Graney: Raiders must tackle better to make playoffs

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The art of tackling traces its roots to rugby in the early 1900s, when at least 45 players died over a five-year period. Football eventually became just as dangerous.

Especially when a player drives his opponent into the turf.

The Raiders were all sorts of bad at that last season. They were usually watching others drive themselves to touchdowns.

The monotonous drudgery that is a preseason schedule concludes for the Raiders on Sunday against the 49ers at Levi’s Stadium.

Whether it is a game whose central objective is to keep players healthy or one under the bright lights of a “Monday Night Football” season opener against Baltimore, the Raiders are tasked with a significant objective.

They either tackle better in 2021 or assuredly miss the playoffs for a 18th time in 19 seasons.

Worst in league

The Raiders led the NFL with 143 missed tackles last year. They understood angles like a junior high student might advanced trigonometry.

“(Tackling) has been a big emphasis, and we’re seeing it cleaner and cleaner,” said first-year defensive coordinator Gus Bradley. “Now our first group really hasn’t gotten an opportunity to do it live other than a joint practice (against the Rams), but we’re seeing enough of it in practice.”

You can become a better tackler. Even at the highest of levels. You can improve technique and form. That’s the physical part. The mental side tends to be the toughest.

Consider: The Raiders signed linebacker Cory Littleton to a three-year deal worth up to $36 million in 2020. They believed the former Rams star an ideal answer at helping better what was a position of great need. Evidence suggested it was an obvious acquisition.

In 2019, Littleton missed one tackle in 1,039 snaps. But in his first year with the Raiders, he missed 11 through the first five games.

He posted seasons of 125 tackles in 2018 and 134 in 2019. He had 82 in 14 games last year.

Littleton was essentially lost. He lacked confidence. But he was hardly alone in such below-average defensive play.

Bradley envisions much better results this season. His is a scheme without countless new coverages and pressures. You’re asked to do the same things over and over and over. Which, as the thinking goes, allows more time for working on tackling fundamentals. Leverage. Communication. Those tricky angles.

Coaches also point to this: Yannick Ngakoue. Quinton Jefferson. Solomon Thomas. Casey Hayward Jr. Tre’von Moehrig. Denzel Perryman. Gerald McCoy. A healthy Tanner Muse. Divine Deablo.

“We have a lot of new tacklers,” coach Jon Gruden said. “It’s being emphasized as much or more than it ever has been. In drill work, in our meetings. Hopefully, it shows in the game, because we got some guys that are going to be really hard to tackle coming right out of the chute.”

It’s on everyone

He’s speaking of Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson and his see-you-later moves. So besides those veteran and rookie faces making Raiders debuts, the likes of returners Littleton and Nick Kwiatkoski and Johnathan Abram and Trayvon Mullen Jr. and Nicholas Morrow (when healthy) and others need to be a whole lot better.

Tackling is difficult. But the Raiders of late have made it look impossible at times.

Can’t do that this season. Can’t do it and expect to challenge for a playoff spot.

Can’t lack driving opponents into the turf.

Can’t treat angles like a finals exam for which nobody studied.

Winning games in the NFL is tough enough. It’s even harder when you spend them watching the other guys run away.

Ed Graney is a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing and can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.