National Football League

Raiders defense trying to plug holes

Published Oct. 16, 2010 11:06 a.m. ET

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It wasn't so long ago that the Raiders boasted of a defense among the league leaders in terms of average yards allowed. Now, they are scrambling in an attempt to plug the holes spewing forth yards in torrential fashion.

The Raiders allowed 947 yards to the Houston Texans and San Diego Chargers the past two games. That represents the most allowed by a Raiders defense in back-to-back games since the 1997 team got gouged for 995 yards by the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks.

"My biggest concern right now for our defense is to play a complete game," Raiders coach Tom Cable said. "One week it's this, the next week it's that. Neither one of them is acceptable."

Against the Texans, the Raiders allowed 249 yards rushing. Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers torched the Raiders for 431 yards passing on Sunday.

As was the case in 1997, the Raiders somehow emerged from the two games with one victory.

That's well and good, cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha said, but it's not a healthy way to make a living throughout the course of a 16-game season.

"When the yards get up to 400, 500, almost 1,000 in two games, you don't want that," Asomugha said. "The fact that we won the game last week was good, and we almost won the Houston game, that's great, but as a defense we want to be much better."

The easy thing for the Raiders to do would be to hide behind the fact the Chargers are the league's top-ranked passing offense and the Texans are fifth in rushing offense.

That doesn't cut it, cornerback Stanford Routt said. The Raiders have to figure out a way to succeed against the run and the pass at the same time, without being forced to choose one facet of the game to concentrate upon each week.

Defensive coordinator John Marshall said it's imperative the Raiders stick with "what we know is a winning formula. You come out, you practice the way you should practice. You work on your technique, you work on your gap control, and you work on your tackling."

Rivers completed passes seemingly at will against the Raiders. Routt said it got to the point where he and his defensive mates wondered if there was anything they could do to stop the onslaught.

"Late in the game, we were all looking at each other, saying, 'Man, we got to hold on, we got to shore up and we got to hold up. We got to make a play somehow,' " Routt said. "And we were able to do it."

How they stopped Rivers just might hold the key to their success against the pass from here on out, several players said.

The Raiders blitzed Rivers six straight plays and reduced the amount of time he had to scour the landscape for an open receiver.

Through three games, the Raiders were tied for second at an average of 260.7 yards allowed. They dropped to 11th after a 441-yard output by the Texans.

A 506-yard effort by the Chargers left the Raiders in a tie for 23rd. Overall, the Raiders are 10th against the pass at 198 yards per game and 31st against the run at 149 yards per game.

They are 28th in points allowed at 26.8 through five games. The 31 points scored by the Texans and 27 by the Chargers is what concerns Asomugha the most, he said.

"I don't (care as much) if they're not crossing the goal line," Asomugha said. "If they're crossing the goal line and they're scoring points with all those yards, then it's definitely an issue."

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