How the Bye Week Benefitted the Raiders' Defense

Raiders' Biggest Takeaways

The Bye Week seems to have been productive for the Raiders, as the team returned to practice with a buzz that had not been there since their Week 1 win over the New England Patriots. Las Vegas' time away gave them an opportunity to rest, recover and analyze their strengths and weaknesses.

The Raiders' front office hopes the time away will translate to better production on game days. Las Vegas entered the season with many new players and coaches. The time off gave the Raiders' coaching staff and a players a chance to stop and assess their first seven games together.

The time off also allowed the Raiders to get healthy, as Las Vegas returned several players on both sides of the ball following the Bye Week.

Following the Bye Week, Raiders Defensive Coordinator Patrick Graham noted what the Bye Week did for him and the Raiders' defense. Las Vegas' defense had a serviceable few games but also had their struggles heading into the Bye Week.

"Biggest takeaway was trying to minimize the third and shorts. Again, this league and just throughout my career, you spend so much time on third downs, spend so much time in the red area, which is warranted, but it's the first and second down plays. You think about some of the long drives we've given up, sometimes they even get to third down, or they got to third and two or third and three,” Graham said.

“That's not even really third down right there. I don't know what they're going to do there. Especially nowadays, they can run, the quarterback can run. They could go for on fourth down with all the analytics. So my job, the self-evaluation, is I got to put these guys in a better spot on second down. First down, pretty solid. Second down, got to do a better job on second down and try to create some longer third down situations. So, that falls on me."