Although the Raiders started the season 2-0, they’ve since fallen to 4-5 and Greg Cosell told Gary & Larry Friday afternoon that he believes Oakland’s defense takes a majority blame for their collapse.
“Defense for sure, Larry,” Cosell said. “Look, offensively I think they’ll progress and that happened last year. I thought last year they sort of built up as the season progressed. I remember the Tampa game last year, where Carr threw for around 500, as sort of a turning point game and they started going forward from that point.”
That particular game came in Week 8 of last season in Tampa Bay, when Carr became the second Raider — Elvis Grbac registered 504 yards against the Kansas City Chiefs in 2000 — and 18th member of the NFL’s 500 club with 513 yards against the Buccaneers.
Nonetheless, the Raiders almost lost to the Buccaneers as their defense allowed 14 points in the fourth quarter that sent the game into overtime. In the end, Carr’s fourth touchdown won the game, but Oakland’s defense continues to make things difficult for the Raiders.
“But I think defensively this year has been a huge problem,” Cosell said. “I don’t need numbers to see what’s on tape, but I will tell you that they have the worst passer rating against opposing quarterbacks and that’s on merit. This is not a very good defense and it becomes difficult to play offense when you feel like you’re battling uphill every single week.”
Despite the addition of linebacker NaVorro Bowman, the Raiders are tied with the New York Giants for the least amount of sacks (13) and have zero interceptions. The Raiders are ninth in the league with 611 total tackles, but Cosell believes the Raiders will live or die by their defensive depth.
“To be honest, [Bowman] has played well, but I think the larger issue is in their secondary and I don’t think their secondary has played very well at all,” Cosell said. “I think they’ve struggled at the corner position as the second part of that because we know that pass defense involves two things. It involves pass rush and coverage, and they have to go together. They haven’t been able to rush the quarterback at all this year with the consistency we saw last year.”
To listen to the full interview check out the podcast below, and start from the beginning for Cosell on the Raiders.