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One of the best moves the Las Vegas Raiders made this past offseason was signing linebacker Robert Spillane. He was named a team captain, has started all nine games and leads the team with 74 combined tackles.
He’s also been playing through a significant amount of pain. It was recently revealed that Spillane broke his hand during the Week 8 matchup against the Detroit Lions. He even underwent surgery last week but that didn’t stop him from playing against the New York Giants in Week 9.
Most players would take some time off to recover from such a serious injury but Spillane has no plans to do such a thing. He had a perfect response when asked about playing through the hand injury.
“Your hand is far away from your heart,” Spillane said of the injury, via a November 8 X post from The Athletic’s Vic Tafur.
The Raiders have always been a franchise that admires toughness and players making sacrifices just to win. The team has gotten away from that for a long time but players like Spillane are the embodiment of what a Raider was in the 70s and 80s. Signing him was one of the few positive moves former general manager Dave Ziegler made before he was fired.
“Broken bone, shattered bone….we patched it up and went to work.”
Raiders linebacker Robert Spillane speaks on how he broke his hand against the Lions and hasn’t missed anytime despite it. He starts Sunday
🎥: By @Sean_Zittel, Vegas Sports Today
Antonio Pierce Praises Robert Spillane
Robert Spillane has a very similar story to Raiders interim head coach Antonio Pierce. Both were undrafted linebackers who had to work from the bottom up to eventually become starters and team captains.
Pierce was the linebackers coach before getting the interim head coach job so he’s spent a lot of time with Spillane. He had a chance to speak about the linebacker and had a lot of praise.
“Lunchpail. Hard hat,” Pierce said of Spillane during his November 8 press conference. “That’s the mentality you want. You got your superstars, you got the guys that get all the credit and you got guys like this; the lunchpail guys. That just come to work every day. And does it with a smile. He’s been like that since day one. I remember the first time we talked over the phone.
“When we signed him, his energy, I could feel his fire in his belly of being an undrafted guy, getting cut from one team, not getting the opportunity he thought he was going to get at certain places, and he brought that here. And the first thing he did when he got here was he get with Maxx Crosby and he tried to match his energy and it didn’t work out, but what he’s done for us is the mental part. Really good for Patrick Graham, our linebacker corps and our defense because he does a lot of things pre-and-post-snap that helps us.”
Las Vegas Raiders Defense Having Solid Season
Last season, the Raiders defense allowed 365.6 yards per game (28th in the NFL) and 24.6 points per game (26th in the NFL). The defense is off to a much better start this season. The group is only allowing 192.2 yards per game (eighth in the NFL) and 21.4 points a game (19th in the NFL).
While neither numbers are elite, the Raiders haven’t had a top-10 defense in two decades. For the first time in a long time, it looks like the defense is headed in the right direction.
Giving up 192 yards a game on D is extremely elite I think you meant to say 292 yards a game.