Raiders Defense Is Losing Games
The Los Vegas Raiders lost to the Los Angeles Chargers, 30-27, on Thursday night.
Last week, Las Vegas fired defensive coordinator Paul Guenther after the defense suffered miserably all-season and was walked all over by the Indianapolis Colts.
On a short week, this was Rod Marinelli’s first game as interim defensive coordinator.
The former defensive line coach/defensive coordinator for the Cowboys immediately improved on one major aspect of the game: the running defense.
Tonight, the Raiders defense as a whole limited the Chargers to 96 yards on the ground in 26 attempts.
That’s fairly impressive considering the fact that last week, the Colts ran over 200 yards on the ground.
However, the issue came when it came to defending the passing game.
The secondary was lacking pressure and performance all night. They allowed rookie Justin Herbert to effectively throw 244 yards and two touchdowns, in addition to sneaking for the game-winning touchdown.
Cornerback Trayvon Mullen committed a handful of penalties, including one during the overtime period which gave away a good chunk of the field to the Chargers.
Whether the Raiders played zone or man-to-man defense, they simply could not shut down the game in the air tonight.
It also didn’t help that five starting defenders were out of tonight’s game. Many are backups and third-string defenders filling in the gap with a new interim defensive coordinator.
The secondary didn’t get any help upfront either.
There was one sack committed during the entire game. While pressure may reach the front line, it never reached Herbert to the point that he would make mistakes or get sacked.
There are a bunch of mistakes defensively that cost the Raiders the game tonight.
Yes, the offense was at fault as well, however, the defense has struggled consistently.
The Silver and Black need to put their chin up, learn from their mistakes and the defense needs to stop losing games for the Raiders.
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