The Oakland Raiders made a goal to be more active on defense and they succeed. In the team's opening game against the Indianapolis Colts, the Raiders young defense sacked Andrew Luck four times while placing six hits on him along with 10 hurries. The new blitz package has every player on the defense involved and it is working.
A brief glance at the boxscore from Sunday and it is easy to see why Luck struggled so much. Three linebackers and four members of the secondary all got tallies in the sack column. That type of blitzing package will be a headache for the Jacksonville Jaguars as the team will likely continue sending player up from every angle against their struggling quarterback.
Head coach Dennis Allen and defensive coordinator Jason Tarver put together a plan that got Oakland their first four-sack game since last Dec. against Kansas City. They finished the season ranked 31st in the league with just 25 sacks total on the season. However, that could all change this year as players like Tyvon Branch and Tracy Porter show a willingness to rush the quarterback instead of dropping back in the secondary.
"It makes it a difficult on the quarterback if we do a good job of disguising our coverage because he won't know which one of us is coming at a given point in time," Porter said via CSNBayArea.com The safety recorded his first sack since 2008 when he was with the New Orleans Saints. Allen hopes that the defense continues to remain unpredictable in hopes of eliminating the big plays.
"We try and be as simple as we can on ourselves, but bring some different looks, bring some different people -- make them have to account for everybody," Allen said. "We'll do as much as our guys can handle, and if we can execute those things, then it's to our advantage."
Allen remains hopeful that a creative defense does not lend itself to mistakes. In practice, the Raiders are stressing fundamentals while working slightly outside the box on designed packages. If the Raiders can keep up with the blitzing while also work on creating turnovers, their young unit could turn some heads throughout the season.
