Patrick Graham’s Blueprint for Fortifying the Raiders’ Defense Ahead of the Broncos Challenge. DH
The Las Vegas Raiders’ defense must perform well for them to have a chance of beating the Denver Broncos.
The Las Vegas Raiders will face the Denver Broncos for the second time in four weeks. They hope to avoid a repeat of their narrow loss a few weeks ago. Las Vegas’ defense played well, and will need a repeat performance for the Raiders to have a chance to win.
Rematch on the Horizon
Heading into their Week 10 matchup, the Broncos averaged nearly 30 points per game. Graham’s defense had arguably their best game of the season, holding the Broncos to only 10 points, while forcing two turnovers. The Raiders defense looks to bounce back from a shaky performance.
The Raiders held Bo Nix to 150 passing yards, and the Broncos only ran for 84 yards. Both teams were playing on a short week last time, which will make it difficult to draw much from the game. Still, Raiders Defensive Coordinator Patrick Graham noted there is familiarity between both teams.
“Each week, you start over, but definitely, because it’s such a short period of time since we played them. So, familiarity with the first, whatever many games, eight or nine games, and then getting caught up in the last few, plus our game,” Graham said.
“So, it helps a little bit, especially when you’re going back on certain situations, like backed up when you’re doing the whole season, red area when you’re doing the whole season. You have some familiarity with this, so you’re not starting over with like 50 plays that you’ve got to look at. So, definitely helps.”
The Raiders played a solid game when the two teams faced off on Thursday Night Football. Graham expects another challenging battle this time around.
“I think they knew the plan on a short week. I think I spoke about that when we spoke after that, they knew the plan. They were aware of how Coach [Sean] Payton moves around their people; I mean, he’s the best in the business at using his people in their roles. The guys understood that. And I think situationally, we had some really good awareness, situationally,” Graham said.
“Whether it was first and 10, P and 10, the get back on track situations, the red area, we had some awareness there. So, those are all positives. And I’m trying to think back to the tackling numbers. Usually when we play good defense it’s because we tackled better. So, I’m sure, I think the tackling was much improved there, too.”
