FanPost

Both losses fall squarely on the Offense

The 'Kill Gruden because he traded Mack' rhetoric isn't going away any time soon, especially around here. We hear the Defense has 'collapsed' in the first 2 games and the lack of Mack has destroyed the pass rush and thats why the Raiders are losing. The problem is it's not really true.

The Defense has played well enough to win both games.

They held the #1 offense to 10 points in the first half in week one and shutout the Donkees completely in the first half of week two.

Everyone knows this Defense is a patchwork of one-year older vets. Most of the starters. We knew that this season was going to live or die by the Offense even before Mack was traded. Gruden and Reggie have a huge amount invested in the Offense and they have not lived up to that investment so far.

Despite the Defense fading in the 4th quarters of both games, and the lack of a pass rush as we would hope to see, they had done their jobs to that point and the Offense simply did not get it done - they have to score to close games out.

The Raiders offense has failed to score a single point in the 4th quarter so far and have only 7 points total in the 2nd half. Because of this, the Defense has been on the field way too much in the 2nd half and the Offense has provided almost zero support. Yes they had some decent drives against Denver but they didn't score to put the game away.

The Defense as its currently built has played pretty well considering and there are good signs everywhere.