Las Vegas Raiders 2020 recap: 4 things we learned in September
By BD Williams
Las Vegas Raiders 2020 recap: 4 things we learned in September
Raiders worst defensive playcall is the blitz
This news will produce groans from around Raider Nation, pleading with Paul Guenther to send more pressure after quarterback. But the fact of the matter is, its easily the Raiders worst defensive call through 3 weeks.
From my own charting this is how the Raiders defense breaks down vs Run/Pass. Safe to say why Guenther doesn't blitz as much as the fans would like. pic.twitter.com/g779TTqgEp
— BD Williams (@BDWilliams18) September 29, 2020
Raiders are in the bottom 1/4 of NFL teams in terms of the frequency of blitzes per Next Gen Stats. The fact that they’ve given up 9.11 yards per attempt on all dropback pass attempts (not even counting screens and QB scrambles), is a clear indicator why Paul Guenther tends towards the more conservative approach.
Guenther’s predominately uses a single high man coverage when blitzing, and this coverage is especially susceptible to intermediate, over the middle passes. In standard single-high coverage, there will usually be a defender in the shallow zone in the middle of the field.
But when a blitz is called, that man is now rushing the quarterback.
For this reason, it seams like the Raiders defense continually gets beat over the middle when blitzing. Paul Guenther will need to adjust his coverage package going forward when the defense is in need of extra pressure on the quarterback.