Increased Focus on Crosby Gives Others a Chance to Rise

Opposing defenses will try to reuse Buffalo's game plan against the Las Vegas Raiders' defensive line; players other than Crosby will have to step up.

Just like the Buffalo Bills' defense was focused on taking running back Josh Jacobs away from the Las Vegas Raiders' offense, Buffalo's defense was equally as concerned with not letting defensive end Maxx Crosby dominate the game as he has the potential to do.

"I mean great players demand obviously a lot of attention," Coach Josh McDaniels said. 

The Bills made no secret about dedicating much of their game plan to negating Crosby. Which, in theory, should make it easier for one of the other defensive linemen on the field to create a pass rush or stop the run. 

However, the rest of the Raiders' defensive line could not make the most of all the extra attention on Crosby. In the future, Las Vegas cannot afford to let teams get away with double-teaming their best defensive lineman and not making the other team pay for it via sacks, quarterback pressures, tackles for losses, or turnovers. 

"So, we have got to be able to try to take advantage of it somehow, someway in another way," McDaniels said. "It gives other people opportunities. Because if he's got two on him, they usually have one on somebody else or a lot of people. So, there are opportunities that are there that will present themselves."

Last Sunday was a team-wide failure, which happens sometimes, but for Las Vegas' defense, they must do the simple things right under pressure. While many issues need to be fixed on both sides of the ball, none are more glaring than the Raiders' defensive line's pressure and production outside of Crosby.

"We just need to be able to try to take advantage of it," McDaniels said. "But complementary defense is, when they do this to limit somebody, there could be a weakness somewhere else, and we got to find it. We have other people who can make plays; when they do, maybe some of that stuff will go away.

"There's no shortcut to that either. When they do something to try to limit a strength of yours, you have to try to find another way to be impactful.”

On the cut-down day, the Raiders decided to keep more defensive linemen than any other position group. For various reasons, the position group with the most players has the most questions. 

The Silver and Black return home to Las Vegas and Allegiant Stadium to play the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, Sept. 24, at 8:20 p.m. EDT/5:20 p.m. PDT.

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