Oakland Raiders: The good, bad, and ugly from week three loss to Miami

Good: Run Defense Was Surprisingly Stout

Let’s not get it twisted – Miami didn’t come into the game with the most lethal running attack in the league. But, they did come in with a decent ground game, having put up 120 yards in week one against the Tennessee Titans, and then followed that up with 135 against the New York Jets.

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Miami’s run game, while not dominant, was sufficient, and hovered around the middle of the pack in the league.

Conversely, Oakland’s run defense has been abysmal. It’s looked every bit as poor through two games this season as it ever did under Ken Norton Jr.

Oakland’s run defense came into the game having given up 140 yards to Todd Gurley and the Rams in week one, and then got torched for 168 more yards by Phillip Lindsay and the Denver Broncos.

Through two games, the Raiders had given up 308 yards, and two touchdowns on the ground, which put them near the bottom of the league in run defense. There were few worse, and heading into week three with the one-two punch of Kenyan Drake, and Frank Gore on their plate, it didn’t figure to get much better.

But then, a funny thing happened – the Raiders run defense showed up.

Having spent time, money, and draft picks, trying to shore up that creaky run defense, it finally showed that maybe, there is some life in it, after all.

Oakland held Miami to just 41 yards rushing for the game. And of those 41, Ryan Tannehill rished for 26 of them, on three quarterback scrambles. They limited Drake to three yards on five carries, and Gore to 12 yards on six carries.

The going was so tough, the Dolphins had to limit their ground game to just 11 carries between their two primary backs.

It was a solid performance from this reworked and revamped run defense – finally – and hopefully, a sign of better things to come.