It only took one preseason game for a lot of Las Vegas Raiders fans to write off first-year defensive coordinator Rob Leonard. While the gripes about the team's first showing, and their follow-up outing in joint practices were concerning, perhaps fans forgot just how early in the process it still is.
Or how few reps the starters played in the preseason opener. Or how good the Houston Texans are.
But even though the starters weren't out there at all during the second exhibition game against the Texans, the Raiders' defense still looked a lot better, chiefly in terms of their pass rush and run defense. Leonard deserves credit for that, even if most of the players won't factor in come Week 1.
Raiders' defense made two big improvements against Texans
First, let's look at the results from last week's game against the Arizona Cardinals. Las Vegas gave up 156 yards on the ground at a clip of 4.3 yards per carry, and that was dragged down because the fourth-string quarterback tried to extend plays and lost yards. In reality, that number was worse.
The Raiders also missed 13 tackles in that contest, which was abysmal. But things changed quite a bit this past Thursday down in Houston, as the Silver and Black gave up just 78 yards on the ground at a clip of 3.1 yards per carry. And the numbers, honestly, could look better.
Houston played its first-string offense against the Raiders' second-string defense, and that accounted for 37 yards on four carries. Without those rushes included, in a more fair fight, Las Vegas gave up just 41 yards on 21 carries the rest of the contest.
And the missed tackle issue disappeared as well, with the Raiders missing just three in the entire contest. Two of them, in fact, came on a single play, which was when starting Texans running back Woody Marks dashed to the end zone on a 20-yard touchdown run.
From a pass rush perspective, things were way better for Las Vegas as well. Against the Cardinals, the Raiders had just seven pressures and two sacks in the contest, but in this past Thursday's game, Leonard's group had 11 pressures, three sacks and two forced fumbles. Both were recovered.
In just about every way, this Silver and Black defense was much improved against the Texans. And I know that a lot of the players who were on the field for big snap counts in the second preseason game won't factor in to the rotation, but this is a testament to Leonard's coaching.
After seeing a few things be major issues, the Raiders turned it around. And the second-teamers didn't make it easy on the Houston 1s, either. Is there still stuff to clean up? Absolutely. But Las Vegas looked way, way better, top-to-bottom, on Thursday than it did a week ago.
Props to Leonard. Let's hope the unit keeps moving in that direction.
Add us as a preferred source on Google