The Raiders are 3-2 entering Week 6 and average a narrow defeat at the hands of the Chiefs at home, they were throttled by the Patriots a week ago.
Let’s dive into those Las Vegas’ tendencies before the Bills trip to Allegiant Stadium for on Sunday.
Raiders offense
Motion
Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak, who rose to prominence in Seattle last season coordinating the Seahawks Super Bowl winning offense, is of course calling the plays in Las Vegas, and he’s hardly utilized motion through five games.
In fact, the Raiders 26.3%
motion rate on run and pass plays is, far and way, the lowest figure in the league, per FTN Fantasy Data via SFdata9ers on Twitter/X.
Another TE-based offense
As I wrote earlier today, Brock Bowers is, in my estimation, the best receiving tight end in football. And Las Vegas recently gave Michael Mayer a contract extension. So it’s only natural that Kubiak deploys multiple tight ends frequently.
How frequently to be exact?
The Raiders have utilized some type of multiple tight-end set — either 12, 13, or 22 personnel — on 60.2% of their offensive snaps to date, the second-highest figure in the NFL, per Football Insights.
Buffalo must be prepared to cover Bowers and Mayer in this one.
Kirk Cousins in the pocket
Only Jared Goff has traveled outside the pocket on a lower percentage 0f throws than Cousins entering this game. He’s sitting just under 15% in that category right now, per Jrfortgang on Twitter/X.
Interestingly enough, after this game, the Bills will have faced three quarterbacks who make up the bottom trio of the non-pocket throw percentages right now — Goff, Stafford, and Cousins.
Raiders defense
Problems up front
Crosby is a superstar. Former University at Buffalo star Malcolm Koonce is one of the better No. 2 edge rushers in football. But, collectively, the Raiders defensive line has gotten gashed on the ground against opposing offensive lines entering this game.
NFL games are not played on paper. But the analytics do absolutely favor Buffalo’s rushing attack in this matchup with the Raiders. Let’s see if the Bills can take advantage with James Cook and Co.
…about Malcolm Koonce
The veteran outside rusher has 16 pressures on 100 pass-rush snaps through Week 5. And he’s actually winning his individual reps at a high rate too. Check where he is on this chart… slightly ahead of Greg Rousseau currently in pass-rush win rate.
The initial blocking emphasis needs to be put on limiting Crosby. But Koonce is certainly no slouch on the other side of the Raiders defensive front in passing situations.
Blitzing and Cover 0
The Raiders are currently blitzing at the third-highest rate among all defenses, at just under 55% of the time. And what tracks with that — they’re third in Cover 0 (man coverage, no safety help over the top) at 8.2%, behind only the Giants at 11.0% and the Patriots at 8.2%.
Las Vegas won’t be shy about dialing up blitz packages in this contest.
