Saints defense struggled in familiar areas in first half vs. Raiders

Poor tackling and big plays allowed plagued the New Orleans Saints defense in the first half versus the Raiders. That sounds familiar:

The Las Vegas Raiders started the game off hot offensively. On their first possession of the game, the Raiders held the ball for over nine minutes. A booth review took a potential touchdown off the board, and the New Orleans Saints stalled the drive at the one yard line.

New Orleans was able to keep the Raiders out of end zone until the end of the half, but Las Vegas still scored on three of their four possessions. New Orleans allowed big plays to fuel Las Vegas’ offense.

Typical issues such as tackling continued to appear. Ameer Abdullah is already at 71 rushing yards, which is the most he’s ran for in a game this year. The mixture of poor tackling and explosive plays were the biggest detriment to the defense in the first 30 minutes.

The Saints enter halftime only down 3 points. A big reason for that was the ability to stop the Raiders on the initial possession. If Las Vegas scores a touchdown there, it’s a different game.

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