At his Friday press briefing, Raiders coach Dennis Allen revealed that he had gotten good news on the playing surface at the Oakland Coliseum for Sundays game against Jacksonville.
Last word that I heard is that itll be grass," he said.
As the last NFL team to play in a football-baseball shared stadium, the Raiders always look forward to the day when crossing midfield doesnt mean crossing over that coarse infield.
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SIGN UP HERE Obviously, theres a few things that the dirt makes a difference on, Allen said. You dont get the same traction on the dirt as you do on the grass. So, you have to take that into account when youre calling plays offensively and defensively. And like in the Pittsburgh game, we had to take it into account in the kicking game. So, it does make a difference.
WHEELERS ROLLINGAS A DEFENSE CALLER
To counter Atlantas more spread out attack, the Raiders played linebacker Rolando McClain a total of only 17 plays last Sunday. That left it to new Raider Philip Wheeler to call out defensive alignments. It was Wheelers first time as the defense-caller since his college days at Georgia Tech. Coach Allen praised Wheelers work.
"That's obviously a role that is critical to the success of the defense, making sure that communication is what it needs to be," Allen said. "He's done a nice job of that. He's a guy who takes his job seriously and he understands that is now something he has to do."
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DEFENSE TRIES SOMETHING NEW
The Raiders turned in a fine defensive performance against the Falcons' potent passing attack last Sunday, holding Matt Ryan to under 250 yards and forcing him to throw three interceptions. The fact the Raiders picked off their first three passes of the season with a safety at cornerback (Michael Huff) and two backups in the starting lineup (Pat Lee and Matt Giordano) makes the effort that much more impressive.
Nickelback Joselio Hanson, who had one of those interceptions, said he and his teammates laid the foundation for their strong performance during the preceding week.
Mentally, we were really focused on communicating during the week during practice," he said. "And we watched a lot of film together, actually more than in the past week. So, it really worked out good for us.
According to Hanson, the players-only film study was the first he and his defensive mates had engaged in all season.
We started something new because whatever we were doing wasnt working," he said.