OAKLAND — In the wake of back-to-back games where the Oakland defense gave up 1,035 yards and 69 points, Raiders coach Jack Del Rio hinted that some changes were in order, although he stopped short of saying he’ll run the defense himself.
“There’s not going to be any proclamation made today,” Del Rio said Monday at his weekly press conference. “I think for us, it’s about us. It’s a collective effort. We all share in it 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. We have to do our share.”
Following a 35-28 loss in their home opener against the Atlanta Falcons, Del Rio said he had taken over defensive play calling late in the game from defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr.
Oakland (1-1) was helpless to stop an Atlanta offense which shredded the Raiders pass defense and also ran effectively, averaging a gaudy 8.3 yards per snap.
Del Rio said Monday that rookie safety Karl Joseph, a first-round draft pick who didn’t play a defensive snap in two games, would likely get some playing time at the expense of Keith McGill, who struggled at strong safety.
“Quite frankly, I came out of the game saying, ‘Why didn’t we get him in?’” Del Rio said. “Keith had some struggles and certainly opened the door for Karl to get in there, but we didn’t pull the trigger on it. I’d like to see him get his opportunities to get in the game starting this week.”
Another player likely to see the field is Cory James, a rookie sixth-round draft pick who played in place of Ben Heeney at inside linebacker for the last nine plays of the game.
The Falcons appeared to be targeting Heeney, particularly in the passing game.
“He’s just a guy that’s kind of a ball magnet,” Del Rio said of James. “He’s around the ball, he’s physical, he’s fast. Look, the two guys that I talked about didn’t really lock it down, but they weren’t alone. But there are a couple of guys behind them that deserve to play a little bit and are going to get some time.”
The Falcons finished with 528 yards of offense, 396 yards passing from Matt Ryan and 139 rushing.
Coming after giving up more than 500 yards total and 423 yards passing to Drew Brees in an opener that the Raiders won 35-34, it was difficult for edge player Khalil Mack to comprehend.
“A thousand yards,” Mack said, shaking his head. “Wow. Being the leader of this defense, that hurts.”
Having come as an unrestricted free agent from Seattle, strong side linebacker Bruce Irvin didn’t know what to make of the Raiders defensive issues.
“I’m speechless,” Irvin said. “I’ve never experienced this. Until everybody makes a full commitment to turning this thing around, we’re going to be a subpar defense.”
–The Raiders played well enough on offense with 155 yards rushing and 299 yards passing from quarterback Derek Carr, but a fourth-and-2 failure in the fourth quarter while trailing 28-21 was crucial.
Instead of using one of the bigger power backs, the Raiders ran 5-foot-8, 204-pound Jalen Richard up the middle and he was stopped a yard shy.
Even Richard admitted afterward he was looking toward the sideline, expecting to come out. Del Rio admitted that’s probably what should have happened.
“That’s something we asked as a staff. Do we have the right guy in there for that situation?” Del Rio said. “We like them all, but we’ve got a couple of hammerheads that might have been better, between (fullback) Jamize Olawale and Latavius Murray. We came out of there saying, ‘We’d like to have that one back.’”