Oakland Raiders New-Look Defense Will Prove Difficult for Peyton Manning

One may look at the title and see a joke, it sure could pass as one. How could the Oakland Raiders do any damage to the magical aura of Peyton Manning? The four-time league MVP and a world champion? With the flimsy excuse for a defense last year, Peyton should be safe from the men in Silver and Black, right?

Wrong.

In the 2010 NFL season, the Oakland Raiders defense managed to put on a clinic on how to sack the quarterback. The Raiders put up a massive number of 47, which was tied for second in the league with the Green Bay Packers and San Diego Chargers.

Last season, the sack numbers were not that impressive. They had 39 sacks on the season but ranked 15th in the NFL. Richard Seymour had a quite season early on racking up numbers, but things just stopped as the injury bug made its yearly visit to slow everything down. Additionally, there was a second factor in Chuck Bresnahan.

The lack of blitzing is one thing, but his terrible play-calling in crunch time is another. Who calls a Cover 2 against the Detroit Lions with Rolando McClain playing the middle and a Mike Mitchell wanna-be Jerome Boyd, a practice squad player of all people over Megatron? Chuck Bresnahan does, and that's why he's going to end up coaching in the UFL again as a "water consultant." It's all he's good for.

Aside of Bresnahan, there was a definite drop in the defensive quality of playmakers, making everything difficult. Yes, the 2011-12 Oakland Raider defense did not play as a unit and did not play smart. Breaking the single-season penalty yard record showed that, but the numbers never lie.

 



Thankfully though, Chuck Bresnahan's contract was NOT renewed for the 2012-13 NFL season, which puts an end to ONE of the bad factors that plagued the Raiders defense. Instead, new head coach Dennis Allen, a defensive-minded man, decided to bring in another defensive-minded fellow for the job by the name of...