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 Sunday’s showdown. Graham can ill-afford another whiff-fest from his defense, lest the group continue to freefall in the rankings and go from a stout defense to the first two games to Swiss cheese in the following two tilts.
Graham and the Raiders must contend with a Bears squad that is similar philosophically and schematically to what offensive coordinator Chip Kelly brings in Las Vegas. Like the Raiders play caller, Johnson prefers to role out his Bears offense in 12 personnel — one running back, two tight ends, and two wide receivers.
“Just how they use them. The first thing that stands out is their willingness to block. I mean, you could argue that those tight ends would be considered U tight ends or move tight ends,” Graham explained on defending Chicago’s 12 personnel. “But you can’t tell when you’re watching the run game in terms of their willingness to block and getting there, cut off defensive ends, block front side versus outside linebackers, that stands out. Then in terms of the passing game, what they’re asking them to do with protection, with the chips, sometimes getting singled with a defensive end and working their asses off to get that done. And then once you get into the passing game, they all have a little bit different flavor to them, but they’re going to threaten you vertically. They could threaten you vertically straight down the seam. They could threaten you vertically by running across the field. So, there’s a lot of challenges. They have a good setup in terms of team speed and skill players in my opinion.”
Sunday’s matchup marks the 18th time the two teams will meet. The Bears hold a 9-8 advantage in the overall series thus far. Chicago is riding a two-game winning streak dating back to October of 2021. The Bears dropped the Raiders 30-12 in October of 2023 and 20-9 in October of 2021. That 2023 defeat was the contest where former head coach Antonio Pierce lamented that his new offensive coordinator hire Luke Getsy, “whooped our ass” when Getsy was the play caller in that 2023 contest. The Raiders last win in the series was a 24-21 victory in October of 2019. That particular contest was one in which the Silver & Black led 17-0 before a furious third-quarter rally by Chicago that saw them score 21 unanswered points.
Quote of Note
“Sure. Yeah, I did watch him a lot, and watched him a lot looking at that job too and had chance to check him out. He’s a very, very special athlete, and he’s got great sense, great awareness about throwing the football and running the football. He’ll be a prolific scrambler by the time we check out his years. He’s really good at it and throws really well on the run too. So, they have a really nice system. You can see it already coming through. Coach Ben (Johnson) is doing a nice job with teaching these guys what believes is important on offense. You can see that there’s a lot of changes, when they were last year, so Caleb (Williams) can do whatever you want him to do. So, he’s a very dangerous player to play against.”
—Las Vegas Raiders head coach Pete Carroll on Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams
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