Oakland Raiders: A Few Keys To Victory Over Tampa Bay Buccaneers
By Kevin Saito
Get In Winston’s Face Early
The Raiders have a lot of talent on the defensive side of the ball. Shoring up their run defense as well as bringing in some guys to get after the quarterback were among their biggest priorities this past offseason.
But as of yet, Oakland’s defense has not put it all together and though they’ve shown some flashes here and there, haven’t been anywhere near as effective at getting to the quarterback as we’d all thought they’d be.
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On the season, the Raiders have just nine total sacks. Nine. To put that in perspective, as a team, the Raiders have as many sacks as Buffalo Bills linebacker Lorenzo Alexander has on his own. So, when you have a defense that has guys like Khalil Mack and Bruce Irvin, you have to question what’s going on.
Against Jacksonville last week, the Raiders had a solid opportunity to get on track. The Jaguars had given up plenty of sacks and their offense line play has been near the bottom of the league in effectiveness. Against that, the Raiders managed to get just one sack on the day – Mack’s third on the year.
Coming into the game with the Buccaneers, the Raiders are facing another squad that gives up a lot of sacks. Tampa Bay has given up 14 on the year in total, and outside of their opening week win over Atlanta, quarterback Jameis Winston has gone down at least twice in every game.
And when he faces heavy pressure, Winston has been known to make a few mistakes. The Raiders will need to get to him early and often. They need to rattle his cage and get into his head. They need to force him into mistakes like the four interception day he had against Arizona in week two.
Oakland most definitely needs to be more effective in pressuring and dropping Winston than they were last week against Blake Bortles.