Oakland Raiders: A few keys to victory over the Cleveland Browns

Limit Explosive Plays On Defense

Marshawn Lynch raised some eyebrows, and drew plenty of snickers, after last week’s loss when he suggested that the Raiders were only a couple of plays away from turning the corner. Surely, a team that’s 0-3 has a lot more wrong with it than just a few plays can fix, right?

Yeah, there’s a lot of things wrong with this team right now, but Lynch isn’t entirely wrong.

Las Vegas Raiders

Take last week for example. Against the Dolphins, the game turned on but a handful of plays. Some on offense, some on defense. But, since we’re speaking defensively limiting explosive plays, let’s focus on those.

For long stretches of the game, Oakland’s defense was stout, and was really smothering Tannehill and the offense – to the tune of limiting them to under 100 total offensive yards for the first half. The biggest play of the half for Miami was the 34-yard touchdown toss from Tannehill to Kenny Stills that tied the game at seven.

But that was pretty much it offensively speaking, for the Dolphins through the first 30 minutes.

The second half was a different story, as the Raiders went up 17-7, and the Dolphins responded on the very next drive, with Tannehill hitting some big plays – 15 yards to Danny Amendola. 36 yards to DaVante Parker. And an 18-yard touchdown toss to Jakeem Grant to pull Miami back within 3.

While only the 36-yard toss to Parker qualifies as an “explosive” play, Tannehill still hit some big ones on that drive alone.

Three other explosive plays sealed that game for Miami. It was Tannehill’s 18-yard scramble. Albert Wilson‘s 52-yard pass to Grant. And Tannehill’s 74-yard “pass” that was the icing on the cake.

That was it. On the defensive side of the ball, about half a dozen big plays made all the difference in this game. Take away those explosive plays, and this game turns out very differently, because except for those, the Raiders defense was suffocating the Dolphins.

Against the Browns, they’re going to have to make a concentrated effort to limit the number of explosive plays Cleveland is able to execute.