Spillane, Deablo Bright Spots for Raiders Defense

The Las Vegas Raiders split their first two games on the road. Coach Josh McDaniels and the Raiders entered this offseason showing confidence in their linebackers and so far, that has paid off.

Linebackers Robert Spillane and Divine Deablo are tasked with some of the toughest duties on the defense, especially Spillane, as he is the quarterback of the defense. Deablo's physical abilities make him arguably the best cover linebacker the Raiders have. Both have been students of the game.

“They do a really good job of preparing every week and they’ve got a big job," McDaniels said. "They talk to the safeties behind them, they talk to the front up in front of them. There's a lot of communication that they need to be involved in. Spillane has done a great job with the green dot. I thought they played hard yesterday."

Spillane finished Sunday's game against Buffalo as the defense's leading tackler with 14 total tackles, nine of which were solos. He added four pressures. Deablo finished the game with 10 tackles, six of which were solos.

"I like our group," McDaniels said. "Our linebacker group is a good group and they compete hard and play hard. We ask a lot of them and we need to do a better job around everybody to help those guys.”

It is tough to find bright spots in a 28-point loss but there are positives and negatives that result from every game, regardless of the outcome.

"There are not going to be too many guys that would say that we all played well yesterday," McDaniels said.

"When you lose the way we did, I don't think anybody would stand up there and say they did a great job. I think those two guys will stand up here today and really do a good job of trying to learn from the film and be accountable to their job, and also to try to help everybody else do their job better."

The Raiders return to Las Vegas for their first home game of this season. It will be the first of multiple winnable games for Las Vegas. The Raiders' schedule is set up favorably over the next few weeks, and Las Vegas' defense will have ample opportunities to show what they're made of.

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

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