A simple fix to dramatically improve the Raiders run defense
When I went back to watch the coaches film of the Oakland Raiders loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, one thing stood out like a sore thumb:
The Raiders defense doesn’t know how to set the edge in the run game.
Oakland is giving up lots of yards up the gut thanks to poor defensive tackle play but the huge issue is the outside run. Over and over and over again we’ve seen opposing backs bounce outside for huge games. When you go back and watch how this happened, you see a pure lack of discipline.
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There are times when the defender who is responsible for setting the edge simply gets eaten up by a blocker. That’s a problem of losing one on one battles and the only answer is to play better. But there are also times where the edge defender just doesn’t set the edge.
More often than not it’s due to the edge defender trying to do too much. They cheat underneath to try and make a play only to have the back bounce it outside. That’s just a failure to play disciplined football. Sure, it’s more fun to make the tackle, but the smart play is to force the back inside where you have help.
If any of this sounds familiar it’s probably because this is very basic football. It’s run defense 101. If you played any level of football, it’s one of the basics they will teach you. Hell, even peewee league kids learn how to set the edge.
When something this basic is being missed this consistently, you need to look at the coaching staff. These kinds of bad habits can be resolved but it takes time, effort and plenty of attention from the coaching staff. I don’t get access to watch the Raiders practice, but based on watching game film, I’d be willing to bet Ken Norton, Jr. and his staff are not spending nearly enough time beating the concept into their defenders.
The coaches need to take the players responsible for defending the edge and have them defend outside run plays over and over again. And they should keep doing it until it’s second nature to park in the outside lane and wait rather than over pursue underneath.
You can see this problem from a mile away and it’s a major reason why opposing teams continue to gash the Raiders on the ground. It’s an obvious problem with an obvious answer and yet the defense continues to fail. This is on the coaches to fix and if they can’t fix something that requires nothing more than doing better at basic defensive concepts, things are more dire than any of us hoped.
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