Raiders Face These Key Challenges Against the Bears

The Las Vegas Raiders face the Chicago Bears in what is all but a must win game for both teams, if they have any serious aspirations of making the playoffs this season. Falling to 1-3 is a difficult hole for any team to climb out of, especially teams with rosters still in need of significant improvement.

The Raiders' Tough Task

The Bears are one of the few teams in the league that have undergone as many changes to their roster as the Raiders. Both teams sit at 1-2 despite those changes, but one of them will feel much better about their season after Week 4 than the other.

Las Vegas must play better in every facet of the game than they did last Sunday against the Washington Commanders. Before Thursday's practice, Raiders Defensive Coordinator Patrick Graham explained what he has seen from the Bears on film that make them a challenging team.

"Just how they use them. The first thing that stands out is their willingness to block. I mean, you could argue that those tight ends would be considered U tight ends or move tight ends. But you can't tell when you're watching the run game in terms of their willingness to block and getting there, cut off defensive ends, block front side versus outside linebackers, that stands out,” Graham said.

Graham noted that the Bears have the talent on the field and on their coaching staff to exploit an opposing defense's weaknesses. After struggling on defense over the past two weeks, Graham and the Raiders must turn things around quickly to avoid a three-game losing streak.

“Then, in terms of the passing game, what they're asking them to do with protection, with the chips, sometimes getting singled with a defensive end and working their asses off to get that done. And then once you get into the passing game, they all have a little bit different flavor to them, but they're going to threaten you vertically," Graham said.

"They could threaten you vertically straight down the seam. They could threaten you vertically by running across the field. So, there's a lot of challenges. They have a good setup in terms of team speed and skill players, in my opinion."