Raiders’ emphasis on deep pass finally pays dividends

The Raiders prioritized throwing more deep balls against the Chiefs on Friday.

The decision was welcomed by quarterback Aidan O’Connell, who was making his first start after missing the previous four games with a fractured right thumb.

Hence, the smile O’Connell flashed when Kansas City opted against sending a cornerback in motion to trail wide receiver Tre Tucker on the first play of the fourth quarter, which set up a favorable matchup between the speedy Tucker and safety Justin Reid.

And why Tucker was thinking big before the ball was even snapped.

“For sure, this has to be a touchdown,” Tucker said he thought as he went in motion.

Sure enough, O’Connell and Tucker burned the Chiefs with a 58-yard scoring strike. As easy as it looked, it makes you wonder why the Raiders don’t take more shots down the field.

The reality is O’Connell’s long completion to Tucker was a rare case of everything coming together at the exact right time. The Raiders can only hope that happens more often in their final five games.

But no one needs to explain to O’Connell and Tucker how fleeting that can be.

“I mean, if you could count all the times in practice that Tre is running as fast as he can and doesn’t get the ball,” O’Connell said.

Right look, right time

In this case, the opposite occurred. Everything went according to plan, from the play call to the defensive look to execution.

“It feels pretty good when that happens,” Tucker said.

Based on film study, the Raiders knew the Chiefs would not track Tucker with a cornerback if he went in motion across the line of scrimmage. Just to be sure, they ran two similar plays earlier in the game. Each time, their assumptions were correct.

The last remaining question was whom the Chiefs would assign to cover Tucker on the other side of the field. In this case, cornerback Trent McDuffie was lined up in press coverage on wide receiver Jakobi Meyers. Behind McDuffie was Reid.

Tucker’s head start, gained by running in motion from the right side of the line of scrimmage to the left, gave him a huge advantage at the snap of the ball. He peeked to his right as he turned upfield to check on McDuffie, who stayed in man coverage against Meyers. That meant Reid, lined up 6 yards off the ball, was defending Tucker.

“If the corner had run with me, I kind of think it would have been the same thing because it’s a foot race,” Tucker said. “But the fact that it was a safety … I just knew.”

Tucker was at full speed 5 yards into the route while Reid was frantically backpedaling, trying to gain leverage. At the 10-yard mark, Tucker was preparing to blow past Reid, who furiously tried to make a turn to cut Tucker off. Tucker had a step on Reid in an instant.

It was pretty much all on O’Connell at that point. He planted his back foot and launched the ball downfield. It fell into the hands of Tucker at the Chiefs’ 20-yard line, as Reid fell off at the 25.

“What a beautiful ball by Aidan,” said Tucker, who sprinted to the goal line and dived into the end zone for the touchdown, giving the Raiders a 17-16 lead after the extra point.

Plan coming together

Defenses, Tucker said, are so wary of giving up the long ball that they often assign a safety to pick him up if he beats a cornerback off the ball. That creates a danger zone quarterbacks don’t want to mess with.

“You just can’t throw that ball,” Tucker said.

Reid was the first and last line of defense on this particular play.

“The fact that we did get the right look and everything was on schedule, it shows a glimpse of what it can look like and what it can be,” Tucker said.

No one was happier than O’Connell.

“That probably makes me the happiest out of anything because he’s running a lot of sprints during practice and not getting rewarded,” he said. “And for him to be on that stage to get rewarded was pretty awesome.”

Tucker believes it’s a sign of things to come for a team that preaches taking big swings with the long ball.

“There’s a lot of things we do good in practice that everyone doesn’t get to see,” Tucker said. “And that was one of the things that we’ve done a lot. So for the whole world to see it, it was great. That’s something that you guys can look forward to seeing more.”

Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on X.