Oakland Raiders: Four Things That Must Happen Against The Giants

See Ball, Go Get Ball

Although some of the players don’t like the decision to fire Ken Norton Jr. and have been pretty outspoken about it – yeah, we’re looking at you, Bruce Irvin – it can’t be denied that in John Pagano’s debut as the defensive signal caller, the defense looked pretty sharp. For three quarters, anyway.

While some might downplay the defensive effort or mitigate it by saying, “yeah, but it was just Paxton Lynch,” the results speak for themselves. Paxton Lynch or not, this Raiders defense racked up five sacks against Denver (four on Lynch, one on Trevor Siemian who played a quarter in relief). They also recorded their first interception of the year.

Against Denver last week, Oakland’s defense allowed a season-low 216 total yards of offense (160 passing, 56 rushing). The one area of concern, of course, was that Siemian came in and promptly directed two fourth quarter scoring drives, throwing for 149 yards and those two touchdowns in a little more than a quarter of work.

But, that doesn’t erase the fact that overall, this defense did an outstanding job in containing this Broncos offense. They bottled up playmakers like Demaryius Thomas (five receptions for 18 yards) and Emmanuel Sanders (three receptions for 12 yards).

They also kept a sometimes potent running game in check, with Lynch being Denver’s leading rusher for the game with 17 yards. C.J. Anderson and Devontae Booker combined for 23 yards on 11 carries – part of Denver’s overall 56-yard output on the night.

Irvin may not give Pagano a shred of credit, but Oakland’s defense just looked faster and more aggressive. More than that, they managed to look like a more complicated defense than anything we saw during Norton’s tenure.

With Pagano calling the shots, he mixed up the defense and moved people around. He gave the Broncos different looks and was a lot more heavy handed with the pressure than Norton ever was. And as a result, we saw this defense record more than a third of the total number of sacks they had on the season coming into the game (14).

And he managed to accomplish all that by simplifying the defense. Rather than having the defense reading and reacting to what the offense was doing, Pagano turned the defense loose and had them attacking more.

He moved the defense forward into attacking positions instead of what Norton used to do, which was move them back into defensive positions.

He called it, “see ball, get ball,” in an interview with the media.

"“It’s not to say that there have been times where we’ve simplified things, but taking the thinking out of the game and making them react is, I think, most important. Going out there and playing fast and that’s doing the little extra things, the attention to details of studying and getting those things processed. See ball, go get ball.”"

With another week of Pagano’s faster, more aggressive, react to the ball defense under their belts, this Raiders squad should be even better this week. They’re going to need to be as there is absolutely no room for error.

The fact of the matter is, Pagano should have replaced Norton weeks ago. But, as long as he can get the most out of this defense, keep them flying to the football, and wreaking havoc on opposing offenses for the next five weeks, it will all work out.

All they need to do is see ball and then, go get ball.