It seems like the Las Vegas Raiders have hit this point every year but it has become very clear that they don’t have a good defense. They are allowing 32.8 points per game, which is 31st in the NFL. Despite many efforts to improve the group, it seems like they’ve only gotten worse since last year.
The Raiders hit a point last year when they needed to revamp the defense and cut three players after a bad loss. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the team decided to make some moves on defense soon. Head coach Jon Gruden had a chance to talk about making potential changes.
“Yeah, there’s a lot of people talking about are we making changes, are we going to bring in new coaches, new players,” Gruden said Monday. “We are where we are. We’re 3-3. We played some really good offenses. Just so you know, Tom Brady is a problem for a lot of people. …
“We’re going to stick together, bond together. We’re going to make some changes in the lineup possibly and in the scheme that we use, and we’re hopefully going to change the results we’ve been getting.”
Based on what Gruden’s saying, it sounds like the Raiders aren’t ready to move on from players or coaches just yet.
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‘Everything Is on the Table’
While Gruden doesn’t sound ready to let heads role just yet, he does sound willing to make changes. In fact, the coach even went into what kind of changes the Raiders could make.
“Who goes inside, who goes outside. Who’s on the left side, who’s on the right side,” Gruden said. “What stunts we call. What blitzes we call. Everything is on the table. … We’re going to play better on defense, I’m determined to make sure we prove that this week.”
Whatever the Raiders are doing clearly isn’t working. What’s gotta be frustrating is that the team does have talent on defense. Players like Cory Littleton and Maliek Collins had a lot of success for their previous teams. For whatever reason, things haven’t clicked with the Raiders. The team has an offense that is ready to compete with the best in the NFL. If the defense can just play slightly better, Las Vegas should be in the playoffs. With the schedule about to get easier, perhaps they can turn things around.
Gruden Reveals Play of the Game
The final score of the Raiders-Buccaneers game doesn’t really show how close it actually was. The Raiders had a chance to come back as they were only down by four points in the fourth quarter. They almost got the ball back but the defense couldn’t pull off a stop on Leonard Fournette and a critical third-down conversion. Gruden broke down that play.
“That was the play of the game,” Gruden said. “It was 24-20, there’s 11:57 left in the game. Our team had fought hard throughout the day, and you get a team in third-and-13, you call a zone coverage.
“We’re hoping we force the ball to be checked down (and then) we rally and make the tackle. Obviously, we were way too deep. We did not play that well. That was a catastrophic play in the game for us.”
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Raiders HC Jon Gruden Offers Revealing Insight on Defense