Las Vegas lost its fourth straight game Sunday. And in each of those four losses the team gave up at least 30 points. This week it was the Rams who put up 35 points on them. And you got the feeling it could have been much worse had the Raiders offense not also scored so few points that the Rams took their foot off the gas for the third quarter.
With the first loss in this streak, the team still felt pretty good about themselves. They put up a good fight against the Chiefs to pull a few yards away from a shot at tying the game late.
That gave way to a brutal pummeling in New England that felt like Josh McDaniels was having way too much fun putting the screws to his former team. But even then, it was looked at as perhaps a situation where they were
just not playing like themselves. Maybe the dreaded east coast game with the early start time. Let them get back to Las Vegas and see how they do.
The Buffalo Bills came to town and it was another game in which the final score made it seem closer than it was, but, much like the Chiefs game, their comeback bid came too late. But, hey, it was the number one scoring team in the league, right?
In all these cases, the issue was the defense was putting the team in a hole the offense just isn't equipped to dig out of. But, you know, tough teams, right?
There would be no such excuses against the Rams, who, while being a very good team, were also extremely shorthanded. Leading many -- including everyone on our staff -- to believe this would be a close one. Heck, the line on the game just kept moving toward the Raiders and by Saturday the Rams were favored by just three points. But that is not at all how it played out.
What played out was the Rams easily exploiting the very weaknesses the Raiders had been showing in their previous three-game losing streak. I'll let the players explain it.
“We knew what they was gonna do," Walker said. "Honestly, I don’t think they were even trying to get fancy. They was doing the same thing the whole game. Run, play action, boot was the only thing they was doing. Running duo, inside zone. That was it. It just came down to that, doing the same thing over and over. Didn’t do anything fancy, it just came down to technique. And everybody just doing their 1/11, doing what you have to do, but it wasn't the case today for us.”
Walker keyed here on two things that several Raiders defenders said after this one. Several, including Tonka Hemingway and Nakobe Dean, all mentioned the Rams just run, play action, boot over and over to great success. And they all had a similar suggestion as to how to fix it. So much so that it seemed like there was message being sent.
NFL players talk often of doing your job aka your 1/11. Not trying to do too much. Playing as a unit. As a team. But in the locker room today, that was a recurring theme. One which Nakobe brought home.
"We got a lot of great players. We just got to put it together," said Dean. "You gotta play as a team. You got to play as one. We can't be all individual mercenaries out there.”
Mercenaries is a great word to describe an individual player doing their own thing and not playing within system or gameplan. Often times it can be someone who thinks they are good enough to put the rest of the team on his back. That's a common problem on struggling teams and players and coaches drill it into guys not to do it. Nakobe is one of the leaders of this defense and he doesn't intend on letting it continue to slide.
“Don't walk past nothing," Dean said of holding guys accountable.
"If I see it, I'm going to set my mind to speak on it without being adjourned. Just try to be real and make sure that I'm not the only one doing it. Everybody’s got to hold each other accountable. So we're not gonna walk past anything no matter who it is.”
Before watching the tape, it would be irresponsible to speculate who might be being a "mercenary" out there. But it will certainly be something I will be watching for when I put the tape on. And I am sure the team will be doing the same. Because there's nothing Geno Smith would like more than to get his revenge on the team that made the rest of the NFL thing he was washed up.
This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Loss to Rams begs question: Does Raiders defense have a 'mercenary' problem?
