Oakland Raiders v Buffalo Bills: Five Things That Must Happen To Win
By Kevin Saito
Win The Turnover Battle – Or At Least, Don’t Lose It
Last year’s defense – for all of its faults – was still pretty opportunistic. It seemed that they had a knack for coming up with timely turnovers when they needed them most.
In fact, Oakland’s 2016 defense – again, for all of its faults, and there were many – tied with the Chiefs for the league lead in turnover differential, posting a plus 16 on the season. Their30 takeaways ranked behind only the Chiefs, and their 14 giveaways ranked fourth in the league.
This season though, it’s a completely different story.
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Through the season’s first seven games, the Raiders have a negative two in the turnover differential department – giving the ball up seven times, while only forcing five turnovers of their own.
And perhaps, the most galling stat of all, is that the Raiders are the only team in the entire NFL to not have a single interception to their credit. Not one.
And if you wanted to rub some salt into that wound, here you go – the Raiders are the only team in NFL history to not have a single interception through the first seven games of a season.
While nobody expected that Oakland’s defense was going to set the world on fire this year, by the same token, we also didn’t expect them to look this punchless and toothless.
And now, they’re going up against a Buffalo team that leads the league in turnover differential – a team that has a knack for taking the ball away and does a very good job of not giving it up themselves. Buffalo currently has 13 takeaways against just thee giveaways for a plus 10 rating.
While it would be nice to see this Raiders team finally get on the board with an interception – or a few – to give themselves a shot at winning, they absolutely cannot give the ball up to an opportunistic Bills defense.
While it would be nice to see them win the turnover battle against the Bills, if that can’t happen, they at least can’t lose that fight.