Oakland

Raiders Defense is Starting to Come Together

After early struggles this season, defense has made big stops to preserve consecutive victories on the road

For the second straight week, the Raiders defense held in the fourth quarter to preserve a narrow victory.

On Sunday, the Raiders stopped the Ravens in a 28-27 win. The week before, they stopped the Titans in a 17-10 decision. After giving up 69 points in their first two games, the Raiders have given up 37 over the last two to improve to 3-1, good for second place in the AFC West behind the 4-0 Broncos.

Part of the reason is the insertion of rookies Karl Joseph at safety and Cory James at linebacker. Part of it is cornerback Sean Smith settling in after being benched in Game 1 when he was burned against the Saints. Safety Reggie Nelson and linebacker Bruce Irvin, two other newcomers, also are finding their rhythm. Irvin had a strip-sack against the Ravens, while Nelson delivered the hit on Joe Flacco’s final pass of the day that produced an incompletion to seal the victory. Smith, meanwhile, was Oakland’s highest-graded player Sunday as judged by the analytics website Pro Football Focus, at 85.1.

But another difference maker Sunday was defensive end/linebacker Khalil Mack, who had been mostly quiet over the first three games. Mack, who received a grade of 83.6 from PFF, was back to his manhandling self against the Ravens. Often, Baltimore had to devote two blockers to contain him, and even that didn’t work.

“After an impressive 2015 campaign that saw him finish with PFF’s highest edge-defender grade, Khalil Mack’s slow start through Week 3 was somewhat of a concern for the Oakland defense,” wrote PFF’s Michael Mountford. “In Week 4, however, he looked to be back to his impressive form.”

Mack was in on six tackles, had his first sack of the year and had five quarterback hurries. Mountford wrote that Mack gave both Baltimore offensive tackles “fits” with his pass rush.

Mack said his performance was helped by great coverage in the secondary. In fact, he said, the Raiders defense as a whole was on the same page all day.

“Everybody wants to talk about the sacks … but all those things come when you’re playing good defense,” he said

Now, the Raiders will get ready to play host to the struggling Chargers (1-3) this coming Sunday at 1:25 p.m.

Contact Us