Tag: Maxx Crosby

Can Raiders handle ‘big boy football’ Ravens will bring in Week 2?

The.Ravens will be playing some ‘big boy football’ Sunday. Can the Raiders match it?

Week one against Jim Harbaugh’s Chargers, they struggled on the ground early, but stuck with it until they broke through. You can bet Jon Harbaugh’s Ravens were watching. And they have plenty of ability to wear down a defense on the ground.

Primarily they have Derrick Henry.

King Henry, as he’s called, is the quintessential workhorse back in a league increasingly going away from workhorse backs.

The 6-2, 247-pound bruiser is hard to bring down. And in each of his last five seasons, he has averaged over 21 carries per game. You can expect him to hit that average and then some Sunday in Baltimore. And Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce knows they’re in for it.

“Yeah, big boy football,” Pierce said of facing Henry. “Strap it up, like I said, hardhat mentality. Grab a cup of Advil from Chris [Cortez] in the training room. It’s going to hurt.”

It will take more than strength to keep Henry bottled up. It will take discipline. That’s part of what fell off in the second half last week in Los Angeles.

“Yeah, I mean, 35 plus runs they had in the game, and four of them we fit up wrong,” Pierce said, referring to the four big runs the Chargers broke off in the game. “I mean, do your job each and every play, right? If you’re a second level linebacker, fit the gap accordingly. If you’re D-lineman, no jumping around playing peekaboo. It’s critical. And then I think our team really understood that because late in the game you’re down and your guys are trying to make plays, you can’t do that. Team defense, those are the good teams that play in the month of January, February, and that’s what we’re striving to do.”

Run defense was a concern coming into the season. Which is a bit surprising considering the addition of Christian Wilkins to go along with Maxx Crosby — both of whom are outstanding against the Run — and with Robert Spillane behind them.

It is not Crosby, Wilkins, and Spillane the Raiders may have to worry about. Because those three were doing their jobs last Sunday for the most part. While some of their teammates were not.

But as Pierce said, it only takes one mistake. Hell, with Henry, you could do most everything right, and he might still make a highlight out of you. It’s how he’s averaged nearly a touchdown per game over the past six years. You read that right. In 84 starts since 2019, he has 80 touchdowns! That’s just absurd.

Oh, and when Henry isn’t running through guys, Lamar Jackson will run past them or throw over them. This defense better find its run defense, and figure out how to play ‘big boy football’ or this could be a long day in Baltimore.

Chargers rookie Joe Alt shuts down Maxx Crosby in big time debut

Joe Alt was as good as advertised in his first NFL start.

There were some concerns from fans and the media when Jim Harbaugh and the Los Angeles Chargers opted to take former Notre Dame offensive tackle Joe Alt over one of the many top-tier receivers in the 2024 NFL Draft. After Alt’s debut against the Las Vegas Raiders, however, it’s clear Harbaugh and the Bolts had the right idea in mind taking one of the cleanest players in the entire draft class.

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You couldn’t have drawn a much tougher opening matchup for a rookie than the one he faced on Sunday when teeing off against both Maxx Crosby and Christian Wilkins, two of the best defensive lineman in the entire league. Alt was trusted to give it a go and passed his test with flying colors as he gave up zero sacks and one pressure on the afternoon.

While Alt did have some moments where he was beat in the running game by Wilkins, it was mostly Alt who took away the wins on the day. This was a fantastic performance by a rookie who looked every bit like the elite prospect he was touted as. With Rashawn Slater on the other side of the offensive line, the Chargers may end up with the best tackle duo in the entire league.

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Ballers for Raiders Week 1 loss to Chargers

Ballers for Raiders Week 1 loss to Chargers

Even in a tough loss like this, the plain truth is not everyone was bad. In fact, through three quarters, the Raiders had a lot going for them and it was still a two-point game. That doesn’t happen by accident.

So, before we get into how it all fell apart, let’s give credit to those who kept the Raiders in this game through three quarters.

Ballers

DE Maxx Crosby

While the Chargers are pumping their chests at how well their rookie tackle held up against Crosby, he still was a major factor in this game. The Chargers started the game with a three-and-out. And the final two plays featured a Maxx Crosby tackle for loss and a sack off a stunt. So much for Alt deleting Crosby.

He ended another drive in the second quarter with a QB hit on third down to send the two teams into the locker room with a 7-6 Raiders lead.

The Chargers went on a long drive early in the third quarter. but it also featured two Crosby run stuffs and ended with a Crosby pressure for an incompletion, so the Chargers settled for a field goal.

He finished with a sack, three QB hits, and five tackles, one for a loss.

