It was a long day for Rolando McClain (left), Matt Shaughnessy and the Raiders Sunday in Miami. (AP) |
On the day after games, the Raiders, as well as most NFL teams, typically break up into offensive, defensive and special teams groups to watch game film. This Monday, however, Raiders coach Dennis Allen decided to have his entire team watch film together of Sunday’s disheartening 35-13 loss at Miami.
“We’re going to be a team and we’re going to stick together,” Allen said. “We’re going to continue to fight. I just felt like it was a good thing for us to get together and look at it as a team and see where we’ve got to make improvement so that we don’t let these things happen again.”
Center Stefen Wisniewski said that was “not a fun meeting."
“You don’t want to have too many meetings like that, with the whole team sitting and watching an ugly film," he said. "But you got to do that in order to get better."
Veteran cornerback Joselio Hanson said he’d never before experienced a full-team film session.
“Holding everybody accountable for what they do out there on the field, it’s good,” Hanson said. “Any player would say it was a little awkward at first ... you’re not used to doing that instead of just watching it with your defense.”
Raiders offensive tackle Jared Veldheer said that watching the game film in that setting “boosts your sense of accountability” to the team.
“I’ve had mistakes in there, and you have a great sense of urgency,” Veldheer said. “All these guys are depending on me to make this block or execute this play. I need to do it. How do I fix it? I need to fix it. That kind of mentality. And then when you have the good stuff happen, there’s more reinforcement with that. When a guy makes a good play and hears from more people, it reinforces him to keep doing it that way. I think it’s a great thing.”
Running on empty: The Raiders' running game, a team strength last year, is stuck in first gear. Running back Darren McFadden is averaging 2.1 yards per carry, and the Raiders are averaging 34 rushing yards per game.
Is it time to pull the plug on the zone blocking scheme, which new offensive coordinator Greg Knapp installed to replace the power running approach favored by fired coach Hue Jackson?
Not so fast, Veldheer said.
“With the weapons we’ve got in the backfield, the speed, the great vision those guys have, and the guys we have up front, it allows multiple seasons to open up,” Veldheer said of the zone blocking scheme. “When that seam hits, it happens so fast that it allows for big, explosive gains, and it’s a great thing to get the hard 4- or 5-yard runs. We just have to clean up a few things to get it on that pace so it’s not a 1- or 2-yard run.
“We have confidence we can do it. It’s very close. It’s there. We can see things in the film room. … I’ve got all the confidence in the world that we’re going to have this thing take off.”
Allen said he’s still a firm believer in the zone blocking scheme.
“I think we got to do a better job of creating some movement on the line of scrimmage,” Allen said. “That’s where it starts. We got to do a better job of getting our reads of exactly where those cuts need to be made. And then we need to get out to a lead where we can really stay with it.”
Trying times: Allen said his players’ efforts against Miami weren't "good enough,” and he wants to see improvement Sunday against Pittsburgh.
“We got to be better, and we’re going to continue to strive to get better in that area,” Allen said.
Defensive meltdown: The Raiders held a 10-7 lead at halftime Sunday but were outscored 28-3 in the second half when Dolphins running back Reggie Bush gashed them for TD runs of 23 and 65 yards and rushed for 138 of his 172 yards.
Allen was asked if the heat and humidity at Miami played a part in his defense’s second-half trouble.
“I don’t know if that was the biggest factor,” Allen said. “It had something to do with it because we kind of wore down a little bit. We missed some tackles that we weren’t missing earlier in the game. So yeah, conditioning’s a factor but that’s not an excuse.”
Follow Raiders reporter Eric Gilmore on Twitter: @CBSRaiders.