3 Keys To Victory: Week 2 – Las Vegas Raiders

After last week’s debacle, the Buffalo Bills look to get right back on track against the Las Vegas Raiders at home in Orchard Park. It’s a game they’re slated to win, but there’s plenty of work to be done before we put our first ‘W’ on the schedule. Let’s meet our opposition.

Meet The Rrrrrraiders

The Las Vegas Raiders (1-0) are currently the top team in the AFC West, somehow.

They had a good, consistent passing attack in their season opener, and they countered the opposition with a solid performance from their defense, highlighted by DE Maxx Crosby.

Their injury report is quite clean, much like our own, but with two exceptions. Stud DE Chandler Jones is declared out with a personal designation, as there is some sort of undisclosed issue there. The situation is happening both privately and in the public eye, with reports of wellness checks being sent to Jones’ residence, and conflicting statements of the player losing access to his team’s facilities. It’s interesting, but largely unimportant in terms of the Bills game on Sunday.

The injury that does matter is the one to WR Jakobi Meyers. Vegas’ WR2 hauled in 9 catches for 82 Yards and a pair of TDs last week before suffering a concussion. He’ll certainly be missed by Jimmy Garoppolo, who had no other scoring targets through Week 1.

Star RB Josh Jacobs was looking to ‘knock the rust off’ following his holdout amidst the current failing RB market. He’s back in action, but was subpar in his 19 carries against Denver.

Keys To Victory

With all this information, let’s dive into how we can

Key 1: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Last week, our first Key to Victory was to get pressure on Aaron Rodgers. In Week 2, nothing has changed.

The Las Vegas Raiders offensive line played very well last week against the Denver Broncos. The Raiders did not give up a sack and allowed only a 6.9% pressure rate. Jimmy Garoppolo looked comfortable and unhurried. It’s a good thing too because, when under duress, Jimmy G becomes one of the least effective passers in the NFL.

Over the course of his career, he’s averaged 8.2 Yards Per Attempt (YPA), but the pressure vs. no pressure splits are drastic. Last season, he recorded 8.5 YPA without pressure, but only 1.8 YPA with it, per Aaron Schatz. One of the worse rates in the NFL against pressure makes for an easy point of emphasis this week. Greg Rousseau and Leonard Floyd excelled against the Jets; a similar game on Sunday would make for easy pickings downfield.

The Buffalo Bills secondary played well too last week, but they have their work cut out for them against Vegas’ WR1. With Meyers on the sidelines, they can focus on Davante Adams and force a rushed Garoppolo into throwing to his less-than-ideal targets.

The recipe is simple, and keeping pressure on the QB is something Buffalo are more than capable of this season.

Key 2: Run-Stop, Full-Stop

Week 1 was uninspiring from Josh Jacobs, who averaged only 2.5 yards per carry (YPC) on 19 attempts, but he’s a force to be reckoned with. Coming off a season where he led the NFL in rushing yards with 1,653 and 12 TDs, limiting those big breakaway plays is essential to our success.

The first tackle is always the one we should be making, as we saw last week. Breece Hall, who had 88.2% of his 127 yards come after contact against us, is a painful reminder. Yes, that performance is statistically an outlier, but it’s an example of the kind of rushes this defense has allowed year over year.

Starting MLB Terrel Bernard will be tested in Week 2.

Key 3: Toning Down Turnovers

Perhaps this one is too obvious to need saying, but Josh Allen needs to be more careful with the ball. His recklessness has cost the team multiple games over the last year, and it was the sole factor keeping us from the win column against the New York Jets.

In the span of four drives in the second half, the Buffalo Bills went: Interception, 3-And-Out, Interception, Fumble.

That simply can’t happen again. Not even once more this season. The fortunate thing about the turnover problem is that it isn’t a scheme or game plan issue, but one of inexplicable errors. Unfortunately, that also means fixing it is a mental issue.

Now, Las Vegas’ defense isn’t of the same calibre as New York’s, but it’s still no slouch. If Ken Dorsey can give Josh Allen open underneath options like he did last week, to prevent do-or-die football, we should be just fine.

The problem is, it’s on Josh to actually choose to take them. We need him to know when to take the layups, and do so.

Key Matchup Of The Week: Spencer Brown vs. Maxx Crosby

Join us every week this season as Iestyn Harris breaks down how the Buffalo Bills can beat our opposition!

Featured Image Credit: NBC Sports