Silver And Black Pride
Was the Week 3 debacle representative of reality? Or was it an aberration?
That’s the looming question the Las Vegas Raiders are going to answer on Sunday.
The debacle last Sunday — a 41-24 defeat at the hands of the Washington Commanders — showcased the Silver & Black’s ugly warts in all three phases of the game. What was Las Vegas strength heading into that matchup — the defense — was instead a liability. And all it took was one game to scuttle impressive rankings.
Patrick Graham’s defense went from fourth against the run in terms of yards allowed and dropped to 18th in the league. This was largely due to the Raiders defensive coordinator’s group getting eviscerated for 201 yards rushing. And 60 yards of that coming on one play alone: Commanders running back Jeremy McNichols breaking away from shoddy tackle attempts to house the ball that distance on a carry. In terms of missed tackles, none are more egregious than this:
Pro Football Focus charting noted 11 missed tackles on the miserable day, however, Pro Football Reference marked 17 — gross.
Two games into the 2025 campaign, the Raiders defense was one of the surest tackling groups in the league with only six missed tackles, according to Pro Football Reference. After Sunday’s shellacking, Las Vegas now has the 10th most missed tackles in the NFL at 23 — a staggering sum when compared to the single digit total the week prior.
The Los Angeles Chargers vaunted defense (ranked fourth in points allowed and eighth in yards yielded), in comparison, is ahead of the Las Vegas in missed tackles with 24.
Heading into Week 4 action, the New York Jets have the most whiffs at 39, according to Pro Football Reference. The Pittsburgh Steelers are next with 34 and the Cincinnati Bengals and Tennessee Titans follow close behind with 31 and 30 missed tackles, respectively. Flip it, and there are three teams in single digits: The Los Angeles Rams only have three whiffs, the Detroit Lions are charted with eight, and the Atlanta Falcons logged with nine.
Thus its back to fundamentals for the Graham, his defense, and the Raiders overall.
“The missed tackles, we clean it up by practicing. I mean, that’s the thing we’ve got to do, just in terms of going back to the fundamentals in terms of tackling. We had some issues early in training camp with it. The guys attacked it, worked it. The coaches attacked it. So, once we had some issues last week, we came back and we said, ‘We’ve got to work on this’ and just got back to fundamentals. That’s one of the best parts about being part of this program with Pete (Carroll); it’s always about consistently returning back to our fundamentals and making sure that we’re nailing that stuff down.”
A return to form tackling and textbook takedowns will go a long way in improving Las Vegas defensive rankings. Especially with Ben Johnson’s Chicago Bears ready for...
