Oakland Raiders Review: Offensive woes continued in Minnesota

The Oakland front seven was too aggressive leading to big plays by the Vikings

The Oakland Raiders are an aggressive defense. They have speed but not a lot of size besides Johnathon Hankins and Maurice Hurst. Of the 28 negative plays I saw in this game, 18 came on defense. Most were on run defense where the offensive line flat out beat the defensive line.

The Vikings run a zone-read running game which is perfect for a running style like Dalvin Cook. Cook is one of the best, if not THE best, at finding cutback lanes and planting his foot and taking off.

The biggest issue on the Raiders defense was watching the Vikings just push defenders out of the way and getting guards and centers in the secondary as the defenders couldn’t get off their blocks. Vontaze and Whitehead were constantly pushed back, and on one play, Kyle Rudolph, who’s an awful run-blocker, stood up Burfict on a 3rd and short play with the lead block.

Riley Reiff took care of Clelin Farrell with ease as he only had two quarterback pressures the whole game. However, on a 2nd a 10 in Vikings territory, the pass-rush executed a blitz perfectly and forced an intentional grounding penalty forcing a punt after a 3rd and 20 incomplete pass.

The secondary continued to get torched and Adam Thielen ran fantastic routes turning defenders hips on his routes and getting open as defenders were tripping all over the place. Kirk Cousins isn’t a good quarterback, but with the running game and the play actions holding the aggressive defense back, and the running back screens, it kept the defense honest.

It just goes to show the power of a great running back can have against an aggressive defense.

There’s no other way to explain the loss other than the Vikings outplayed the Raiders on every level: special teams, defense, and offense. However bad they played, this week, the Raiders come to Indianapolis and play one of my favorite teams in the Colts.