Oakland Raiders v Houston Texans: A Few Last Minute Keys To A Wild Card Win

Cut Them Off at the Knees

Stopping the run is something the Raiders have struggled with all season long. However, over the last month of the season, they’d done a better job of it. Denver reversed that trend in the last week of the season by gashing the Raiders for 143 yards, but a whole lot went wrong for Oakland last week.

In Houston, the Raiders are going to get another shot at Lamar Miller – or he’s going to get another shot at them. In that week ten contest in Mexico City, Miller was able to run through Oakland’s defense for 104 yards on 24 carries.

For the year, Miller racked up 1,073 yards on 268 carries – an average of a mere four yards per rush.

The Raiders absolutely have to get to Miller. They cannot afford to let him get into a rhythm and they have to shut him down at the point of attack. Against good running teams in Kansas City and San Diego in weeks 14 and 15, Oakland’s run defense gave up a total of 138 combined yards.

They gave up 102 yards to the Colts and the 143 to Denver to close out the season, but the ability to shut down a good running team is there. And these Texans are a good running team – eighth best in the league, in fact.

Oakland is going to get a big boost in their run defense with the return of Karl Joseph and Stacy McGee, who have both missed time with injury. And it’s more than obvious that the defense missed them.

If Edwards can go today, Oakland’s run defense is going to be that much more stout and will have a better shot at containing Miller. If they can do that, and force Osweiler to make the plays to beat them, you have to like Oakland’s chances a whole lot more.