it’s a weird thing that the Raiders are coming off a win last week and yet this week hasn’t really felt that way. It’s been a week of negative distractions, particularly the Davante Adams trade request.
There is plenty to be concerned about for the Raiders as they head to Denver to face the rival Broncos. Here are the ones that top the list.
Mounting injury list
On Wednesday the Raiders had ten players, including eight starters who missed practice with injury to go along with a couple who are on injured reserve. Thursday, somehow that number of missing players jumped to 11.
That means the Raiders are basically missing HALF of their starting unit. Sure, they were missing many of them last week in the win over the Browns, but does anyone really believe the Browns didn’t do more beating themselves in that game than anything? Namely Deshaun Watson?
This is not the Raiders team that streaked late last season. Like, literally, it’s not the same guys out there. Namely they figure to be without their two star players, Maxx Crosby and Davante Adams. Hell, Adams is basically not even one of their star players anymore. He’s just awaiting which team he will be starring for next.
Denver Pass Rush
The Broncos are the best pass rushing team in the league. They lead the league with a 13.3% sack per dropback average. That means they sack the opposing quarterback once out of every 7-8 pass attempts. That’s insane.
And the Raiders have been particularly prone to being sacked this season. Gardner Minshew has been sacked 13 times this season already. He has been sacked on over 10% of his pass attempts.
And the thing is, for the Broncos, it isn’t just one guy. Or even two guys. They have six different edge rushers on their team with more than one sack.
Self Distraction
This is one distracted team right now. Their star receiver wants out, their star edge rusher missed his first game of his career, their head coach is punishing players for making “business decisions” in games.
The head coach, while preaching not riding the emotional ups and downs, is himself clearly letting both the wins and the losses affect him greatly — and the losses in particular causing him to say things he then must apologize for. All that plus this college recruiting scandal thing that popped up this week? Yeesh.
I mean, come on, Pierce is trying to preach focusing on beating Denver this week, but that would also require focusing on your own team chemistry. Their emotional leader isn’t there, and last week he wasn’t even in the locker room or the sideline. Arguably their best cornerback was benched for a half. And their usually calm, cool star receiver is as good as gone, but not technically, so the questions surrounding his trade request persist.