Raiders defense again fails to get the job done

It’s a coin flip right now whether it’s the offense or defense that is killing the Raiders’ season more. The coin is pretty much landing on its side during what is now a four-game losing streak — as many games as Oakland lost all of last year. Everyone’s to blame right now, even the lovable little Italian place-kicker.

But when you’re the head coach who spent 11 years as a player trying to knock people’s heads off from an inside linebacker position, then nearly two more decades helping design some of the NFL’s toughest and stingiest defenses, you should know which unit is tearing Jack Del Rio up inside right now.

For two straight weeks in front of the home Coliseum crowd, Del Rio has entrusted his Raiders defense to come up with big plays in the fourth quarter, and for two straight weeks, his defense has failed him badly. Last year the offense bailed out the defense with a number of late Derek Carr drives, but that isn’t happening this season, and it’s casting a rather ugly glare on a unit that actually might be less efficient and more suspect than it was a year ago.

Last week, the Baltimore Ravens methodically chewed up 6½ minutes of clock down the stretch to salt away a 30-17 win over Oakland. This week? Even worse. Starting from their own 8-yard line and trailing by 2, Philip Rivers and the Los Angeles Chargers sailed down the field over the final 4:09 to set up Nick Novak’s 32-yard field goal as time expired for a 17-16 victory.

What was clearly burning Del Rio afterward was that his defensive players were set up to stop plays the coaches had prepared them to anticipate and disrupt. Instead, on the first play of the Chargers drive, Rivers connected to his wide-open tight end, Hunter Henry, for 34 yards. Two players later, Rivers hit Henry again for another 23 yards.

From that point, the Chargers simply won the line of scrimmage battle up front. Embarrassingly so, it should be added. Melvin Gordon ran the ball down the defense’s throat on five successive plays, 23 total yards to the 10, which allowed Rivers to run the clock down and set up a virtual chip shot for Novak.

How scalded was Del Rio by that turn of events? You probably could have fried bacon on his forehead.

“We’re up by two, got them pinned back,” he said stiffly. “Marquette (King) was phenomenal today punting the ball, flipped the field a bunch. You get them pinned back, we have to get a stop. We didn’t get it done. They milked it, they won the game. They earned it.”

The most aggravating part, though, was that the Chargers didn’t fool anyone except the Raiders defenders on the field who should have known better.

“They ran exactly the plays that we know they run, including the tight end,” said Del Rio. “We were literally calling out the play on that. Guys that are responsible for that have to make the play. It’s unfortunate that we let the back get out a little bit, that we let the tight end get out a little bit. In most cases, it was stuff we prepared for and repped.”

So who was to blame for that first catch by Henry that got the Chargers out of the hole? Strong safety Karl Joseph pleaded guilty.

“Yeah, I was man on it,” Joseph said. “Thought I was in good position, but Philip Rivers made a good throw. I should have made that play. There’s no excuses. I should have made it, and it got away from me.”

But that was just one play. In the end, it was the entire defense that wilted like heated caramel and deserves to be held accountable, and that extends to the NFL Defensive Player of the Year Khalil Mack, who has been conspicuously quiet during these past two losses. No sacks, very few tackles.

As for the rest of the defensive cast, the Raiders got no pressure on Rivers when it mattered most. And knowing that the Chargers were going to run the ball right at them with Gordon once they crossed the 50, Oakland’s linemen and linebackers were getting knocked off the ball 3-5 yards every snap.

“It’s a matter of execution,” said cornerback T.J. Carrie. “The coaches can put you in the right defenses, they can put you in the right scheme, but we as players on the field have to see things, we have to come together as one and we have to make those plays when they need to be made.”

They weren’t. And then, once again, no interceptions, either. Now that Chicago and Miami got their first of the season on Sunday, the Raiders are the last team in the NFL without a single pick.

“You know, they come in bunches, but we have to get the first one,” Carrie said.

Veteran cornerback David Amerson, for one, is flabbergasted about all aspects of the Raiders’ defensive play, not just the lack of turnovers.

“It’s a hurt feeling, a feeling of disbelief,” Amerson said. “Some of the teams we’re losing to we should really be blowing out. But we’re just not showing up, for whatever reason. The secondary, linebackers, D-line, everybody’s got to do better. We’re way better than what we’re playing, and ain’t no way we should be in this position. We should be putting up 30 points a game and holding teams to under 14. That’s the kind of talent we got, but it’s just not clicking.

“We have to figure it out, because now time’s ticking,” Amerson continued. “We just lost to a division opponent and now we have another one coming up on a short week (Kansas City on Thursday night). We’ve got to make something happen, man. It’s now or never, really.”

Carrie put it even more succinctly.

“There’s no help coming, the cavalry’s not coming,” he said. “We are the cavalry.”

Indeed, but it’s a cavalry that all too clearly lacks the horses to get the Raiders up what has become a decidedly daunting hill.