Lowell Cohn: Raiders' defensive flaws too much to overcome

OAKLAND - The Oakland Raiders are overrated. They never were as good as their 4-1 record.

Losing to the Kansas City Chiefs at home - final score 26-10 - was totally predictable. Virtually inevitable.

Sure, the Raiders are improved. Certainly improved from last season. Many so-called experts, me included, predict they will finish with a record of 10-6 and be a playoff team. I still feel that way. But I also know the Chiefs exposed the Raiders, especially the Raiders defense, and if you paid close attention, you knew that would happen before the opening kickoff.

An old adage in football says you entertain with offense but you win with defense. The Raiders offense wasn't particularly entertaining on Sunday, but it wasn't the major issue. The defense was. It was not a winning defense. It was a very bad defense. As in hold-your-nose bad. It allowed the Chiefs, certainly not an offensive powerhouse, to gain 406 yards. A whopping big number. An inexcusable number. And it's not even the most yards the Raiders have given up in a game this season. Not even close.

All six Raiders opponents have outgained them because the Oakland defense doesn't defend. It's amazing, frankly, the Raiders have a record of 4-2. But if they keep playing this kind of defense, their record could degrade. Or as they say these days, it could crater.

The Raiders defense, such as it is, gave up 183 rushing yards to the Chiefs. Wow! The Chiefs averaged 4.6 yards per rush attempt. Double wow! It's like the Raiders defensive linemen and linebackers were cardboard cutouts who couldn't tackle or even move toward Spencer Ware when he came roaring up the middle and gorged out on yards.

Here's another old adage of football. If you can't stop the run, everything else is available to you.

How did that apply to the Kansas City game?

Because the Chiefs could run whenever they wanted, up the middle, around the edge - just running - quarterback Alex Smith, who sometimes gets nervous in the hurly burly of football, never felt an ounce of pressure. I'm talking mental pressure.

He played the most relaxed game you could imagine. Like a guy playing shuffleboard on a cruise ship while sipping a brew. He never threw a hurried pass or a desperate pass or a risky pass. He relaxed his way through the game because the Raiders let him. Their fault.

Smith threw to his backs. He threw to receivers in the flat. He threw all over the place. Little stuff that befuddled the Raiders, stuff they should stop. But couldn't stop. Allowed the Chiefs to handle them. Just handle them.

After the game, Raiders coach Jack Del Rio gave a backhanded compliment to Smith. “If he's got to rely on throwing the ball, that's not his strong suit. But if you allow them to run the ball and do some gimmicky things, then he comes to life.”

Well, Jack, you allowed the Chiefs to do gimmicky things, and Smith came to life. Was the life of the party. He never looked so good. And you and your defense made him look good.

Part of the Chiefs gimmick advantage was to own the clock. You own the clock, you own the game. The Chiefs held the ball 36 minutes to the Raiders' 23 - rounding off here. Not good for the Silver and Black. Great for KC.

This you should know. Del Rio has faced Kansas City three times as Raiders coach. His record against the Chiefs is 0-3. Or 0 for Kansas City. What's up with that?

Afterward, I asked Del Rio about getting outgained in every game.

“It can't continue,” he said like a parent disciplining bad behavior in a teenager, “Not for us to be the kind of team we have designs on being. We're sitting here 4-2 right now coming off a day that didn't go the way it needed to go for us. We'll be ready the next opportunity.”

It's that part about being ready for the next opportunity that's troubling. The Raiders defense has not been ready all season. The season is more than one third over and the defense still isn't ready. Del Rio needs to do something different to get it ready. Can he?

He also said this. “What I know about this league, you correct what needs to be corrected and move on.”

Call that tough-guy talk. He moves on. He doesn't look back. But are the Raiders in a position to move on when they clearly haven't figured things out? They seem mired in a perpetual present.

Linebacker Bruce Irvin spoke after the game. Spoke at his locker surrounded by media. He prefaced most of his answers with “Ugh!” Sounded like someone taking a body shot. Like he was under attack. In a sense, he was.

I asked if the Raiders defense is improving from week to week.

“Ugh,” he said. “Just inconsistency, man. We play good a couple of plays, then we let one get away from us. The biggest thing in this league is being consistent. Can't be inconsistent. Teams are too good. Make you pay.”

We noticed. And we say this.

The Raiders need to fix what they need to fix or teams all over the league will run on them without remorse, run them to death. And after they've proved they can run on the Raiders, they will pass, all kinds of gimmicky stuff, against a secondary that isn't so great.

A playoff team - a potential playoff team - cannot be so defense pitiful. Here is a law of the universe, or at least of the NFL: If the Raiders can't stop the most basic plays, things will become grim and stay grim.

Of course, the Raiders still are good. Of course, they should win their share of games and make the playoffs. What was troubling about Sunday was not that the Raiders lost. It was how they lost.

Now, there is a particle of doubt.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.