How the Raiders can better the Jets

By Os Davis  |   Thursday, October 16, 2008  |  Comments( 35 )

Oakland Raiders
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Surely now the Oakland Raiders have bottomed out: The last three weeks have seen a crushing loss to the San Diego Chargers, the choking shakeup and an utterly brutal demolition at the hands of the New Orleans Saints. Been done so long, everything’s looking up to the Raider Nation, right?

After taking on a couple of playoff-minded squads, then, the Raiders get to host the contending New York Jets, a flawed team that would appear beatable on paper. Whether they’re beatable on the field by an Oakland team that just hasn’t played up to its potential is another question. In fact, though the spread reckons this one will be close (the Jets are at minus-3 at most sportsbooks), Oakland may be facing a squad perfectly built to beat them handily.

Unless, of course, things change a bit in Oaktown. What has to change for the Raiders to win one this Sunday? Glad you asked. Recommendations follow.

● Get the ‘D’ off the field somehow. The Saints game hammered home the inference from the Chargers matchup and a concern throughout this season: When tested, the stamina of the Raiders’ defense loses. Tom Cable is going to have to find a way to improve upon that opposition 31:32 time of possession. Worse yet for Oakland, behind Brett “The Great Improviser” Favre, the Jets boast a decent 40 percent conversion rate on third down and a league-high 88 percent rate on fourth.

The Raider defense, meanwhile, is giving up first downs on third to the tune of 43 percent; against teams not named the Kansas City Chiefs, this ratio balloons to 48 percent, comparable to bottom-feeders in the category such as, um, the Chiefs. Maybe they could …

● Pump up the coverage in the secondary. Blitzing is all well and good, and at times the Raiders have been quite impressive when doing so (the first three quarters in Buffalo). However, pressure on Favre has, as is typical, been mostly irrelevant in 2008. The Jets’ offensive line frequently crumbles under pressure – stats say the unit has given up 12 sacks in five games, a bottom 10 rate – yet Favre still leads the league in QB rating.

Meanwhile, on the Oakland side, this soft one-on-one coverage just ain’t cutting it for the Raiders this season. Oakland has been particularly generous in giving up big yardage on one side (DeAngelo Hall's) while opposing teams have mostly deftly avoiding throwing the ball anywhere near Nnamdi Asomugha. Suspecting that Favre isn’t going to use his feet to get out of trouble (the man’s run for just eight attempts this season), shouldn’t the Raiders just dump extra men into coverage and let Brett look in vain for open receivers?

(Never thought this would be coming from me, but how about a lot more Cover 2 defense, guys?)

Meanwhile, on the offense, perhaps …

● Fewer pass plays, more runs. Cable recently opined that JaMarcus Russell threw the ball too often on Sunday; the QB’s 35 attempts were the most in his NFL career save for the Chargers game in Week 4 and only the third time he’d surpassed 30. Because Russell is now third-lowest among starting quarterbacks in completion percentage, this might be a good call.

Unfortunately for the Raiders, the Jets enter the game with an impressive run defense currently third in the NFL in ground yardage allowed. Of course, this statistic is based upon a bunch of opponents with little running attack to speak of – Miami (pre-"Wildcat"), New England, Arizona and Cincinnati among them – and when faced with a slightly off LaDainian Tomlinson gave up two TDs to the man. New York has yet to face anything like Oakland’s three-pronged backfield. And out of New Jersey comes speculation that we might even see …

● The "Wildcat" formation. Half-seriously, folks, with an all-around athlete like Darren McFadden in play and a questionable receiving corps, shouldn’t Cable at least play with the notion of deploying the NFL’s newest craze on a couple of plays? The journos in Joisey seem to think the "Wildcat" is viable versus the Jets. This kind of exciting trick play could be a good energizer for the Raiders and the hometown Raider Nation on Sunday.

Prediction: Despite McFadden & Co. running up more yards against the Jets than they've seen this season, it’s still gonna be New York 27, Oakland 14.
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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