Raiders Week 7: How to attack the Rams stingy defense

Klint Kubiak will have his hands full this Sunday when his Las Vegas Raiders matchup with the Los Angeles Rams. Ditto for Chris Schula as he’s the man in charge of the Rams defense trying to combat/quell Kubiak’s offense.

That’s the high-level tale of the tape when the 3-3 Raiders host the 2-4 Rams within the confines of Allegiant Stadium for a Week 7 AFC West vs. NFC west matchup.

Kubiak’s Raiders offense is the sixth-highest scoring unit in the NFL at 162 total points. Schula’s Rams defense, on the other hand, is quite stingy allowing the third-least amount of yards (1,764) but 17th in points allowed (138). But go deeper into the production — or lack thereof — and it’ll be intriguing to see how the strengths of the Las Vegas’ offense contends with might of Los Angeles’ defense.

Case in point: The Raiders aerial attack is Top 10 in the NFL ranking seventh in yards (1,581) and second in touchdowns (14). However, the Rams air defense yields the second-least yards (1,002) and is 14th in touchdowns allowed (eight). Las Vegas’ highest output this season through the air was a 371-yard effort in a 45-17 loss to the New England Patriots in Week 5 and Los Angeles’ lowest air yards allowed on the year was 68 yards in a 24-20 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 4.

The Silver & Black’s strength offensively is an aerial attack and Kubiak has shown to be adept at getting targets open for his veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins — who leads the league with 14 passing touchdowns. Schula, meanwhile, is an air traffic controller with his Rams defense grounding flights. Which makes what I’m about to say next quite counterintuitive: The Raiders getting the ground game is going to be integral to Kubiak’s offensive success.

If your eyebrow is raised, I don’t blame you.

After all, Las Vegas has the 30th-ranked rushing production at 475 yards with only three touchdowns (ranking 25th amongst the 32 NFL teams), and a the 31st-ranked 3.0 yards per rush average. Los Angeles’ defense, though, has given up 762 rushing yards (seventh-most) and four touchdowns (fourth least) and a 4.4 yards per carry average (21st).

Facing a leaky defense — with the Rams ailing with injuries, too — provides quite a get-right game for a Raiders team that’s dropped three-straight games. L.A. placed defensive tackle Poona Ford and Kobie Turner on injured reserve leaving the team light on the interior. Edge rusher Myles Garrett remains on IR, however, the Rams still have Aaron Donald in on the defensive line.

That should give Kubiak and Co. ample opportunity to get the ground game going.

The duo of Ashton Jeanty and rookie Mike Washington Jr. paced the Raiders running backs with 98 carries for 313 yards and one touchdown and 34 carries for 168 yards and one score, respectively. Las Vegas would be wise to test the interior of the Rams defensive line with gap- and power-run concepts with both Jeanty and Washington (the rookie did miss practice on Thursday with foot and back ailments, though). And also deploy the patented outside/wide zone that Kubiak prefers. Doing so should allow Las Vegas to have pulling guards pave the way for tailbacks.

In their loss to the Arizona Cardinals last week and the Buffalo Bills the week prior, the Rams allowed 120 and 202 rushing yards in those two games.

If the ground and pound continues to flop, however, we’ll get to see plenty of the air-to-air dogfight between Kubiak and Schula.

Cousins has turned back the clock and is dropping dimes in Kubiak’s offense and Las Vegas would be wise to funnel the passing game through Brock Bowers and Tre Tucker. The elite tight end and fleet-footed wide receiver, respectively, are the most productive pass catchers with 28 receptions for 382 yards and three touchdowns and 2 catches for 371 yards and another three scores, apiece. Tight end Michael Mayer is coming into his own after signing a rich contract extension and is third with 28 receptions for 266 yards and a score.

Opposing defenses have trouble matching up with Bowers — although the Bills did well putting their top cornerback Christian Benford on him last week — and the Raiders should exploit that until the wheels fall off.

That all said, Raiders defensive coordinator Rob Leonard faces his own beasts of burden trying to stymie the Rams offense orchestrated by head coach Sean McVay. L.A.’s offense is 20th in points scored (135) and third in yards gained (2,408). The aerial attack is the most productive aspect ranking first in attempts (242) and second in yards (1,732). The 11 passing touchdowns ranks ninth with veteran Matthew Stafford completing 65.9 percent of his passes with 11 touchdowns to six interceptions.

Las Vegas defense, in comparison, ranks 26th in points allowed (162) and 28th in yards yielded (2,230). The team allows the ninth-most passing yards (1,424) and the sixth-most passing touchdowns (13).

Head-to-Head

Sunday’s tilt marks the 17th game between the Raiders and Rams. The all-time series is tied at 8-8 (all regular season games) but it’s Los Angeles that is riding a four-game win streak dating back to November of 2014 (the 52-0 shellacking of the then Oakland Raiders in St. Louis). The most recent clash was in October of 2024 where the Rams dropped the Raiders 20-15 in a game where then-starting quarterback Gardner Minshew II threw three interceptions allowing L.A. to surge to a 20-6 lead.

Quotes of Note

“It’s just something we’re going to look to improve every week. Whether we have a game that we rush for 150, 200 yards, we’re still going to go back and say, ‘Okay, how can we get better?’ So, I don’t know that we’re looking at it in terms of it’s close. We’re looking for incremental improvement every week in everything we do.”

—Las Vegas Raiders offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko on how close does he think the running game is to getting going.

“Yeah, you’re trying to stress that all the time. He’s a gifted thrower, with the no looks and all those things. But that’s a point of emphasis every week, to finish through, stay with your guy, the play extends. But he’s a special talent.”

—Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator on the biggest challenge Matthew Stafford presents on a defense.