Raiders to host Bills at pivotal juncture
So you think you know what the Las Vegas Raiders are all about?
Pass it along to coach Jon Gruden, who admits he doesn’t know yet heading in to Sunday’s home game against the unbeaten Buffalo Bills at Allegiant Stadium.
“I think the big thing is you’re still learning your football team. We’re still getting to know each other,” Gruden said Friday in a video conference. “I think every coach in the league would tell you that.”
With the new faces on defense and injuries on offense, Gruden is still compiling information as the Raiders, 2-1, hit the quarter pole of the season against a Buffalo team that has been tabbed as a threat to unseat the New England Patriots after 11 consecutive AFC East titles.
And while there’s no such thing as a must-win in Week 4, the Raiders could go a long way toward making a statement as a postseason contender by improv
ing to 3-1.
The alternative?
Falling to 2-2 would mean erasing their promising 2-0 start, and then traveling to Kansas City to face the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium,a place where they’ve lost seven consecutive times and usually by wide margins.
Gruden knows it too. On Friday, he did what he almost never does and for an instant looked ahead to Week 5 when discussing the challenge of playing without cornerback Damon Arnette, a first-round draft pick who is out for a minimum of three games after thumb surgery.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys back there that we’re anxious to see and we’re confident in what they can do,” Gruden said. “But they will be tested by this quarterback and the one next week, that’s for sure.”
The Chiefs, had their game against New England Sunday postponed to Monday or Tuesday after Patriots quarterback Cam Newton and Kansas City practice squad quarterback Jordan Ta’amu tested positive for the coronavirus.
Buffalo’s quarterback is Josh Allen, the reigning AFC Offensive Player of the Month. Next week is Patrick Mahomes, the standard by which all quarterbacks are judged in 2020.
But here’s the deal with the Bills. Their first two wins were against the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins,currently a combined 1- 6. They won their third game in a 3532 shootout over the Los Angeles Rams. The Raiders team of the first two weeks, in particular a Week 2 win over New Orleans, should be competitive with a chance to win. A repeat of a 36-20 loss to the Patriots last week and maybe it’s time to re-think the idea of the Raiders as a potential 10-win team.
Some keys to beating Buffalo and improving to 3-1:
1. HAVING THE BEST JOSH >> The closest thing to a silver lining in the Patriots loss was a relatively light day for running back Josh Jacobs, who carried 19 times for 71 yards. Keeping Josh Allen off the field will be
big for the Raiders.
The Raiders need to get back to their balanced, ball- control attack, with Jacobs getting first downs, the Raiders staying in third- and-manageable as much as possible and letting quarterback Derek Carr pile up completions and take a shot at the end zone now and then as a change of pace. The Rams rushed for 167 yards and averaged 5.2 yards per carry against Buffalo and it was a big concern for Bills coach Sean McDermott, who was talking about some of the same gap issues Gruden was addressing following the New England loss.
“The Rams are pretty good. They probably caught ’em with some schemes they hadn’t seen before,” Gruden said. “They’re a little bit different from the Jets and the Dolphins. I’m sure Buffalo’s cleaned up what errors they did make.” 2. KEEPING ALLEN IN THE POCKET >> Allen presents a similar dilemma to Cam Newton, whom the Raiders defended well against New England other than a late 21-yard run. He is the first player in NFL history with more than 10 touchdown passes and two rushing touchdowns through his team’s first three games. He leads all NFL quarterbacks with 10 touchdown passes and a 125.8 passer ratings and he’s rushed for 19 career touchdowns.
NFL Network analyst Kurt Warner believes that Allen operates at his best in chaos. As was the case with Newton, trying to make Al
len as conventional as possible would be to their beneift.
“The dude can make any throw on the field, and they surrounded him with a lot of weapons,” Raiders cornerback Nevin Lawson said. “They’ve got good young running backs and a quarterback that knows how to improvise so if plays break down he can make plays that aren’t scripted.”
Allen’s top target, Stefon Diggs, has 20 catches for 288 yards and is happier with Allen than he was in Minnesota with Kirk Cousins.
3. SHORING UP THE TACKLING >> Of all the things that went wrong against New England, the most basic problem was the inability to tackle.
“I think we had 19 missed tackles in the game and that’s far too many to win any ballgame let alone against a team like New England,” defensive coordinator Paul Guenther said. “We have to do a better job of whoever is in the spot to make the play and make the tackle. They have to get the runner on the ground, whether it’s a receiver or a running back.”
Linebacker Cory Littleton and safety Johnathan Abram, two players the Raiders are counting on to be among their best open field tacklers, had rough games. Gruden noted it wasn’t all Abram’s fault — with New England backs getting a full head of steam heading in to the secondary, it made things tough.
4. GET TIGHT ENDS IN
VOLVED >> The Raiders will be without their two starting rookie wideouts, Henry Ruggs III and Bryan Edwards. But let’s face it, it’s not as if they were making it rain in terms of receptions. Of Carr’s 100 passes through three games, only 14 were targeted to Ruggs and Edwards. Slot receiver Hunter Renfrow, as well as veterans Nelson Agholor and Zay Jones, can pick up the slack until the rookies return and develop.
Don’t expect a repeat of what happened with Darren Waller, who didn’t see a pass headed his way until the third quarter when the game was out of reach against New England. Apart from Waller, Foster Moreau has made some big catches in each of the last two games and has shown some downfield ability. And Jason Witten has yet to be integrated into the passing game. The Raiders signed him for more than just his leadership skills.
5. NO TURNOVERS >> Turnover margin is one of the biggest indicators of winning and losing in the the NFL. Other than the final score, it might be the biggest.
It’s even more acute when it comes to the Raiders, who are still attempting to blend a lot of new faces on defense and haven’t yet shown the ability to take the ball away themselves.
Against New England, Carr was hit for a couple of sack fumbles, one that went for a Patriots touchdown at the goal line.