Oakland Raiders: A Few Keys To Victory Over Tennessee Titans
By Kevin Saito
Take Care Of The Laundry
Though it was largely overlooked last week in the utter pile of wretchedness that was their defensive effort last week, the Raiders still accumulated a ton of penalties.
Granted, it was only nine – a far cry from their 14 flags the week before. But nine flags is still far too many.
Against the Falcons, the Raiders gave up 58 yards on those nine penalties. And for the season, they’ve give up 199 yards on their collective 23 flags.
More from Golden Gate Sports
- Raiders: Rookie stock report following Week 3 performance
- 49ers sign new long snapper amidst a flurry of roster moves
- Oakland Athletics win Game 2 of Wild Card round with late-inning drama
- 49ers: George Kittle and Deebo Samuel cleared to return to practice
- 49ers expected to place DE Dee Ford on injured reserve
Somewhat shockingly, the Raiders aren’t the league leaders in that rather dubious category. The title, thus far, belongs to the Detroit Lions who have been flagged a whopping 25 times.
The Raiders are drawing far too many flags for a wide variety of mind-numbingly dumb reasons – holding, pass interference, excessive celebration, illegal touching, false starts. The list is lengthy and the penchant to take bad penalties is one that needs to stop.
Oakland cannot afford to give up, on average, almost 100 yards a game in penalty yards. Nor can they afford to take flags that kill their drives.
Some of the issues are physical – like a DB reaching out to grab a receiver who’s blowing by them. Some of the issues are mental – like going out of bounds and then coming back in and catching the ball. Neither is a good penalty to take and both are issues (among many others) that need to be corrected sooner rather than later.
The Raiders need to play smarter and stop shooting themselves in the foot. Nine penalties last week is better than the 14 they took in week one. But they need to continue whittling that number down.