The Las Vegas Raiders secondary got torched by the Saints, and one player in particular stuck out.
The Las Vegas Raiders just got an important win over the New Orleans Saints, 35-27, but they had some serious defensive weaknesses exposed along the way.
Sam Warren of The Athletic pointed out one as he noted the struggles of the Las Vegas secondary, which was torched to the tune of four touchdown passes and 255 yards by New Orleans quarterback Tyler Shough. The Raiders did get a huge late interception from rookie cornerback Hezekiah Masses, though, when Shough’s arm was hit and the pass hung up long enough for the rookie to pull it in.
Nonetheless, Shough was able to capitalize on the presence of safety Isaiah Pola-Mao, who was constantly picked on with rookie safety Treydan Stukes out due to concussion symptoms.
Per Warren, Pola-Mao was late to react to an out-breaking route by tight end Juwan Johnson in the end zone, and he was slow again on the Saints’ second TD a he allowed tight end Noah Fant to get open on a crossing route. The safety also missed a tackle and gave up a big play in the red zone to set up New Orleans’ third touchdown.
Ultimately, this speaks to the thinness of the Raiders roster. Stukes is a rookie who has played well, but Pola-Mao is a leftover from last year’s roster that featured a secondary that had similar struggles throughout the 3-14 season.
Coach Klint Kubiak is rebuilding a bad roster, and he simply hasn’t had enough time or resources to build quality depth across every position group. We’ve seen enough so far to think he’ll be able to do this eventually, but performances like this are going to happen, which is why the Raiders will likely struggle to be serious contenders. The analogy here is the old "fingers in the dike" story, and there are times when the coach simply runs out of fingers.
A similar issue surfaced early in the game when Masses got torched repeatedly by Saints receiver Chris Olave. Olave does this to a lot of DBs, but it was an absolute mystery why it took a half for new defensive coordinator Rob Leonard to switch up the coverages so that Masses wasn’t constantly exposed.
Smaller versions of this type of issue came up repeatedly throughout the game, too. The Saints had success in the run game early, and the Raiders’ pass rush was shut down until the fourth quarter. This is a roster that’s under construction, and there are times when it’s going to show.
