At some point, Raiders head coach Jon Gruden is going to hold someone accountable for his team’s horrendous defensive play all season. For now, though, all his energy is devoted toward keeping his high-flying offense one step ahead of the mess made by his defense. Once again Sunday, the Raiders offense made just enough plays
Raiders’ offense makes enough plays to offset team’s horrendous defensive showing
Carr and Jacobs usual high level?
Yes. Check the stats. Do you disagree?
In the article it actually says Joseph and not Jacobs, I think that is what he meant. I had to re-read it a couple times too and was going to mention but Yos beat me to it.
Cork,
Sent you an email several days ago and had not heard back, it was through the site this time, let me know if you got it please and thank you.
It seems as though our defense is actually getting worse each week…if that’s possible. With this level of defensive play, every game is going to be a nail biter from here on out. But oh, imagine what we could be with even an average defense!
I think NFL fans can really get a feel for how good of a defensive coach Marvin Lewis really was. Besides leading that Ravens squad before taking over as the head coach in Cincinnati, he made the Bengals respectable in spite of Gunther running his defense for years.
Maybe its time to hire him off Herm’s AZ St staff.
That’s a great observation. What if Marvin Lewis was the one who presided over that defense? If so, how could Jon Gruden not know that? But Guenther has been a disaster to this point. Moving to zone is a horrendous decision. Quarterbacks are salivating and prospering even more.
I don’t know, I can’t figure out if the defensive struggles are primarily the fault of the lack of talent (my current view) or the failure of Guenther.
BOTH
Plenty of blame to go around, including Gruden.
I wouldn’t call the defense yesterday “horrendous. ” There are low expectations for the defense, it only needs to make a couple or so plays as long as the offense does what it is supposed to do (keep scoring almost every drive). Yesterday, the defense had two turnovers and made the stop at the end of the game. Can’t really ask for much more from this talentless defense. Oh, as a bonus, they stopped the Lions after the shanked punt. Yesterday’s win shows exactly how this team will win games.
Raiders winning formula is running the ball and using play action to take shots downfield. Raiders can’t get into track meets.
Raiders defense isn’t going to get better until there a major talent infusion next off season.
In the meantime, Raiders defense needs to get a few take ways such as yesterday and hopefully stiffen in red zone.
Cork – could you elaborate a bit about the personnel recommendations Guenther made? I thought all personnel decisions were made by Gruden. Also is your opinion that it’s coaching (or lack thereof) that results in wide open receivers or a lack of talent or both. Seems that the offense is doing better with better personnel not different scheme or coaches.
Sure thing, Ed. Guenther was behind bringing in the likes of Leon Hall, Frostee Rucker, Emmanuel Lamur, re-signing Reggie Nelson and Vontaze Burfict, along with a few others. Without his recommendation, none of those players likely ends up with the Raiders. Players are paid to make plays and coaches are paid to put the players in position to make plays as often as possible. Putting the likes of Tahir Whitehead and Nicholas Morrow in zone, to name two, is a huge gaffe. That’s like turning on the blue light at K-Mart. We all agree that Guenther is working with a dearth of talent, but he contributed to that issue and his schemes have not fooled many teams at all. Hope that helps. Thanks for the feedback, Ed.
Thanks, for elaborating, Cork! I wonder if that was part of Conley’s problem with the team, he was not playing the type of D that he felt was his strength.