Week 3 Game Thread: Oakland Raiders

Not excusing Woodley’s performance, but on a pure numbers standpoint, 2 sacks in 3 games isn’t terrible. It’s that he’s our only source of pressure that’s the issue. If Hood isn’t occupying the the guard and tackle, Woodley has to beat a tackle on every rush, and usually a back/TE with Harrison out.

I don’t know what the next step in re-building a defense would be. We’ve drafted defensive linemen in 2 of the last 4 drafts. Obviously Hood hasn’t developed to the degree of a Calais Campbell, but clearly the front office saw it as a future need. It’s difficult to blame coaching too when John Mitchell has been notorious for developing late rounders into excellent contributors.

Yeah, it almost felt like a waste to have Ben’s performance in a loss. The raiders d is obviously bad, but Ben’s performances this year have been mostly sensational. He and Miller were the only ones you can really point at as good performances, which isn’t good enough.

We might just be more average than in years past. Hopefully we’ll see LeBeau come out of the bye with a better plan for zone blocking schemes. I remember Hoke having some success penetrating between blocks instead of just occupying them last year. This (theoretically) should be something Ziggy would be good at.

Can someone who has a keener eye for line play tell me how the line’s done at occupying double teams so far? Seems to be plenty of free offensive lineman picking up blitzers or getting to the second level. Players like Timmons don’t look great, but taking on guards every play isn’t really his game.