Oakland Raiders: Offense Sharp Against Titans, Defense Not So Much

The Oakland Raiders, in their first home game of the 2016 season, played host to the Tennessee Titans, and while the offense was crisp, the defense was less than sharp.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah – it’s the preseason and the games don’t count. But when the Oakland Raiders played host to the Tennessee Titans on Friday night, there were some definite fireworks as well as a resounding thud coming out of the Black Hole. It was a game that gave the team and its fans reasons to be excited, as well as some cause for concern.

Of course, most believe the exhibition season is meaningless in the grand scheme of things. The games don’t count record-wise and the games are often filled with sloppy, erratic play. It’s a time when teams are looking at a lot of their young talent to see just what sort of contribution they can be expected to make. Or, with cutdown days looming, what sort of contributions they won’t be making.

Against the Titans, we started to get a better sense of who might be taking regular season snaps and who might be getting a pink slip in the next couple of weeks.

All of that being said, Oakland’s offense put on quite an explosive show against the Titans. The first team offense was crisp. Sharp. And completely dynamic. They certainly had the look of an offensive unit that can be among the best in the league.

Quarterback Derek Carr, despite the criticism from some quarters after a slow start to the preseason, came out and lit up the sky in Oakland. In just over a half of play, Carr completed 12 of 18 passes for 169 yards, two touchdowns, and a very sharp QB rating of 133.8.

He certainly had the look of a quarterback poised to lead his team to great things.

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Not only was Carr sharp, his two favorite targets – wideouts Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree – both had very solid showings in limited action. Cooper hauled in 52 yards on three receptions and made a beautiful catch in the endzone for a score.

Crabtree was targeted four times in the game, hauling in one long and important pass. After Tennessee had drawn first blood with a crisp, efficient scoring drive, the Raiders came right back. And Crabtree had the big blow in the drive, hauling in a gorgeous 41 yard pass from Carr that helped set up their eventual score to tie the game.

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The first team’s passing game was firing on all cylinders and looked sharp. If you really wanted to find one negative, it’s that Carr sustained his first sack of the preseason and overall, the Raiders surrendered five quarterback hits, after allowing zero of either through the first two games.

Not only was the passing game sharp, but the running game looked pretty fantastic as well. Which is surely a good sign after last week’s power outage. Or at least, an encouraging sign, anyway.

After totaling somewhere between diddly and squat against the Packers last week, Oakland’s ground game exploded for 157 yards on 26 carries – a robust average of 6 yards a carry. They didn’t find the endzone on the ground, but the run game made some big plays.

With Latavius Murray primarily a spectator – he had zero yards on just two carries – two youngsters made the most of their opportunity. Both UDFA Jalen Richard and fifth round draft pick Deandre Washington are battling for a roster spot as well as positioning on the depth chart. And based on their performance against the Titans, they made the job of HC Jack Del Rio and his staff pretty difficult.

Washington had 55 yards on eight carries, while Richard had 35 yards on seven carries. And trying to hold on to a roster spot, George Atkinson III chipped in with 35 yards on just four carries.

A week after their rushing attack raised all sorts of red flags for its inefficiency and poor showing, Oakland’s running backs came roaring back, to say the least. It’s certainly a good sign for the Raiders and their ground game.

On the other side of the coin, it’s not so good news for Oakland’s run defense. For the third week in a row, the run defense was absolutely torched. The Titans took their opening drive and abused Oakland’s first team defense on their way to a score.

On Tennessee’s second play, Demarco Murray gashed the Raiders’ defense for a 17 yard gain on their way to an opening drive score. The big blow of course, was a 60 yard catch and run from Marcus Mariota to Tajae Sharpe that set the Titans up on Oakland’s four yard line. Two plays later, Murray found the endzone and put Tennessee up by a touchdown.

For the game, the Raiders surrendered 132 yards on 32 carries – an average of 4.1 yards per carry. They also gave up a pair of rushing touchdowns to Tennessee.

Despite being overhauled this offseason, Oakland’s run defense has looked far worse than last year’s version. Perhaps some of it is the shuffling of bodies in and out of the lineup – many of whom won’t be there in a few weeks. Perhaps it’s just a case of the new guys adapting to the speed of the game and DC Ken Norton Jr.’s system.

Whatever it is, the Raiders are going to need to fix that and fix that PDQ. With the regular season looming, the last thing they will want or need are teams running the ball down their throats all game long.

There was some good and some less than good that came out of last night’s preseason contest. Oakland’s run game looked electric and bodes well for the coming season. Likewise, Derek Carr and company looked exceptionally sharp. The offense looks like it’s ready to get rolling and put some big numbers up on the scoreboard.

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Now, the defense just needs to figure out how to keep other teams from putting even bigger numbers up on the scoreboard. Yes, the preseason is meaningless in many ways. But this is the time teams establish an identity. This is where patterns and habits are being set.

And given that Oakland’s run defense has been shredded in all three preseason matchups, the Raiders and their fans better hope changing some patterns and habits are really easy. If the run defense was waiting to flip a switch before they started locking down, now would be the time.