The Oakland Raiders’ defense has struggled for years. Jon Gruden came back to town to breathe live into a talented offense. He brought along capable (but not spectacular) defensive coordinator Paul Guenther to energize the defense. There were some good signs by Guenther’s group in a 33-13 loss to the Rams on Monday night. Honestly,
Good and bad of Raiders’ defense
I do agree that the defense as a unit seems to play faster and seem to be surer tacklers. I think that this side of the ball will be improved despite not having as much talent. I am kind of worried about Nugent kicking off, every one of his kicks were returnable on Monday. Lord help the team when Tyreek Hill is back there!
Not sure why they wouldn’t sign Dan Bailey if he’s still out there instead of Nugent.
Obi and Joseph were both reaches that Reggie thought would be the Raiders safeties of the future unfortunately nobody else saw it that way. We are paying dearly for Reggie´s mistakes. He should’ve just followed Mel Kipers draft guide.
Defense is definitely more aggressive
It just wore down in the second half of the Rams game since offense was going 3 and out continually
Good luck for the edge rushers to get pressure. They will need it
Who is Jim Gruden?
Obviously Gruden and staff did not like the look of things Monday.
Bringing in Hankins and McDonald may help. Or it may not. Hankins has been on the market for quite a while. I was surprised he was not brought in earlier. It has been stated that our Raiders wanted to sign McDonald before he signed with the donkeys.
This biggest thing to me was the snap count of Irvin, 31 of 63, 49% and 9 snaps on STs. He is now our most disruptive and talented D lineman. He did not show up on the injury report so I can only assume he is healthy. He has to stay on the field, especially on key passing downs. Taking him off the field makes no sense. I would love an explanation on that.
Carradine also needs to be active for this game. I am not saying his is going to set the world on fire, but he is another veteran DL who can line up at several spots if needed. And last game, we needed him.
First Gruden tosses McKenzie under the bus, then he trades Mack who was well liked in the locker room. Then he tosses Carr under the bus and now Arden Key who started his first game. Give this old school some time he will completely lose the entire locker room in world record time. His style ain’t gonna work in 2018 folks. It won’t be long before Carr hates him too.