OAKLAND — The Raiders may have found their complementary running back.

Times two.

A bright spot in a 27-14 loss to the Tennessee Titans on Saturday night at the Coliseum was the play of rookies DeAndre Washington and Jalen Richard, a pair of sawed-off runners who look as if one was cloned from the other.

“It’s crazy,” Richard said. “You see how we are stature-wise, and our skill sets are pretty much identical. He may be a step faster, and I may be a step quicker.”

It was hard to tell the difference against the Titans, as Washington rushed for 55 yards on eight carries and Richard had 35 yards on seven attempts.

The Raiders’ first scoring drive began with a 38-yard kickoff return from Richard and ended with Washington circling out of the backfield to catch a 6-yard touchdown pass from Derek Carr on third and goal.

Coach Jack Del Rio went into the game fully intending to get both running backs work behind the first-team offensive line, with Latavius Murray taking a temporary back seat. Murray carried only twice for zero yards.

Washington, 5-foot-8, 207 pounds, was a fifth-round draft pick out of Texas Tech who gained 1,492 yards as a senior and averaged 6.4 yards per carry. Richard, 5-8, 204, was signed as an undrafted free agent after gaining 1,098 yards and averaging 5.9 yards per carry.

“I thought they both ran hard, ran with vision,” Del Rio said. “They make people miss. I think looking into the offseason we were hoping we could develop a running back that could be a really good backup, and it looks like we have a shot at having one of those guys help us — potentially both. We’ll see.”

With fullback Marcel Reece missing the first three games under suspension, it seems likely Washington and Richard could both stick on the 53-man roster, with neither having to be concerned with Tuesday’s roster cut from 90 to 75 players.

“The game wasn’t too fast for them. They weren’t anxious. They weren’t nervous,” Carr said. “I remember turning around and handing the ball to Jalen, and he was just gone. The dude hit the hole so hard.”

Washington had his biggest play on a 31-yard burst in a crease created by left guard Kalechi Osemele and center Rodney Hudson.

“Any chance you get a chance to mesh with the (first team) is good,” Washington said. “It really motivated me, being with those guys, and our line did a good job paving the way.”

In all, the Raiders rushed for 157 yards on 26 carries, and included four late carries for 35 yards (plus three catches for 40 yards) by George Atkinson III, who had two long touchdown runs in the preseason opener against Arizona.

It was easily the Raiders best performance running behind their first-team line, and that it occurred with Murray as a spectator will have no bearing on how the carries are distributed when the regular season starts, according to Del Rio.

Through three games, Murray has 12 carries for 40 yards with a long gain of 11. Aside from his two carries for no gain against Tennessee was two receptions for 19 yards and a dropped pass.

In 2015, Murray went to the Pro Bowl as an alternate selection and finished with 1,066 yards rushing, although he struggled toward the end of the season under a workload that found Carr as the Raiders second leading rusher with 138 yards.

“We have a body of work under Latavius,” Del Rio said. “For us the bigger question was to find out who would be able to be the backup back for us. We wanted to give the two young guys a chance to run with the first group and give them exposure.”

Not all the exposure was pleasant. On one play, backup quarterback Matt McGloin threw a checkdown pass to Washington just in time for the rookie to be blown up by Sean Spence, with former Raiders draft pick David Bass returning the resulting fumble 37 yards.

“I’m all right,” Washington said. “It’s part of the game. It was a bang-bang play, but I’m built for it.”

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