LB Robert Spillane

Spillane led the team with ten combined tackles (seven solo). Two of those tackles ended drives. On one possession in the second quarter, he made the tackle on all three downs including a tackle for loss. He started out a three-and-out in the third quarter with a tackle as well.

CB Jakorian Bennett

He stayed in Quentin Johnston’s hip pocket up deep up the left sideline to knock the ball away and end the Chargers’ second possession with a three-and-out. He didn’t give up a catch all day after that either.

RB Alexander Mattison

After a couple of drives with Zamir White going nowhere, the Raiders put in Mattison. And he had the highlight reel play of the game for them. Mattison caught a pass in the right flat and looked to be stopped, but he evaded one tackler and hurdled Asante Samuel Jr without breaking stride and took it 31 yards to the house. He finished with nine touches for 62 yards and a TD.

DT Christian Wilkins

With the way the Chargers were able to break through on the ground in the second half, it may be hard to remember the Raiders had them hemmed up before that. Wilkins led the way in that department with three run stuffs. He finished second on the team with six combined tackles (five solo).

P AJ Cole

His first punt went 57 yards and was fair caught at the 13. His second punt went 52 yards and was also fair caught. His pooch punt in the fourth quarter was fair caught at the eight. He finished averaging 53 yards per punt with three stopped inside the 20 and one touchback.

T Thayer Munford

While Kolton Miller was having all kinds of issues on the left side, Munford held his own on the right side. Not giving up any sacks or run stuffs.

Honorable Mention

WR Davante Adams — Led the team with 59 yards on five catches. His two catches for 29 yards on the Raiders third drive both came on third down to set up the team’s only touchdown of the game.

CB Nate Hobbs — Chased down two long runs to keep it from being a touchdown. The first one ended in a field goal.

Continue to the Busters…

Chargers rookie OT Joe Alt aces first test

Joe Alt was a wall against the Raiders.

Joe Alt couldn’t have asked for a more challenging test in his NFL regular season debut, as he was tasked with going up against Maxx Crosby. But the rookie offensive tackle aced it.

According to Next Gen Stats, Alt allowed zero quarterback pressures in 11 pass-block snaps against Crosby. If that stat wasn’t already eyebrow-raising, Crosby had not been held to zero pressures against an offensive lineman since Week 9 of the 2022 season.

On the day, Alt allowed three pressures across his 28 total pass-block snaps.

Alt was a wall in pass protection with active feet, athletic posture, strong anchor and nice balance throughout each repetition.

Coaches and players heaped high praise on Alt after the game.

“Joe Alt, he played really good,” Jim Harbaugh said. “Super happy for Joe.”

Justin Herbert added: “He’s a true ball player out there.”

Alt’s performance was even more impressive because he has only been playing right tackle for five months. The former Notre Dame product was a left tackle in college but was drafted to play opposite Rashawn Slater.

“Super proud of him. I’ve always known from the very beginning he was going to be dominant,” Slater said about Alt. “I have no doubt he dominated today. I haven’t even looked at the film, but I just know he did. Sky is the limit.”

Raiders DE Tyree Wilson suffered sprained knee in opener, could miss some time

Tyree Wilson could miss some time with his knee injury.

The hopes that Tyree Wilson might step up entering his second season took a hit Sunday. The 2023 seventh overall pick lasted just six snaps in the team’s season opener against the Chargers before leaving with a knee injury and not returning.

Following the game, he was sporting a brace on his right knee and walked gingerly with the brace trying to ensure minimal movement of the knee.

Monday morning brought the prognosis. He has a sprained knee. This means it’s not expected to be a long term injury, but how long he will be missing is not yet known.

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The team had hoped Wilson would step up and help fill the void left by the loss of Malcolm Koonce to a knee injury this past week that landed him on injured reserve.

Instead it was Charles Snowden, who was just signed off the practice squad, who led the way along with Janarius Robinson. Maxx Crosby, of course, played every snap at the other defensive end spot.

“It got thin real quick,” Pierce said of the defensive end depth. “Telesco’s working on that as we speak.”

Chargers WR Joshua Palmer sounds off on fight that led to ejection

Joshua Palmer said that he thought Raiders defenders were getting frustrated by the physicality of the receivers’ blocking.

Joshua Palmer and Jack Jones were ejected late in the fourth quarter of the Chargers’ win over the Raiders on Sunday.

Multiple players got into a fight following a two-point conversion attempt with 3:40 remaining in the fourth quarter, Palmer and Jones being the notable players involved.

Ladd McConkey was blocking Epps, and Palmer went to help. The two got into a fight in the back of the end zone. While attempting to break them up, other fights ensued, including between Quentin Johnston and Maxx Crosby.

After the game, Palmer told ESPN’s Kris Rhim and other reporters that he “got punched a lot,” including once by Jones earlier in the contest.

