Through two weeks, the Raiders have found a way to wreck passing games without leaning on the blitz, and Maxx Crosby is the face of it.
Klint Kubiak said Monday that Crosby is the obvious place to start when looking at what’s driving the rush. “Maxx demands a lot of attention, the way that he plays and the production that he has,” Kubiak said, while also giving credit to defensive coordinator Rob Leonard, defensive line coach Travis Smith and the rest of the defensive staff for putting players in position to succeed.
The production has been impossible to ignore. Las Vegas is tied for the league lead with eight sacks and sits second in pressure rate at 47.1 percent. What makes that even more striking is how little the Raiders are blitzing - just 20.6 percent of the time, the eighth-lowest rate in the NFL.
The results were especially loud in Week 2 against the Los Angeles Chargers, when the Raiders posted a 45.2 percent pressure rate. Some tracking has their two-week pressure rate as high as 51.5 percent, a figure that would put this start among the best two-game stretches the league has seen in years.
That kind of pressure without extra rushers gives Kubiak and Leonard room to keep more bodies in coverage, which is a major advantage for a defense still integrating young pieces like Jermod McCoy into the rotation. It also gives the front office another reason to feel good about keeping Crosby after the offseason trade to Baltimore fell through over a failed physical.
A healthy, disruptive Crosby changes the entire shape of the defense. He lifts the line around him and makes life easier for the linebackers and defensive backs, who are the ones benefiting when quarterbacks are forced into hurried throws and bad decisions.
For a team still searching for its long-term identity under a first-year head coach, that kind of pass rush can cover a lot of other issues. It also buys time for the offense and Fernando Mendoza’s situation to settle in.
Still, Kubiak didn’t sound ready to crown anything after only two games. “It’s two games with 15 regular season games left to go,” he said, and that’s the reality here: the Raiders may not keep this exact pace all season, even if opponents start adjusting protections and the pressure numbers drift back toward the middle of the pack.
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The question now is whether Koonce can sustain that level when the opposition gets tougher up front. The Raiders have been searching for help to lighten Crosbys load, and Koonces tape offered reason for optimism, but there is still a noticeable hurdle when he goes against top offensive linemen. Until he starts finishing those rushes more consistently and getting home faster in those matchups, the pass rush remains more of a work in progress than a finished answer. [Read more 🡒]