The biggest reason why the Raiders aren’t 1-1 right now is that they couldn’t bring down Kyler Murray once in the fourth quarter or overtime on Sunday. Murray had all day to throw the ball and scored 16 fourth-quarter points against the Raiders.
Through two games, the Raiders have just one sack on defense. That is despite paying a ton of money to Chandler Jones and Maxx Crosby. So the question is simple; when will the Raiders start to rack up sacks?
In a recent article by ESPN, each beat writer was tasked with writing about the biggest early-season surprise for their team. For the Raiders, it was the lack of sacks. Here is what senior writer Paul Gutierrez had to say about that issue going forward:
“The Mirage is not merely a mega resort on the famed Las Vegas Strip, it also represents the Raiders’ high-salary bookend edge rushers getting only one sack through two games. Surely Chandler Jones ($52.5 million, three-year free-agent contract) and Maxx Crosby ($99 million extension) will get untracked.
Their respective histories suggest as much, as Jones has 107.5 career sacks and Crosby has averaged almost 8.5 sacks in each of his first three seasons. Like the dormant volcano at the Mirage, the Raiders’ pass rush will soon erupt because, as everyone knows, sacks come in bunches. Right?”
The Raiders will face one of the league’s worst offensive lines on Sunday as the Titans will be without Taylor Lewan at left tackle. If they can’t record multiple sacks against Ryan Tannehill in that matchup, it’s time to start getting worried about their lack of pass rush.