When the Colts offensive line mauled the Raiders defensive linemen with ease and created nothing but green for rookie tailback Jonathan Taylor in the third quarter Sunday, it was like watching Moses parting the Red Sea. Indy’s running back sprinted untouched to a 62-yard touchdown as Las Vegas defenders gave chase hopelessly reaching for the
Quick Slants: Guenther Raiders DC no more
As a product of $100 million man’s play-calling in the red zone this season, HALF of the field goal attempts that Carlson has made were from within 12 yards of the end zone – 14 of 28 attempts for the season! By far most in the league. That’s more than 1 per game! For comparison, that’s the rate TWICE as large as last season, when there were only 8 over the 16 games – 0.5 per game.
Ponder that – 14 drives stalled within 12 yards of the end-zone over the 13 games played!
Two of those were against the Colts in the third quarter, when the game was breaking and you HAD to keep up with the opponent’s offense knowing that your defense couldn’t stop it.
Agreed that the offence has issues in the red zone and the Raiders should score more touchdowns than they do. They get a lot of style and flash but sometimes bog down when they really need a score. All that said, this team would have several more wins if it didn’t have a sad sack defence. I am hoping a change in leadership there will make a positive impact. Unfortunately it’s likely too late for this year because I can’t envision this team going on a run and win out in the last 3 games and get the help they need from other teams. It is possible that we could see the defence playing more spirited though because I can’t foresee Marinelli putting up with lame duck efforts and poor techniques like Guenther did.
I sometimes wonder if Guenther is like a lot of coaches in the NFL who are “system guys”. They have their system and they plug guys into that, even if the player skill sets don’t match what he asks of them. I do wonder if that’s part of the problem. Because lets face it, the players keep changing and the results are always the same.