Oakland Raiders: Notes And Observations From Week Ten

Nov 15, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson (28) runs the ball against the Oakland Raiders in the fourth quarter at O.co Coliseum. The Vikings defeated the Raiders 30-14. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

Get Back To The Fundamentals

One of the things that Jack Del Rio has preached, and something that has made the Raiders successful so far this season, is a dedication and commitment to the fundamentals. And one of those fundamentals is tackling.

Over the past few weeks though, we’ve started to see some bad habits forming. One of those bad habits is poor tackling technique. We saw the Raiders trying to bring down Pittsburgh’s DeAngelo Williams with arm tackles, only to watch him run straight through them – which could be one reason he powered his way to 170 yards on the ground.

We saw the same thing happening with Adrian Peterson who is a big, strong back who simply cannot be taken down with an arm tackle. And yet, time and time again, we saw Oakland doing just that – throwing their arms out with the hope that they’d be able to bring him down.

And the results – 203 yards on the ground – speak for themselves.

It’s not just the big, bruising backs the Raiders have been having trouble taking down though. It’s the quarterbacks as well. We watched the Raiders have Ben Roethlisberger dead to rights on a number of occasions two weeks ago. Yet time and time again, they came away empty, unable to tackle the big quarterback.

The same thing happened with Teddy Bridgewater. Though the Raiders registered four sacks against the second year quarterback, that total could – and should – have been even higher. They had Bridgewater dead to rights on a number of different plays, only to see him slip out of a tackle attempt and either scamper away on his own or throw a pass on the run.

Simply put, that has to change. Quickly. The Raiders need to re-dedicate themselves to the fundamentals that had brought them a measure of success this season. They need to re-commit to making solid tackles when they have the chance.

If they need a visual reference to help them improve their own tackling technique, they can watch their tape against the Vikings – Minnesota put on a tackling clinic in proper tackling technique against the Raiders. They certainly didn’t miss much.

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