Oakland Raiders: A few keys to beating Chargers in week five matchup
By Kevin Saito
Tackle, Tackle, Tackle
If there’s one constant we’ve seen so far this year, it’s that the Raiders have not been a great tackling team. There have been too many cases of somebody failing to wrap up a ballcarrier, and letting them squirt free for extra yardage – sometimes allowing them a critical first down – or just run free for a score.
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Look for instance, at last week’s game with Cleveland. Specifically, look at the two monster scoring runs broken off by Nick Chubb – 63-yards, and 41-yards.
On both of those plays, multiple Raiders defenders had a chance to bring Chubb down, and end the play. But bad angles to the ball, bad pursuit, and really poor tackling, contributed to Chubb generating 104 of his 105 yards, and two touchdowns on the day.
You can also look to defenders failing to wrap up a quarterback. Against Cleveland, Bruce Irvin had a shot to take down quarterback Baker Mayfield on one play, but rather than wrap him up, he allowed Mayfield to squirt free, and extend the play.
That simply cannot happen. This team has got to get back to some sound, fundamental tackling on all levels of the defense.
They can’t afford to let opposing players to run free, or try to take them down with one arm. They need to step up, wrap up, and take the ballcarrier down. Period. Otherwise, we’re going to see a lot more big plays being broken off, a la Chubb.