Oakland Raiders: 5 keys to victory vs. New York Jets
By John Buhler
Continue strong third-down defense
It has been a huge part of the Raiders starting to turn around its defense. Assistant head coach John Pagano has made a point to see Oakland’s secondary and defense overall play with great passion on third down.
The Raiders are making more plays than they are not on third-down defense. We saw it at times in the preseason and very much so in Week 1 against the Titans. Allowing Jets quarterback Josh McCown to extend drives with great passing on third down isn’t what the Raiders want.
The more three-and-outs the Raiders defense can force, the better. It will keep the team fresher as the game wears on. Oakland will be able to bring the heat with the pass rush in the second half with the crowd pumped up for the game. By having the offense on the field more often, it will wear down the Jets defense enough to hopefully make this a rout in Oakland’s favor.
Winning on third down will swing time of possession heavily into the Raiders’ favor. Though we like what we’ve seen out of the defense so far, we aren’t at this point of the season where we’ll want to see it out on the field more than it needs to be. Just let the Oakland offense go to work and we’ll all be fine.