Some information given to us courtesy of Silver & Black Pride’s Matt Holder.
In preparing for Sunday’s matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders, Silver & Black Pride’s Matt Holder and I sat down for a Q&A for one another’s publications.
1. The Raiders fell to the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 1 and it appears the majority of their success came from former Ravens (J.K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards, Hayden Hurst). But keying in specifically on the run defense, what allowed the Chargers to rack up 176 rushing yards?
Defensively, last week’s game was weird for the Raiders because the defense played really well for three quarters and then it all fell apart in crunch time. I’m not sure if it was because the offense wasn’t holding up their end of the bargain and guys were getting frustrated, but it felt like several players starting pressing and trying to play hero ball in that they were getting out of their gaps instead of sticking to their responsibility and missing tackles.
For example, Pro Football Focus credited Las Vegas with nine missed tackles as a team and it felt like those came in bunches where one or two defenders would miss on a given play, leading to explosive gains. While the box score was ugly, the Raiders’ run defense wasn’t that bad as a whole with 107 of JK Dobbins’ 135 rushing yards coming on two carries. Outside of those couple of runs, he was averaging just 3.5 ypc and the Chargers were at 2.8 ypc as a team.
2. Who are the key additions from the Raiders’ offseason you expect to impact this game? Where might their losses from the offseason also hinder or help them?
Christian Wilkins was by far Las Vegas’ biggest addition in the offseason, hence the $110 million contract, and he had a strong debut as a run defender in Week 1. I broke that down in this column if Ravens fans want to take a look. Offensively, it would be first-round pick Brock Bowers. Baltimore struggled to cover tight ends in Kansas City as even Noah Gray had a solid performance last week, so I’m interested to see how Bowers does this Sunday. He had a few nice catches in the season opener, hauling in six passes for 58 yards.
The Raiders didn’t have many notable losses on defense during the offseason, but defensive end Malcolm Koonce was placed on injured reserve after suffering an injury in practice last week. Koonce had a strong finish to last season with eight sacks in the final nine games while serving as the second edge rusher behind Maxx Crosby, so him being out is a huge loss for the defense. Also, backup and last year’s No. 7 overall pick Tyree Wilson suffered an injury during last week’s game and Antonio Pierce said “it’s not looking good” when asked about Wilson earlier this week.
On the other side of the ball, Las Vegas was hoping second-round pick Jackson Powers-Johnson would be the team’s starting left guard, but Powers-Johnson missed several spring practices and almost all of training camp with injuries. That has elevated free-agent addition Cody Whitehair to the starting lineup and he got abused last week. I’m very concerned about what Nnamdi Madubuike will do to Whitehair, especially since the Chargers won the battle in the trenches last week.
3. If you were the Ravens’ defensive coordinator, how would you attempt to slow down the Raiders offense?
It doesn’t take a complicated game plan to slow down the Raiders’ offense right now as they have questions on the offensive line and at quarterback. I’d load the box and make Gardner Minshew beat you. Also, if defenses can get pressure on Minshew, he’ll leave the pocket and start scrambling because he thinks he’s Lamar Jackson but doesn’t have anywhere near that type of speed or elusiveness. Last week, Minshew had opportunities to push the ball down the field and turned them down, often trying to run for the first down and failing.
Of course, Davante Adams is an issue but Adams also has little familiarity with Minshew given that it’s their first season working together and the Raiders had a quarterback competition during training camp where Aidan O’Connell took just as many first-team reps as Minshew. Antonio Pierce has also made it clear that he wants to establish the run, so I’d focus on taking that away before worrying about the passing game.
4. The Ravens offense, through one week, appears to be leaning on two tight end sets and gashing with the duo of Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely. Do the Raiders have the linebackers and safeties to contend with this group?
I think Las Vegas has a solid group of linebackers and safeties, but I’m not confident in their ability to slow down two really good tight ends in Andrews and Likely. Linebacker and former Steeler Robert Spillane is a good run defender and decent in zone coverage, but he impacts the passing game more as a blitzer than as someone who can match up with tight ends. Divine Deablo, the other starting linebacker, isn’t much to speak of and has been bad in coverage throughout his career despite being a college safety. As you might be able to tell, I’ve developed a reputation as a “Deablo hater” within the fanbase, but no one was arguing against me after his Week 1 performance…
At safety, Tre’von Moehrig (6-foot-2 and 202 pounds) is probably the Raiders’ best bet at guarding tight ends man-to-man since he has the movement skills and size to match up with Andrews and Likely. Marcus Epps (6-foot and 191 pounds), the other safety, is solid against tight ends but his lack of size can lead to him getting boxed out or overpowered at the top of routes. I’d expect defensive coordinator Patrick Graham to lean on a ton of zone coverage to help slow down those tight ends rather than one-on-one battles.
5. How do you predict this game going?
To be honest, I think this one could get ugly fast. The Ravens are the better/more talented team and have a lot working in their favor. Baltimore undoubtedly is looking for vengeance after last week’s loss, has more time to prepare with the mini-bye week, and it’s the home opener. That’s a lot of momentum working in their favor and, again, they have the better roster.
That being said, I do like how the Raiders’ defensive line matches up with the Ravens’ offensive line to maybe keep the scoreboard close early. But Las Vegas’ offense didn’t give me any reason to think the team could pull off the upset with how the unit played in Los Angeles. I’d take the Ravens at -8.5 on FanDuel Sportsbook as they should be able to win by two possessions.