Getty Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels.
The Las Vegas Raiders didn’t seem prepared for Los Angeles Chargers defensive end Khalil Mack in Week 4 as he accumulated 6.0 sacks in a single game. Despite Mack having such a good game, the Raiders decided to double-team him just twice throughout the entire game, per Next Gen Stats.
Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce couldn’t understand head coach Josh McDaniels‘ thought process for not giving more help against Mack.
“Dude, you can’t let somebody get six sacks,” Kelce said in the October 4 episode of the “New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce” podcast. “I mean, what the f*** are we doing?
“This is what happens: If I’m the tackle, first sack, ‘coach, I gotta be better. I’m sorry, man. Dude, I’ll get it next time. I promise you I got him.’ Second sack, ‘F***, this guy’s really good. I don’t know, man. I don’t know if I can do this.’ Third sack, I am furious. ‘What the f*** are we doing?’ … I would be furious if I’m the tackle. I would be so mad.”
Right tackle Jermaine Eluemunor got the brunt of Mack’s assault as he allowed 3.0 of the sacks, per Pro Football Focus. He also allowed a team-high seven pressures. In the first two games, Eluemunor didn’t allow a single sack but he has given up 5.0 over the most recent two games.
Coaches might wanna use the Chargers bye week to figure out how to stop Khalil Mack
Josh McDaniels Claims Offense Tried to Do Things to Stop Khalil Mack
Khalil Mack is a former Defensive Player of the Year and could be in the Hall of Fame one day. However, he wasn’t off to the best start this season and didn’t record a sack prior to Week 4. Despite Next Gen Stats saying the Raiders only double-team Mack twice, head coach Josh McDaniels claims the team tried to do a number of things to slow down the seven-time Pro Bowler.
“He’s a great player. There was a number of snaps where there was multiple people on him and him only,” McDaniels said of Mack during his October 2 media availability.
“We jammed him, chipped him, hit him in the ribs. We did everything we could do to try to disrupt him with another player and then we had a tackle obviously assigned to him as well. He had a great day and we were trying to put people over there on the right side for the most part, that’s where he was and he did better than we did, clearly.”
Whatever the Raiders were doing wasn’t working as Mack was only a sack away from tying Derrick Thomas’ record of 7.0 sacks in a game.
Khalil Mack Says Las Vegas Raiders Didn’t Chip Him Much
Josh McDaniels is claiming that the Raiders did things to slow down Khalil Mack but there’s not much evidence that is correct. Even Mack said that the team didn’t chip him much throughout the game.
“Everything was going right for me—not many chips, I felt great,“ Mack said in Peter King’s October 2 Football Morning in America column.
Chipping is when an offensive player gives some help to a tackle against a defensive end. McDaniels left his tackles out to dry and they weren’t up for the task.