So you were hoping the Raiders’ offseason quest to put a representative defense on the field would pay dividends by now?
Not so much.
The Raiders, 2-1 after a 36-20 loss to the New England Patriots, are where they’ve been for the better part of the last decade-plus — near the bottom of the NFL defensive rankings. They are looking up at the teams that mete out punishments on quarterbacks, running backs and receivers.
The first half of the Patriots game actually went well, with the Raiders trailing 13-10 mostly because of offense failures as the defense more than held its own.
Then it all came apart. En route to a total of 250 yards rushing on 38 carries, the Patriots gouged the Raiders in the second half for 143 yards on 16 carries — including runs of 38 and 48 yards by Sony Michel. All against a team that probably won’t be in the top 10 in rushing at the end of the season.
It wasn’t supposed to happen this way. In training camp, defensive coordinator Paul Guenther was pleased to finally have something approaching a full deck in terms of talent. Defensive tackle Maliek Collins and end Carl Nassib were added to the defensive front and Cory Littleton and Nick Kwiatkoski as starting linebackers. The Raiders also had first-round draft pick Damon Arnette and second-year safety Johnathan Abram, who was healthy after missing all but one game of his rookie year in 2019.
That influx, combined with returnees such as defensive ends Maxx Crosby and Clelin Ferrell and cornerback Trayvon Mullen, seemed to put the Raiders somewhere near the middle of the pack.
Instead, the Raiders are at the bottom in most of the NFL’s most pertinent statistics. They’re still having trouble getting to the passer and generating turnovers. Also, they’ve regressed as a run defense.
Raiders pertinent defensive stats:
Scoring: 25th (28.0)
Run: 28th (163.7)
Pass: 17th (242.3)
Sacks: 28th (3, tie)
Total defense: 26th (406.0)— Jerry McDonald (@Jerrymcd) September 28, 2020
Here’s how coach Jon Gruden addressed the Raiders’ issues Monday:
The problem against the Patriots
“We obviously missed some tackles, and when you miss tackles, that’s a hard thing. The yards add up. We had some guys out of their gaps. We lined up wrong one time and we had a couple of times when we didn’t get in our gaps appropriately on blitzes, and when you make mistakes in a one-gap defense and you miss a few tackles, the yardage can add up and that’s what happened yesterday.”
The play of Collins, called `key to the defense’ in training camp
“Maliek and I just had a meeting. He’s going to play better. I think he’s trying to do too much right now. I think he’s trying his best. I really like his effort. We expect a lot more obviously and I’m confident that we’ll get that from him. Our defense played extremely well in the first half. I’m disappointed in the outcome of the game and particularly some of the runs that hit us in the second half. Maliek Collins can play better and he will play better.”
Littleton’s impact
“We can all play better than we did yesterday. We had no preseason, we had very little time to organize our team on defense. We’ve got a lot of new faces. Littleton played very well in the first half. He can play better than he did in the second half and I know he will. We are a work in progress and we have some corrections to be made across the board, offense and defense, today.”
Abram and missed tackles
“I think you rewind it and say, ‘He should make that tackle’, or ‘The angle wasn’t appropriate.’ I think there’s a time and a place for going for the big hit and another time and a place for just coming to balance and trying to make an open-field grasp tackle. And that’s something we need to work on. We probably need to put him back there in the post more often and ask him to do that. But we can’t let these runners get up on our safeties one-on-one. The runners get paid too, as you know.”
THE INJURY FRONT
Not a lot of specifics, as expected, but here is what is known:
Henry Ruggs/Bryan Edwards
Ruggs was inactive with a hamstring strain. Edwards hurt his foot after catching a 34-yard pass against New England.
“We’ve got a number of guys that are still being evaluated,” Gruden said. “We didn’t get back until late last night, so we are concerned about both those guys. But I’ll remain confident until otherwise notified.”
Trent Brown/Nick Kwiatkoski
Since neither was put on injured reserve after Week 1, the Raiders were hopeful of having both back against Buffalo for Week 4.
“I’m hoping so. But as you know, some of these injuries are hard to be exact on in terms of the timetable,” Gruden said. “So we’ll keep our fingers crossed. Both men are improving. and we need ’em back in the lineup. We are missing a number of key ingredients to the stew right now and those are two big guys that we need back.”
Marcus Mariota
The backup quarterback, Mariota is eligible to be activated and begin a 21-day period where he can be evaluated. At the end of that period, he must be either put on the 53-man roster or put on injured reserve for the season.
“Marcus is close. There’s another guy that’s missed a lot of time, had a freak injury and they tell me there’s a good chance we can bring him back to see where he is,” Gruden said.
(Note: Gruden was also asked about rookie Tanner Muse, a third-round draft pick who is also on injured reserve, but he didn’t mention Muse in his response).
EXTRA POINTS
— Cornerback Madre Harper and linebacker Kyle Emamuel were practice squad promotions for the New England game. Emanuel was active and played 14 snaps on special teams. Harper was inactive and didn’t suit up, but had a nice one-week bump in pay.
Instead of the $10,017 Harper earns per week as a practice squad member (a $170,282 salary divided by 17 weeks), Harper made $35,882 (the NFL minimum of $610,000 divided by 17 weeks). Both players were returned to the practice squad Monday.
— Wide receiver Robert Davis was signed to the practice squad. Davis was a sixth-round draft pick by Washington out of Georgia State in 2017 and spent time on Philadelphia’s practice squad and one game on the active roster before going on injured reserve last season.
