Week 3 goal: Tighten up on tight end
Gary Barnidge, come on down! Pardon our homage to “The Price Is Right,” but an eighth-year tight end you’ve never heard of must feel like the spotlight has finally hit him this week. The Browns’ Barnidge has only 48 career catches, but surely the relatives aren’t going to miss Sunday’s game against the visiting Raiders.
Oakland, in the first two weeks of the season, has allowed career-best performances and two touchdowns each to Bengals tight end Tyler Eifert and Ravens counterpart Crockett Gilmore. Eifert had nine catches for 104 yards, and Gilmore went for five and 88.
Raiders middle linebacker Curtis
Lofton simply said, “It’s not them, it’s us.”
Missed assignments, late reactions and bad angles have led to Oakland giving up 33 points in each of the first two games, and lucky to be 1-1. The Raiders actually gave up 97 more yards, 493 to 396, in the win over Baltimore than in the loss to Cincinnati.
The Raiders have no sacks through two games, and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. tried 18 blitzes in the second game after calling none in the opener.
He said he is still in the exploration process.
“First you have to find out what you’re good at,” Norton said before practice Thursday. “Are you good at zone coverage? Are you good at man coverage? Are you good at blitzing? Are you good at rushing four? You have to find out what you’re good at, then you have to emphasize that.”
Norton was then asked what he has seen as possible defensive strengths thus far.
“We have a really good group of players who really care,” Norton said. “Everybody is really competitive. I don’t think any team plays as hard as we do. I don’t think any team cares more than what we care.”
There is no stat for caring, unfortunately, and the Raiders are going to need more than that in Cleveland this week, and the rest of the season.
Norton did see some positives Sunday, and he hopes they are contagious.
“If you notice, there were a lot more plays being made,” he said. “Good defenses make plays. Guys are knocking balls down. Guys are close in coverage. They’re making plays in the backfield.”
Cornerback Neiko Thorpe came off the bench and seemingly earned more playing time with a big third-down pass breakup and later a game-icing interception.
“We’re sticking to the fundamentals and executing the game plan,” Thorpe said. “Our chemistry is coming together and hopefully we’ll see more signs of our improvement this week.”
The Raiders need to cut down on the 13 plays they’ve allowed that have gone for 20 yards or more. Many of those came because of missed tackles — the Raiders lead the league with 31.
“That’s the growth that we’re making, about making the plays, the easy plays, let’s get rid of those,” Norton said. “Make it hard on offenses. Don’t let a 5-yard play turn into a 38-yard play. Don’t let a 5yard catch on the check-down turn into yards after catch. And tackling, discipline, gap control, those are the things that you see it’s a young team, and they’ll get much better as the days go on.” Briefly: Offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave needs more footballs. “We’d like to see more touches for everybody, but especially the tight ends,” he said. “More touches for (running back) Latavius (Murray). The more the merrier.” … Rookie Clive Walford is close to making an impact. Tight ends coach Bob Johnson told Musgrave that Wednesday was the third-round pick’s best day of practice since his return from a knee injury.