Is Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham getting a pass amid the struggles because so much attention is on the now-fired Luke Getsy?
It’s easy to forget that the Silver and Black are struggling in all phases up to this point in the season. Unfortunately for Getsy, the offense was at the center of it all—hence, why he’s been fired. The team struggled to establish the run, the quarterback play was subpar, and the offensive line underwent significant regression. You could argue the only real bright spots on offense have been two of its rookies: Brock Bowers and Jackson Powers-Johnson.
However, it’s fair to wonder if Graham is receiving his share of the criticism or not. From an objective perspective, the situation is not favorable. The Raiders have surrendered 154 points during this five-game losing streak, and they have also given up 619 rushing yards during this run. Overall, it’s an ugly display that screams “mediocre.”
We even took to Twitter/X to ask our readers to weigh in on the matter. Surprisingly, many seem in favor of keeping Graham around despite the disaster that has been the 2024 campaign.
Factors working against the Raiders defense…
Statistically speaking, the numbers are favoring Graham at this moment. The Raiders defense ranks near the bottom across the board in numerous important categories, which include points given up, touchdowns surrendered, and opposing completion percentage. However, we cannot criticize Graham without acknowledging that injuries have plagued the defense as a whole. Losing Malcolm Koonce and Christian Wilkins was crushing, and if we’re honest, it’s likely that the defense couldn’t overcome these losses as the season progressed.
When you combine all of that with the offense’s inability to score enough points, the outcome becomes inevitable. Head coach Antonio Pierce himself stated as much this week: It’s hard to win when you’re giving up that many points.
“Yeah, no listen, that was disappointing, the last couple weeks. I think last five weeks we’ve given up 30+ points three out of the last five, that’s not to our standard. These guys are fighting their tails off, issues now showing up a little in the red zone. We were pretty good in red zone, good on third down, those have now been a little bit of a nemesis to us, and I think we’ve got to fix those things up.”
Pierce also added that the bye week will provide a chance to go back to “the drawing boards.” Considering that the Raiders are now nine games in, a hard reset wasn’t exactly what we all had in mind when Pierce talked all offseason about “ill intent, physicality, and pain.” Well, the latter has been true for Raider Nation—lots of pain. It will be interesting to see how the defense performs in the remaining games. With Getsy gone, defensive struggles will take center stage, and both Graham and Pierce will have to answer for it.
