Oakland Raiders: 5 things that must improve against the Arizona Cardinals

3. Turnovers

Being on the wrong side of the turnover differential ledger is a recipe for losing in the NFL. More often than not, when you lose the turnover battle, you lose the game.

Not always of course, but there’s a higher likelihood that you’re going to lose the game if you give it up more often than you take it away.

Last season, the Raiders were in the bottom echelon of the league in turnover differential with a negative seven, turning the ball over 24 times while notching just 17 takeaways.

The Raiders improved from 2017 to 2018 in that category, snagging 14 interceptions compared to their dismal five the season before. And they improved overall on their negative-14 differential two seasons ago to last season’s negative seven.

So Paul Guenther’s system along with some improved personnel are paying dividends.

But they’re going to need to put together better efforts on that front than they did against the Rams. Mike Glennon threw a pair of bad interceptions — one of them in the red zone — but the defense was unable to force a turnover.

The Rams won the turnover battle 2-0 but the defense did manage to step up well enough to not let those turnovers come back to bite them. Oakland’s defense stepped up and allowed just three points off those two interceptions — the only points the Rams would score in the game.

It’s only the first preseason game so there’s no reason to hit the panic switch just yet. But winning the turnover battle is key to having success this season and the Raiders most definitely need to be on the right side of the differential ledger this season.