ALAMEDA, Calif. — Despite the ridiculous amount of yardage put up by Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes in the second quarter, perhaps the Raiders’ defense isn’t as bad as it looked.
That’s the Raiders’ story Monday and they’re sticking to it they day after a 28-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs at the Coliseum.
“When you see us and we’re matching one-on-one against those guys we did well,” slot corner Lamarcus Joyner said. “But when we did a few different things where they kind of schemed us to make us communicate they got big chunk plays. Anybody can turn on the film and look at us going man to man with that speed that they have. They only scored those big touchdowns in zone coverages. It’s something we have to get better at.”
The Raiders gave up 443 yards passing to Mahomes Sunday at the Coliseum, with 278 of those coming in a 28-0 second-quarter explosion that decided the game.
On the other hand, the Chiefs had three scoreless quarters, although some of that in the second half can be attributed to coach Andy Reid dialing things back a bit with the game in hand.
As gaudy as Mahomes’ numbers were, the Raiders have demonstrated they can be a younger, faster, better tackling defense than they’ve been in recent years.
“I think we’re getting better. We have some more speed. I thought we made some great one-on-one tackles yesterday,” coach Jon Gruden said at his weekly press conference. “That’s the thing about the Chiefs — they make you defend every blade of grass. Laterally, with the (run-pass options) and jet sweep threats, and vertically. This kid Mahomes can drop bombs on you from all over the field.”
The Raiders have the look of a solid run defense, another area that has been lacking since seemingly forever. The Raiders rank fifth in the NFL at 63 yards per game and fifth in yards per carry at 2.8. That’s huge going in to a Week 3 game in Minnesota against the Vikings, whose running back Dalvin Cook leads the NFL in rushing with 265 yards.
Even in a pass-happy era of football, run defense is considered a staple of good overall defense and it usually leads to good things. What Mahomes did with an offense that rushed 22 times for 31 yards was unusual.
Linebacker Nick Morrow, asked what he would have thought going in to the game if the Chiefs were bottled up to that extent on the ground, replied, “I would have liked our chances a lot _ and I would have said they wouldn’t score more than 10 points. But they did.”
With the Raiders doing their job up front against the run, Joyner said it’s incumbent upon the secondary to get its issues worked out.
“That young D-line we have, (Vontaze) Burfict in the middle, Tahir (Whitehead), those guys do a really good job getting to the ball,” Joyner said. “Now we know as a secondary we just have to master our techniques and fundamentals in practice, knowing we can hang our hats on the D-line and linebackers stopping the run. Now the games are going to be on us.”
