While his stint with the Las Vegas Raiders was limited to just a season, former defensive coordinator Gus Bradley will always be linked to that 2021-22 Silver and Black team that persevered against all odds.
On Sunday, Bradley returns to Allegiant Stadium, this time as the opposer, as he now serves as defensive coordinator for the Indianapolis Colts.
Though Bradley never served under Las Vegas coach Josh McDaniels, the first-year Raiders coach is very familiar with the longtime NFL coach.
Sunday's game will break the 2-2 tie between the two when facing off as opposing coordinators.
"[O]bviously, he's been doing it for a long time and very well," McDaniels said in his Wednesday press conference. "It's a big challenge because they're so connected. They know exactly what they're going to do. It's not an overly complicated team. They don't need to be. They let the players go out there and do their thing and, like I said, they got disruptive guys at all three levels. It's one of those teams where you can get kind of mesmerized by saying they don't do a lot, but they do it so damn well that there's not that many opportunities.
"And so, we talked to the offense this morning about that, like don't get into some false sense of, ‘Well, we know what it's going to be on every play.’ You might know what it is, but you still got to do something productive, and you got to win your one-on-one matchups. And so, it'll be a big challenge. It always has been with him. And again, if you're not taking care of the football on every play, then you're going to create problems for yourself, and they do as good a job of going after it as anybody."
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