“They came and started throwing punches, but we’re not going to be punching bags,” Palmer said. “So we had to defend ourselves.”

Palmer said that he thought Raiders defenders were getting frustrated by the physicality of the receivers’ blocking.

“It’s not personal. There’s no bad blood,” Palmer added. “UFC guys beat up each other for a living, then they go back and shake hands. Especially in football, it’s nothing like that. But it’s not personal at all. We just do our job as hard as we can. We’re not trying to hurt anybody”

Jim Harbaugh said the team didn’t talk about the fight after the game.

“Just trying to get our guys back, get ’em separated, keep the rest of the guys coming,” Harbaugh said. “I just tried to break it up.”

Maxx Crosby laments Raiders ‘leaky’ run defense in loss to Chargers

Maxx Crosby laments Raiders ‘leaky’ run defense in loss to Chargers

At the half the Chargers had 26 yards on the ground. But as the second half went along, the cracks started to show and eventually the dam broke.

Maxx Crosby was a major force in the Raiders defense holding the Chargers down early and keeping it a one-point game at the half. His disappointment in the team’s inability to keep it going for 60 minutes was palpable.

“It’s a game of inches and a game of details and we weren’t detailed enough for four quarters,” said Crosby. “We did some good things, but there’s a couple runs where it’s on us. At end of the day it’s about block destruction, getting off blocks and finishing plays and we just let things get a little leaky at the end and that’s not what we’re about, so we got to fix it moving forward.”

Crosby referred to a couple runs in particular that bit the Raiders in the second half. The two runs he is referring to are almost certainly the 12-yard TD run by JK Dobbins to begin the fourth quarter and the 61-yard Dobbins run to set of the game clinching touchdown late in the fourth.

The 12-yard run went inside the right tackle and it was Divine Deablo who  blew the gap, blitzing too early and ending up on the edge along with Crosby, leaving a good sized hole for Dobbins to run for the end zone.

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The 61-yard run once again saw Dobbins choose the gap where Diablo was not. This time Diablo went inside the guard and Dobbins bounced to inside the tackle and was gone for 61yards before Nate Hobbs could chase him down.

Three plays later they were in the end zone and the game was, for all intents and purposes, over.

Everything to know from Chargers’ win over Raiders in season opener

Here’s our recap of the Chargers’ 22-10 win over the Raiders.

The Chargers kicked off the Jim Harbaugh era in the win column, defeating the Raiders by the score of 22-10.

Here’s our recap of the Bolts’ victory in the season opener.

It was over when…

Ladd McConkey found the end zone to put the Chargers up two scores with less than four minutes remaining in the game.

Highlight of the game

The Chargers’ first touchdown of the season

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Notable number

Jim Harbaugh improved to 5-0 as a head coach in season openers.

3 stars of the game

  1. RB J.K. Dobbins: After battling injuries throughout his NFL career, Dobbins dispelled those concerns with a monstrous performance in his first game as a Charger. He finished the game with 135 yards and a touchdown on ten carries, with long runs of 46 and 61 yards.
  2. EDGE Joey Bosa: Bosa’s past two seasons were shortened by injuries. But as we know, he is a force to be reckoned with when he’s on the field. And that he was, as Bosa made a few high-effort plays, including a forced fumble and a sack.
  3. EDGE Khalil Mack: Mack had a career year in 2023, and the veteran picked up where he left off. He amassed two sacks, a fumble recovery and a pass deflection that led to an interception by Poona Ford that sealed the game.

Quick hits

  • The offense experienced growing pains in the first half of the game. They failed to surpass 100 yards of total offense, averaging just 3.6 yards per play. Five penalties were committed. J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards combined for 12 rushing yards on eight carries. The offensive line wasn’t gelling. Wide receivers weren’t getting open.
  • In the second half, things changed as the unit started to find a rhythm. The offensive line improved in pass protection and run blocking, eventually leading to their success on the ground. The Chargers finished with 158 rushing yards in the final two quarters.
  • The lack of talent in the wide receiver room was evident as players struggled to separate. McConkey led the group with five catches for 39 yards and his first NFL touchdown. Quentin Johnston showed some juice after the catch but had a dropped pass. Joshua Palmer only had two receptions for 15 yards. Palmer was eventually ejected after getting into a scuffle with Marcus Epps.
  • The offense only converted on third down four times on 15 attempts.
  • Justin Herbert finished the game 17-of-26 passing for 144 yards and a touchdown. Herbert was sacked just once.
  • Jesse Minter’s defense was tremendous. His group forced three turnovers and had four sacks. They also limited the Raiders to 3.2 yards per carry. The interior defensive line owned the line of scrimmage, the pass rush consistently got to Gardner Minshew, and defenders rallied to the football and made plays in the open field.
  • Cameron Dicker made all three field-goal attempts, with a long of 53 yards.
  • JK Scott did not have his best day. On seven punts, Scott only got one inside the Raiders’ 20-yard line and two went for touchbacks.

