Raiders tight end Darren Waller was targeted only twice in Sunday's victory over Detroit. That's a season low for the Silver and Black's dynamic, yet reliable tight end.
He caught both passes aimed at him for 52 yards and two first downs but was less of a factor than games past. The secret's out on Waller. The guy's awesome and everybody knows it. He has 24 more receptions and 193 yards more than any other Raider. He has become a defensive focal point, a guy opponents want to take away.
The Houston Texans did that but Waller was heavily targeted anyway. He only caught two passes for 11 yards on eight targets. Yeah. Eight.
When a top receiver gets taken away, others have to step up.
"We try to move him around and there's an old saying that, ‘we're going to try and make you play left-handed,'" Gruden said. "We are going to take away your number one option and make you play left-handed, so we've tried to improve our left hand."
Gruden used LeBron James to explain the concept. The basketball superstar is left-handed but taught himself to play with the opposite hand. Every now and then, though, James will switch things up and knock down shots with his left. That's one of a billion reasons he's so tough to defend.
If defenses want to take away the dominant player, the other guys have to step up. One guy doesn't have to dominate, but others need to contribute and make plays. That certain happened against the Lions, where quarterback Derek Carr found nine different players in the pattern.
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"What we have to do is, if they want to double Waller, you got to get more out of Renfrow and we did," Gruden said. "We got to get more out of our backs in the passing game. They got to win and they made some big plays yesterday, so our left-handers, I call them left-handers, you guys got to step up and they did. And that's exciting when you have five eligible players that can all win and I think they all responded pretty good when they had their numbers called yesterday."
Jalen Richard's a great example of that. The third-down back had but one touch before the final Raiders drive versus the Lions, and he had four key plays that set up Hunter Renfrow's game-winning touchdown.
"Everybody across the board had to make plays," Waller said. "We knew that going in the way they were trying to cover us. I'm proud of everyone on the offense, everyone pitched in especially Jalen Richard towards the end, that was enormous. Offense came and we were ready to make plays when we needed to today."
