It was hard not to notice the irony in Ashton Jeanty questioning certain Jets players’ willingness to tackle.
Given the Raiders’ own struggles in that area, the scouting report could have used a little self-awareness.
“Couple guys out there that don’t really want to tackle,” Jeanty said. “But I’m not gonna say any names.”
First, let’s give the young running back some grace.
What Jeanty said publicly probably sounds tame compared with what gets said behind closed doors when NFL players dissect an opponent. Identifying weaknesses is part of the job. If someone looks reluctant to stick his nose into a collision, you can bet that gets discussed.
And anyone who has sized up the opposition in a playground basketball huddle knows the conversation: Find the weak link, figure out how to exploit it, and describe it in language best left on the blacktop.
The Raiders apparently spotted a couple of Jets defenders inclined to make “business decisions” when contact comes calling. You can imagine the commentary in the film room, and the anticipation of what those matchups might offer their struggling run game.
The mistake was taking that conversation outside the room.
As someone in the Raiders family rightly pointed out: “That has to stay in-house.”
Before publicly questioning another team’s toughness or desire, shouldn’t the Raiders take inventory of their own shortcomings?
They cannot consistently run the ball. They cannot consistently stop it. And their tackling hardly puts them in position to critique anyone else’s appetite for contact.
During their four-game losing streak, the Raiders have surrendered 656 rushing yards while managing 223 themselves.
That is nearly three yards allowed for every yard gained.
The Rams accounted for 199 of those yards allowed, repeatedly pushing the Raiders around in a game that exposed the distance between recognizing what an opponent wants to do and actually stopping it.
Through seven games, the Raiders have the NFL’s third-worst rushing offense with 523 yards. Their 3.0 yards per carry ranks second-worst.
Their tackling numbers offer no refuge, either.
The Raiders have missed 41 tackles, the eighth-most in the NFL. Their missed-tackle rate of 9.4 percent ranks 23rd, and their Pro Football Focus tackling grade is 51.8.
In other words, there is plenty on the Raiders’ film for the Jets to discuss.
The Raiders are aware. It’s stressed and prioritized.
“We know we got to tackle,” linebacker Nakobe Dean said. “You don’t be like, ‘All right, our game plan this week is a tackle.’ It’s a given, you got to tackle.”
Which leads to their obvious frustration, and all the eyes that rolled when Jeanty said what he said. Tackling is a basic requirement, and the Raiders are struggling to meet it.
That leaves them in no position to call anyone else out.
None of which needs to be explained to Raiders coach Klint Kubiak.
“It’s tackling, it’s alignment, it’s assignment,” he said of the Raiders run-stopping issues. “It’s just playing a better brand of football and getting back to how we started this season.”
Those failures are also feeding the problems on offense.
The Raiders fall behind. Their opportunities to establish the run shrink. An already struggling ground game becomes even easier to abandon as the scoreboard dictates urgency.
“You can’t be in the fourth quarter chasing points and expect to be a good run team,” Kubiak said. “So, you need attempts, and in order to get those attempts, then we have to stop the run, and we have to keep our opponent out of the end zone.”
That does not absolve the offensive line of its inability to create consistent running room. Nor does it excuse an offense that keeps putting itself in difficult positions.
It illustrates how thoroughly the Raiders’ problems are connected.
One unit needs help from the other. Neither has consistently provided it during a losing streak that has erased the goodwill of a 3-0 start.
“Well, no one’s coming to help us,” Kubiak said. “We’ve got to figure it out ourselves as a coaching staff with the players.”
Maxx Crosby offered the appropriate starting point.
“We have another opportunity against the Jets,” he said. “We’ve all got to look in the mirror and be better.”
Asked about the run defense, Crosby did not search for a comforting explanation.
“I don’t know. There’s a lot of pieces to it, you know what I mean,” he said. “But it’s just not good enough, simple and plain.”
That is the conversation the Raiders need to turn into action.
Jeanty’s comment does not need to become a referendum on his character. It was a young player saying something publicly that belonged in a meeting room.
But the lesson extends beyond keeping scouting observations private.
Before pointing out another team’s flaws, understand that yours are playing on a screen in their building, too.
The Rams saw them last week. The Jets can see them too.
Now the Raiders need to do something about them. Not in words, but action.
