Raiders' Defense Still Without a Forced Turnover

The Las Vegas Raiders placed an emphasis on forcing turnovers this offseason, but through three weeks, it hasn't paid off.

The Las Vegas Raiders wanted to be a team that would make a lot of plays on the football defensively this season.

With additions like cornerback Marcus Peters, who is tied for third among all active NFL players in career interceptions (32), and linebacker Robert Spillane, who came from a Pittsburgh Steelers team that, as seen on Sunday, prides itself in forcing turnovers, it seemed Las Vegas had taken a step in the right direction in that department.

However, through three games, the Raiders have not forced a single turnover.

Raiders Coach Josh McDaniels did believe the effort was there in Sunday's 23-18 loss to the Steelers.

"I mean, we blitzed a bunch yesterday as you saw," McDaniels said in his press conference Monday. "I thought we had a number of guys punching at the ball and attempting to strip the ball. I thought we had a chance to get our hands on one or two yesterday. I think we're making efforts to do all those things; I know our guys are. I'm seeing them on the field do it. 

"I think we've got to keep at it, obviously. Sometimes they come in waves, and we're just waiting for our wave. But we've got to make it happen, we've got to go make plays, make disruptive plays, create situations where people are under pressure or duress to try to force them to get loose with the ball or throw it to us. I thought we had a number of opportunities yesterday, got our hands on some footballs. We're just going to need to get some of them to turn our way."

The Raiders were last in the league in forced turnovers last season.

Of the three players on that team to have two interceptions in 2022, two of them are no longer Raiders (safety Duron Harmon and linebacker Denzel Perryman) and one has seen only three defensive snaps this season (cornerback Amik Robertson).

The Silver and Black return to the road next week in Inglewood, Calif., to play the Los Angeles Chargers (1-2) on Sunday, Oct. 1, at 4:05 p.m. EDT/1:05 p.m. PDT.

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