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Pete Carroll must address serious Raiders issue in 2025

Originally posted on Dice City Sports | By Derek Hegna | Last updated Jul 9, 2025 10:28 AM ET

Injuries played a major role in the inconsistency of the Las Vegas Raiders defense in 2025, but that does not tell the whole story.

Pushing players into expanded roles was a hit-or-miss strategy for the Raiders, and that showed at multiple points during the season. Defensive coordinator Patrick Graham received the benefit of the doubt by surviving another regime change, but it is fair to expect a bounce-back season from his unit. Having new head coach Pete Carroll as a sounding board in 2025 should help considerably, as the Raiders hope to erase bad habits that crept into their game throughout the season.

Compiled stats from last season make it all the more clear what the Raiders need to fix quickly next season.

The Raiders were one of the worst teams in the league at keeping opponents off the scoreboard early.

In a post on X from NFL data analyst Warren Sharp, the Raiders allowed 84 points in the first quarter of games last season, the eighth-highest mark in the entire league.

this might surprise you

first quarter points allowed in 2024:

112 – Pittsburgh Steelers

99 – Dallas Cowboys
97 – Carolina Panthers
93 – Tennessee Titans
92 – Los Angeles Rams
92 – Chicago Bears
92 – New York Giants
84 – Las Vegas Raiders
82 – Seattle Seahawks
80 -…

— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) June 21, 2025

Needless to say, Graham and Carroll are going to have to find a way to prevent that from being an issue.

Giving up as many points as they did early started the Raiders on the back foot of most games last season, and it showed. The team was forced to run on negative game scripts most of the time, abandoning the run game and forcing the likes of Gardner Minshew and Aidan O’Connell to beat teams in shootouts. Coming off a four-win campaign, it is clear that such a strategy proved ineffective.

With a clean bill of health and improvement in certain areas, there is no reason why the Raiders should not improve their performance on defense early in games.

This article first appeared on Dice City Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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