When you’re having a season like the Raiders are, you have to look for positive growth and development on both sides of the ball. While the team will address gaps in talent during the offseason, we look inside of the Pro Football Focus numbers for some glimpses of hope.
As we do each week, we take a look inside the numbers of this week’s game thanks for the data heads over at Pro Football Focus. There were some positives coming out of the second Chargers loss of the season including some progress on defense. And still, the offense struggles including quarterback Derek Carr. Here’s a look inside the numbers:
Defense Gets Defensive
While it is true the Raiders have a long way to go to become even a middle-of-the-road NFL defense, we did see some nice performances against Los Angeles. Those include some by veterans and also by the youngsters Oakland has on its roster.
One of the bright spots amongst the younger players on defense was the play of Nicholas Morrow. Morrow showed some flashes last season (who can forget the 2017 Tennessee game and his performance?) but hadn’t seen the field much until recent roster moves by the club. Against the Chargers, Morrow played a season-high 36 snaps and made four tackles against the run, according to PFF. Morrow missed zero tackles against the run in 16 run defense snaps, according to the site. Morrow also helped with the non-existent Raiders pass rush finishing the day with two pressures on three blitz attempts as well. Morrow is a guy who could benefit from more playing time as the Raiders march toward a busy offseason.
A veteran on defense who showed up in a big way against the Chargers was safety Marcus Gilchrist. Gilchrist garnered a team-high 86.8 game grade from PFF, ranking him second amongst safeties in the NFL for Week 10 through the end of Sunday’s games. In a nice bit of playing time against LA, Gilchrist was targeted twice in coverage allowing one Chargers reception for four yards and one interception to boot. According to PFF, Gilchrist’s 89.8 coverage grade is also second in the league for the week.
Offense Still Searching
Derek Carr continues to struggle for a multitude of reasons. (Photo: Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
When we look into the numbers for Week 10 for the Raiders offense, there’s just no way to sugarcoat some of the trouble the unit continues to have. Much of that trouble is still plaguing the beleaguered and injured offensive line and rookie Kolton Miller.
Miller, who has shown determined grit playing through multiple injuries, again gave up one sack and a total of eight pressures in 43 pass-block snaps, according to PFF. Even more damning: through 10 weeks, Miller has given up “the most sacks (10) and the second-most total pressures (39) of any NFL offensive lineman,” per PFF. Fans and observers alike would love to see Miller sit to get healthy as no one believes his struggles aren’t directly related to the injuries.
As far a Carr goes, the franchise QB has struggled on multiple fronts behind the patchwork offensive line. As anyone who watched the game can tell you, the offense (sans some nice drives – without scores – in the first half) failed to get anything going vertically. Carr might rank high (4th) with a 55.6% accuracy rate on deep passes, but he’s not throwing them very often. Carr ranks 31st in the NFL having attempted just 8.5% of his passes over 20 yards. Carr doesn’t have much time behind his porous offensive line, but when he does, deep attempts aren’t there right now.