The Oakland Raiders have a defensive coordinator, a head coach and a general manager who’ve played linebacker in the NFL. So it’s mind-boggling that the linebackers were easily the biggest liability on defense for the Raiders in Week 1. Ray Ray Armstrong single-handedly led the Bengals to their first score with two terrible plays where he made the exact same mistake. Malcolm Smith showed why he was a backup in Seattle and Curtis Lofton was just average.
So it’s no wonder that after a 33-14 blowout at the hands of the Bengals that many are pointing the finger at head coach Jack Del Rio and his crew.
But it goes beyond just the linebackers. The Raiders as a team played undisciplined football and look like they need to go back to the basics and re-learn fundamentals.
That’s poor coaching.
They looked unprepared, unmotivated and shockingly flat in front of a sellout home crowd.
That’s poor coaching.
The schemes on both sides of the ball were far too basic and neither coordinator made adjustments.
That’s poor coaching.
Going for it on fourth down, in the first half of a two-score game on your side of the field, by calling a run play directed right at two of the better defensive tackles in the league, is more than just poor coaching. It’s idiotic.
Jack Del Rio needs to pull Ken Norton Jr. and Bill Musgrave aside and make sure they understand how unacceptable this performance was. Both coordinators need to be living in their offices this week as they figure out how to adjust their schemes based on what we saw this past Sunday. Del Rio himself needs to get on top of the players as a whole and make sure they know the effort put forward was unacceptable. That the lack of discipline will not be tolerated and players need to justify their spots or lose playing time.
For the first time in a few years, the problem in the blowout wasn’t due to a significant lack of talent, it was due to a lack of good coaching.