What’s next?

The Chargers are on the road to take on the Panthers (0-1) next Sunday, Sept. 15, at 10:00 a.m. PT.

Behind Enemy Lines: Previewing Week 1 with Raiders Wire

Answers to a few burning questions about the Raiders ahead of their matchup with the Chargers.

The Los Angeles Chargers and Las Vegas Raiders are about to duke it out in a divisional showdown on Sunday afternoon.

Before the matchup, Raiders Wire managing editor Levi Damien spoke with us about Los Angeles’ opponent.

What did Tom Telesco do to improve the roster this offseason?

Biggest move was to sign Chrisitan Wilkins. Upgrading the interior defensive line was a top priority. Gardner Minshew isn’t going to blow the doors off anything, but he is an upgrade over Aidan O’Connell, albeit a slight one. Not the franchise QB they needed, but it’s something.

What can we expect from Gardner Minshew, the journeyman?

He will matriculate the ball down the field and should do well utilizing the two tight end sets the Raiders plan to deploy a good portion of the time. He will also create some plays with his legs. That’s something you just don’t get from Aidan O’Connell. Mostly Minshew is the type of quarterback who may not win a lot of games for you, but he also won’t lose them for you. And with the defense being the strength of this team, that could be all the Raiders want from him.

What area/position of the Raiders could determine the outcome of this game?

If the Raiders win, it would be on the strength of their pass rush. Both getting to Justin Herbert for sacks and helping set up their opportunistic secondary to get turnovers out of it. And that task just became considerably more difficult with the loss of Malcolm Koonce to a knee injury. The Raiders will be asking backups Tyree Wilson and Janarius Robinson to step up and fill the void at EDGE opposite Maxx Crosby. If they lose, it will most likely be because they can’t sustain and finish enough drives on offense.

Who is an under-the-radar Raider that Chargers fans should know about?

Tre Tucker has really come up as a receiver. He had Lasik eye surgery in the offseason and it has made a new player out of him. The difference is striking. From a player who didn’t track passes well, and didn’t look like a natural hands catcher, to making several incredible catches in preseason I had never seen him make as a rookie last season. For some perspective, he was drafted for his 4.2 speed. Now he’s got hands to go with it. Watch out for him.

What’s your prediction for the game?

I have the Chargers winning this one. The honeymoon period is in full swing with Harbaugh and his team, especially his young QB. Herbert is elite and Harbaugh won’t squander it. They will play like believers while Harbaugh will break out some things the Raiders won’t see coming.

3 Key matchups for Raiders in season opener vs Chargers

Keep an eye on these matchups as they could be the key to who wins this game.

With most season openers, there’s a lot of mystery. Each season brings new breakout players and new challenges. While some players just remain a force to be reckoned with.

Both teams have players who fall into the category of dominance. And in some cases, those players will be going up against players who still have something to prove. Those matchups could be the deciding factor in Sunday’s season opener in Los Angeles between the Raiders and Chargers.

DE Maxx Crosby vs T Joe Alt

Alt is the Chargers’ top rookie this year. They selected him with the fifth overall pick in April’s draft. And right away he will have one of the toughest assignments in the NFL — containing Maxx Crosby.

The Raiders will need Crosby to win that battle, especially with Malcolm Koonce out with a knee injury. This defense lives and dies by its ability to get to the quarterback, so this matchup is a big one.

DT John Jenkins vs RB Gus Edwards/JK Dobbins

The Chargers figure to run the ball a lot under Greg Roman. They haven’t named a single starter at running back, so either it’s a mystery or a true dual role. In either case, the man who will played the most outsized role in trying to contain the run will be Jenkins.

Jenkins is the team’s nose tackle. Stopping the run is his primary job. Whether he makes the actual tackle on a given play is not the most important detail. His job will be to be in his gap and not get overpowered to either make the stop or force whoever is running the ball to re-direct somewhere else.

T Thayer Munford vs DE Khalil Mack

Munford will face the former Raiders All Pro edge rusher the majority of the time in his debut as Raiders starter. Mack absolutely demolished the Raiders in their first matchup last season. He lit up former RT Jermaine Eluemunor and got Kolton Miller a couple times as well to put up SIX (6) sacks against them.

Mack has had some of his best games against the team that drafted him and then opted to trade him rather than give him a new contract. He will be rearing to go for this one and facing a new starter in Munford who has a lot to prove to keep his job.

Other matchups to watch:

TE Brock Bowers vs S Derwin James

WR Davante Adams vs Asante Samuel Jr