No defense for Raiders as playoff hopes suffer major setback
The Raiders’ playoff hopes did not officially crash and burn in a 44-27 loss to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium. With three games to play, including Thursday’s quick turnaround against the Los Angeles Chargers, they are still mathematically alive.
But if the Raiders are to make the playoffs, they can’t afford another loss.
Given the manner in which the 9-4 Colts pushed around the 7-6 Raiders’ defense and the complete lack of response, both tactically and physically, that seems to be a tall order.
In need of immediate answers to the season-long defensive woes, the Raiders fired defensive coordinator Paul Guenther shortly after the loss and replaced him on an interim basis with Rod Marinelli, the Raiders’ defensive line coach and long-time assistant and friend of head coach Jon Gruden.
Beyond taking the drastic measure of firing a coach this late in the season, it begs a question the Raiders have no real answer for at the moment.
Fourteen weeks into a season in which opposing offenses have done pretty much whatever they want, what hope can there be that anything tangible will change for the defense over the next three weeks?
“We’re running out of time,” Gruden said. “We’re running out of players.”
Facing a must-win situation on Sunday, with the sense of urgency as high as it has been all year against a team directly in front of them in the playoff standings, the defense delivered another unacceptable performance, surrendering 456 yards and allowing the Colts to score on seven of their eight possessions.
The latest defensive collapse calls into question everything from the way this unit has been built to how many more offseasons must come and go before the Raiders get it right on that side of the ball?
And it cost Guenther his job.
Of more pressing concern, what can Marinelli do over the next three weeks to alter the trajectory of a defense that seems incapable of complementing a playoff-worthy offense and quarterback?
“As players, we have to be better,” said Raiders linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski. “We have to take this game, learn from it, and move on.”
It is a response the Raiders have redundantly uttered all season.
It has created a situation for which quarterback Derek Carr and the offense essentially have to play perfect football to give the Raiders any chance to win. Anything less creates the kind of doomsday scenario that unfolded against the Colts.
In spite of Carr imploring his teammates this week by declaring the last four games of the season a “single-elimination” proposition, the Raiders were unable to raise their level of defense.
In fact, it was just more of the same. The issues and weaknesses that have sabotaged the Raiders all season were all there again.
It left Carr, who completed 31 of 45 passes for 316 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, to contemplate not being able to do enough to overcome the season-long issues of his defense.
Carr and the offense kept the Colts within arms’ reach for much of the game, even taking a 14-10 lead at one point. But every time the Raiders closed to within three or seven points, the Colts answered with long drives for touchdowns or field goals to regain control.
“My job is to take care of the football. My job is to move the team down the field and score touchdowns, and I didn’t do that good enough today,” Carr said.
After pausing, almost as if he was searching for the right words, Carr simply said: “Yeah, it is what it is.”
In need of a pass rush to make life difficult for mistake-prone Colts quarterback Philip Rivers, the Raiders never got a hand on him. He sat tall and safe in the pocket and picked them apart on 19 of 28 passes for 244 yards and two touchdowns.
After talking about the importance of cleaning up a run defense that surrendered 206 yards to the hapless New York Jets seven days ago, the Raiders somehow managed to play even worse, surrendering 212 yards on 31 carries for a whopping 6.8 yards per carry average.
The blame game spared no one.
The Raiders’ defensive line consistently got blown off the line of scrimmage. Poor run fits on the second level left gaping holes for Colts runners to gallop through. And a series of poor pursuit angles and shoddy tackling turned manageable five-yard gains into game-altering big plays.
“We got stuck on some blocks. We miss-fit some runs,” Gruden said. “And we paid for it big time.”
Like the 62-yard touchdown run by Johnathan Taylor, as part of his 150-yard, two-touchdown performance, to put the Colts up 27-17 in the third quarter.
On it, defensive linemen Maxx Crosby and Maurice Hurst both got bully blocked to create the initial hole and then poor angles by the secondary allowed Taylor to run unabated to the end zone.
Or the 31-yard, fourth-quarter run by Nyheim Hines that set up Taylor’s 3-yard touchdown run to push the lead to 34-20.
Couple that with cornerback Damon Arnette and safety Jeff Heath being sidelined because of concussions and defensive end Cle Ferrell leaving Sunday’s game with a shoulder injury, and the result is a dire situation that needs immediate attention.
Meanwhile, the Raiders are grasping for solutions. Part of which includes moving on from Guenther.
“We had no answer today,” Gruden said. “And we better find some answers. As soon as I’m done here, we’ll start searching.”
Contact Vincent Bonsignore at vbonsignore@reviewjournal.com. Follow @VinnyBonsignore on Twitter.