the quarterbacks; Jeff did a good job running the offense from the no-huddle.”

To Seahawks safety Eugene Robinson, it seemed like a chess game.

“Hostetler was checking at the line and seeing what we were in,” he said. “He was extremely patient.”

Hawks cornerback Corey Harris discounted the effects of the no-huddle. “It really shouldn’t be a factor,” Harris said. “What it really comes down to is who executes the play the right way.” Raiders guard Steve Wisniewski

sensed a difference in the Hawks defense late in the game. “I think those guys were winded by it.”

Omen of doom

One Seahawk, in some ways, expected the team to struggle. Steve Broussard, who averaged an impressive 7 yards per carry, saw it coming.

“This goes back to our week of practice and preparation,” the Washington State product said. “We had a terrible practice on Thursday and you can’t practice like that and come in and play against a good team.”

Broussard not only gained 56 yards in eight carries subbing for starter Chris Warren, he also picked up 100 yards on four kickoff returns.

Harvey who?

Raiders back Harvey Williams put together the best rushing game against the Seahawks this year, gaining 160 yards on 19 carries.

In fact, that was the biggest game by an opposing rusher since Bo Jackson’s 221 yards in 1987.

Largely overlooked when he played at Kansas City, Williams appears to finally be having a major impact. Against the Hawks, Williams looked more like Gale Sayers than the third-stringer behind Christian Okoye and Barry Word at K.C.

“Harvey is an outstanding back,” White said. “People don’t put him in the upper echelon with (Barry) Sanders and those guys, but to me, he is a tremendous runner. That’s a tough surface to run on with it being part grass and part dirt, but he just got stronger as the game went on.”

Notes

The Hawks were an awful 0-11 on third-down conversions Sunday.

Although he was expected to play, tackle Ray Roberts was left on the inactive list to continue nursing a surgically repaired left ankle.

Kicker Todd Peterson had his worst miss of the season, punching a 37-yarder wide left in the second period. He had made five of seven attempts this season, with his misses coming from 53 and 48 yards.

UW grad Jeff Jaeger saw his first action of the season as kicker for the Raiders, having recovered from a preseason leg injury. Jaeger made kicks of 37 and 24 yards, but missed on a short, 28-yarder.

Another UW product, back Napoleon Kaufman, picked up 18 yards on six carries.

, DataTimes