Raiders 26 – Chargers 14
The Raiders thus far have played two of the worst teams in the NFL over the first two weeks in the Chargers and the Dolphins. While I think the Chargers are likely a better team than the Raiders overall, this past week they made too many mistakes to come away with the divisional win and sent the Jim Harbaugh’s home winless heading into the toughest stretch of schedule in football (yikes LAC). I mention the Raiders schedule to explain the reason they are 2-0 and point to another statistic of theirs
that is misleading, a league leading 8 total team sacks. Maxx Crosby and his buddies will need to be grounded if the Saints hope to win, but I firmly believe the Saints are the best OLine and team the Silver and Black have faced yet.
Pressure the Passer
Brandon Staley schemed up some brilliant and effective ways to pressure Lamar Jackson last week and I expect him to do the same this week to attack the limited mobility of Kirk Cousins. The 38 year old with a repaired Achilles tendon will not be able to escape a serious pass rush and will become uncomfortable if Chase Young and the other Saints pass rushers can get home on Sunday. The video above is a good example of how easily mistakes can be made by Cousins if there are any issues in the timing of routes as zone defenders lurk. While the example shows the Raiders keeping a clean pocket and a mistake by the receiver, the Raiders have yet to face a defensive line with the talent that the Saints possess at that position group. The Saints must pit Cousins’s high level of football awareness against him to force him into sacks and turnovers. When a quarterback is using his brain to make up for the lack of arm talent that currently plagues the aging Cousins, added pressure can speed the clock up in his head just enough to throw passes before necessary and lead to crucial errors. To do this, if I were the Saints, I would consistently attack right tackle D.J. Glaze (below) by giving him a full rotation of Chase, Cam and Carl (did I just discover the killer C’s??) with stunts a nickel blitzes sprinkled in.
Win the Rushing Battle
The Chargers have what I would define as the “Cutest rushing attack in the NFL” with all their cool Mike McDaniel trademark gadget plays that some (me) would call highly unnecessary and were still able to rush for 127 yards. Jim Harbaugh’s squad were able to be successful on the ground by out scheming the Raiders in the run game for most of last Sunday’s matchup. Below you can see that in the box (what is pictured), the Chargers have 7 blockers for 7 defenders (commonly referred to as the offensive having numbers or a hat on a hat) which means that if the Bolts can execute their blocking scheme in the play below, they will be able to run until someone outside the box can make the tackle. This is a problem for the Raiders that I expect the Saints to try to exploit and have their best rushing output of the season in doing so. In their nickel package shown below, the Chargers chose to go away from the triangle which includes the Raiders best run defender and their worst as they use Crosby to hide Taron Johnson (their nickel corner) and run a man blocking scheme I call double insert or double ISO. While this was successful, this would never work running at Maxx Crosby (he immediately beat Joe Alt on this play). When the Saints are able to outnumber the Raiders similar to this look, I expect their zone heavy rushing attack to give the Raiders fits as the Saints have a much better OLine than the Chargers and (although they haven’t produced many yards yet this season) better backs in Eitienne and Kamara which theoretically will have plenty of space to cut into the running lanes.
Mistake Free Football
The Kellen Moore version of the Saints have yet to play a game without any pre-snap penalties or turnovers to my recollection. The Saints need to take their opportunity Sunday to fine tune their discipline and overcome this final hurdle of becoming a seriously good team. Now that Tyler Shough seems to have settled in completely, I do not foresee the Raiders zone blitz scheme to be an issue for him if he can continue to identify blitzers properly (we saw this vs the Ravens) as the Chargers had countless wide open receivers on Sunday thanks to blown coverages by the Silver and Black. LAC was not able to take advantage of these as Justin Herbert was running for his life most of the game and his receiving corps (if you know you know) did him no favors by dropping multiple could be explosive plays and even (David Njoku) bobbling a pass straight into a defender’s hands after being wide open 20 yards down field. Thankfully, the Saints receiving corps has been one of the better units in the NFL so far this year and unless there is a cataclysmic event in the Dome on Sunday, I have faith that will not happen if Olave, Juwan, Vele, and the rest of the bunch are left open the way some Chargers were.
Bonus:
Were you aware that Tyler Shough is possibly the funniest quarterback in the NFL. How could you not like this guy? The turns have certainty tabled for the Black and Gold since the Derek Carr days.
Keys to Victory
- Pressure Kirk Cousins to throw off timing
- Win the rushing yards battle
- Emphasize discipline and play mistake free
