Allen, Burris Killing the Oakland Raiders

September 14, 2014; Oakland, CA, USA; Houston Texans running back Arian Foster (23) runs with the ball against the Oakland Raiders during the first quarter at O.co Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

The Numbers Match

In an article written by ESPN’s Bill Williamson, according to ESPN stats and information, the Raiders are getting gutted inside. Of the 188 yards the Raiders gave up rushing to the Texans yesterday, 151 of them came in between the tackles. I don’t know what that total number was for the Jets but I know it was too much because 70 came on one play.

This is significant to me because stats can be deceiving at times but this one matches what I see from the Raiders. Good middle linebackers diagnose run plays by reading the blockers then shoot the gap the ball is designed to go in to blow the play up. If they can’t diagnose it right away, they keep their eyes in the backfield as they scrape and shed blockers.

What Burris did in both games is guess wrong and run himself right into a block while the ball carrier goes up the middle. Then he’s stuck in that block while Chris Ivory and Arian Foster in Week 1 and Week 2 respectively break away. At best, he managed to get some tackling stats in Week 1 by peeling back into the secondary to make a tackle for a gain of 10.