Late in the season in a game against the St. Louis Rams, Raiders’ special teamer Ray-Ray Armstrong made a perfect hit on a punt returner, completely knocking him off his feet and slamming him to the ground.
The problem was, Armstrong had just pulverized Raiders return man TJ Carrie.
Unfortunately for the Raiders, their ability to tackle opponents in 2014 was much worse.
According to Pro Football Focus, Oakland ranked 29th in the NFL in tackling efficiency. The Raiders missed a tackle on one of every eight snaps, according to PFF – meaning on 12.4 percent of plays against them. Only the Bucs (13.3 percent) and Saints (13.6 percent) were worse.
As a team, the Raiders missed 144 tackles in 1,157 snaps.
So, aside from critical injuries that impacted Oakland’s ability in 2014 – and a lack of top-echelon talent at key positions – the Raiders had some fundamental flaws that helped contribute to allowing the most points of any defensive unit in pro football.
Pro Football Focus cited linebackers Miles Burris and Sio Moore as two of the worst in the league. Burris – who filled in for the injured Nick Roach all of last season in the middle – was in on 103 tackles on 990 snaps but was credited with 16 missed tackles, a 7.4 percent miss rate. Moore missed 13 tackles in 649 snaps while being in on 81 tackles, a 7.2 percent miss rate.
So, while the Raiders will look to upgrade their defensive lineup this offseason through the draft and free agency, new defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. and head coach Jack Del Rio – a former NFL linebacker (like Norton) and defensive coordinator – will need to get the Raiders to be better tacklers in 2015.
Both Del Rio and Norton were noted as strong, fundamentally sound and aggressive tacklers in their NFL careers, and their defensive units in 2014 showed it. Del Rio’s Denver Broncos unit was the sixth-most efficient tackling team last season. And the Seahawks, whose linebackers were coached by Norton, ranked 17th and had the highest-ranked overall defense in the NFL.
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Norton, who played for head coach Jimmy Johnson in Dallas for part of his career, said he will coach his unit much like Johnson coached those Cowboys: the best performers will play. If a non-drafted free agent is better than a high draft pick, he’ll play.
“You have to get everything you can out of each and every individual,” Norton told Michael Wagaman of ESPN.com recently. “(Johnson) treated everybody differently, and he really knew how to celebrate everyone’s uniqueness. He made it clear that he loved you when you were making plays. If you weren’t making plays, he was going to get rid of you.”
Norton said he wants to have his unit play with a physical attitude and intelligence. That includes tackling well. And he believes Del Rio, with all his experience, can help him achieve that.
“You watch our defenses (in Seattle) over the last few years, how physical, how smart, how dominant they’ve been up front, out-hitting, out-hustling and doing all these aggressive things,” he told Wagaman. “Jack has a fantastic background with his defense as well.”
