On Monday night, the Las Vegas Raiders will be presented with a golden opportunity.
In their first primetime matchup of the season, the Raiders (2-11) will square off against the Atlanta Falcons (6-7) at Allegiant Stadium.
While the Raiders are caught in a nine-game losing streak, the Falcons are coming to Las Vegas in a funk of their own. Losers of four straight and quickly fading out of the postseason picture, the Falcons will be desperate to get a victory and keep their hopes alive. While many Raiders fans are eyeing the first overall pick and who they might get with it, they will still try and will their team to a win in order to get something positive from this season.
“It feels like we’ve been on the road this whole season,” Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce said. “It’s been one of those years, but our fan base has been good, even on the road for us, traveling really well. But it’s good when we play at home and it’s on Monday Night Football, you know they’ll show up and be loud, and Raider Nation, that Black Hole will get rocking and rolling, and we got to do a good job of keeping them in the game.”
If the Raiders plan to take down the Falcons and finally return to the win column, here are three things they must accomplish.
Target the middle
While it is hard to imagine due to their record, the Raiders do hold a significant advantage over the Falcons.
The Falcons have gotten solid defending at points, but the linebackers have been called into question. Athletic Troy Andersen has been plagued by inconsistencies, while starter Nate Landman is more of a run-stuffer than a true three-down linebacker. That is music to the ears of interim offensive coordinator Scott Turner, who boasts arguably the best one-two punch in the NFL at tight end in Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer. Bowers has deserved his flowers during a record-setting rookie campaign, but Mayer seems to have gotten back into the swing of things after putting up a team-leading 68 receiving yards last week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Having two reliable weapons on the inside should mean the Raiders get positive matchups against the Falcons’ linebackers, even if Atlanta decides to bring in secondary help. Regardless of who is starting at quarterback between Aidan O’Connell and Desmond Ridder, either one can have a positive outing if they properly exploit the Falcons defense at its weakest point.
“When a team goes all out to try to take away Brock, big Mike shows up, right?” Pierce said. “And that’s going to be the same thing throughout the season. Twelve personnel (two tight ends) is our best personnel and they’ve got to find ways to match up, and we’ve got to find ways to keep moving Brock around and being creative with him because we’ve got to feed him the ball. Because when we do that, good things happen for the Raiders.”
Slow down the run
While the Raiders have their mismatches to exploit on offense, they will have to take care to avoid falling into the same trap themselves on defense.
The Falcons offense has relied heavily on the run in recent years, and it is hard to argue against such a strategy with the success they have enjoyed on the ground. Bijan Robinson continues to prove himself as one of the best young offensive weapons in the game, piling up 977 yards (seventh-most in the league) and eight rushing touchdowns so far on the year. Meanwhile, Tyler Allgeier has flourished as a punishing downhill runner and change-of-pace back with 508 yards and three touchdowns this season. Together, the two rarely waste a carry with both backs having a successful rushing rate of at least 57 percent, meaning offensive coordinator Zac Robinson can rely on either one to get the Falcons some crucial yards. That should give the Raiders plenty to consider, especially given Maxx Crosby is nursing an ankle injury and defensive tackle Adam Butler sat out of Thursday’s practice with a potential concussion. If both of the Raiders’ top defensive linemen are less than one hundred percent, the rushing threat the Falcons pose will be a serious problem to handle.
“It’s definitely a challenge,” said Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. “You start with, I mean the speed and the combination of size, and I know they’re different, but like there’s definitely a size element to both of them. There’s definitely a speed element, one more than the other. But again, they do such a good job with their scheme in terms of that stretch run game, in terms of the outside zone. Those guys, they’re finding holes, they’re well coached, but the challenge is just trying to get them on the ground.”
See ball, get ball
The Raiders finally got some splash plays on defense with three takeaways against Tampa Bay, and they get a prime opportunity to build off of that performance.
A large part of the Falcons’ recent woes has been the disappointing play of quarterback Kirk Cousins. During Atlanta’s current losing streak, Cousins has thrown for zero touchdowns and eight interceptions, including a disastrous four-interception meltdown in Week 13 against the Los Angeles Chargers. While the Falcons have eighth overall pick Michael Penix Jr. ready to go if the struggles continue, they will start Cousins in the hopes that he can get right against a struggling opponent like the Raiders. There is cause for concern here, as the Falcons certainly have weapons for Cousins to throw to, such as wide receivers Drake London and Darnell Mooney and tight end Kyle Pitts. That said, the Raiders will look to pounce on any mistakes Cousins makes and keep the momentum on defense going.
“I just think guys were hungry for the ball,” said Graham. “We keep talking about it just in terms of the lack of turnovers, not necessarily the lack of attempts, but guys just say, ‘Just stay at it. Stay at it this time of year, and just try to get the ball off them.’ And thankfully, we got some turnover opportunities last week and we took advantage of it, and then try to build off of that this week.”
