Changes coming in bid to repair leaky defense
As Raiders defenders watched the Falcons continually get wide open Sunday, fans couldn’t be blamed for wondering, “Whatever happened to first-round pick Karl Joseph?”
“I think that’s a fair question to ask,” head coach Jack Del Rio said Monday. “I asked that question myself. I really believed that he should have got in the game.”
The rookie safety will make his defensive debut Sunday against the Titans, one of the first changes that Del Rio will make to a defense that has allowed 1,035 yards in the first
two games.
Another rookie, Cory James, will replace Ben Heeney at inside linebacker.
“I think if you don’t make plays and you’re in there, you leave the door open for other guys to get opportunities to play,” Del Rio said. “At the end of the day, we’re just looking for production.”
It seemed as if the Falcons were targeting Heeney with passes to their running backs and tight ends, but Del Rio didn’t agree with that assessment.
“I wouldn’t say that,” he said. “I think they ran their offense. They didn’t have to get too deep into it, you know? It was pretty basic concepts that they ran over and over and over.”
Which brings us to possible bigger changes to the defense. Like, say, Del Rio taking over defensive play-calling for coordinator Ken Norton Jr. Del Rio wouldn’t say. “There’s not going to be any proclamation made today,” he said. “I think for us, it’s about us. It’s a collective effort. We all share in it, and so I’m not going to throw any one person under the bus. It’s not any one person that’s at fault here. Collectively, as a group, we have to pick it up.”
Del Rio took over the playcalling for Norton late in the 35-28 loss. Besides Norton not getting in Joseph, Del Rio acknowledged there was an issue with the sideline getting in the calls faster.
“I think it’s a shared responsibility,” he said. “That’s why I say priority one for us is to make sure our guys have their eyes right and have the call on time, all of those things. It’s all shared. We’re all in it together. We’ll get it turned around.”
Getting your eyes right means getting players to look in the right place, for the right things “and do your job,” Del Rio said. It’s one of the things with which Joseph, a firstround pick from West Virginia, struggled in the preseason and has been working on.
Joseph, who has been playing on special teams the first two games, also is coming back from knee surgery. He said Friday that the knee is fine and he is ready, “but the coaches don’t want to rush me.”
Besides working on where to look, Joseph said the coaches also wanted to “see me more comfortable in my knee with certain movements.”
They’re comfortable now, especially after Del Rio said starting safety Keith McGill struggled against Atlanta.
Joseph has “had a little time to continue to develop himself, physically and mentally,” Del Rio said. “He’s been working hard. He’s chomping at the bit.”
Oakland is the first team since the 1967 Falcons to open the season allowing at least 500 yards in two straight games. Second thoughts: Del Rio doesn’t regret going for it on 4th-and-2 in the fourth quarter, but admitted that 5-foot-8 rookie Jalen Richard — who gained a yard — might not have been the best running back for the situation. Del Rio thought about using a bigger back like Latavius Murray or Jamize Olawale, but didn't want to burn a timeout.
“We’ve got a couple of hammerheads who might have been a little better between Maze and Latavius,” Del Rio said. “We come out of there saying, ‘I’d like to have that one back.’ ”