Raiders Week 6: Bills a supreme challenge for leaky red zone defense

The sixth-best red zone offense versus the fourth-worst red zone defense.

That’s the high-level tale of the tape when Joe Brady’s Buffalo Bills (4-1 overall) offense clashes with Rob Leonard’s Las Vegas Raiders (3-2) defense this Sunday inside Allegiant Stadium.

Brady, a 37-year-old wunderkind of an offensive-minded head coach, is the architect of Buffalo’s top-ranked scoring offense (164 total points) — the team also has the fourth-highest yardage output at 1,981 yards — and the red zone has been quite bountiful for the Bills. On 21 trips to the money zone between the opponent’s 20-yard line and goal line, Buffalo made 15 end zone visits giving them a 71.4 red zone percentage which is sixth-best in the NFL.

The biggest benefactor of that domineering performance in a contested area of the football field is quarterback Josh Allen who is equal parts passer and scrambler as he leads the NFL with eight rushing touchdowns (239 yards rushing on 43 carries). The signal caller is bolstered by talented running back James Cook (95 carries, 523 yards, five touchdowns rushing). Talent certainly is a big boost but not bad for a rookie head coach.

Quelling or stopping that is on the shoulders of Leonard and his defenders.

“He’s a really good player and somebody you got to account for. But it’s not something you don’t have to deal with in other weeks of the season, but yes, definitely have to be aware of him as a rusher,” Leonard said of Allen. “He’s really good at extended plays, whether he scrambles to run, or scrambles to throw.”

“It is,” Leonard added when asked how crucial it is for Las Vegas to improve the run defense against Allen and Cook. “Again, it’s not about the Bills. We just got to stack good plays. Right now, we’ve had good play, bad play, good play, bad play. Just got to keep improving.”

Leonard, the 41-year-old defensive coordinator that orchestrates the Raiders defense, is in charge of the 22nd-ranked unit in points allowed (129) and 27th in yards yielded (1,885). The rookie defensive boss is at the helm of one of the worst red zone defenses in the NFL, however.

Opponents have visited that area 18 times and on 14 of those occasions, scored a touchdown giving Las Vegas an unflattering 77.8 red zone percentage which ranks 29th out of the 32 teams. On paper, being pitted against a Joe Brady’s Buffalo offense score 15 red zone touchdowns on 21 trips is a mismatch.

Games, however, aren’t played on paper.

Leonard must have his defense disciplined and executing throughout Sunday’s clash against the Bills and that means communications and fundamentals — both severely lacking in the Week 5 drubbing at New England — must be present. The defensive line, linebackers, and secondary must not over-persue, maintain gap discipline, and be physical in the red zone — and anywhere on the field Buffalo’s offense has possession of the ball.

Elite edge rusher Maxx Crosby must be his disruptive self and fellow defensive linemen Malcolm Koonce and Kwity Paye (who has been a non-factor since a Week 1 debut for the Raiders) must provide complementary defenders off the edge. Linebackers Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker need to be ready and willing to attack or drop in coverage and the defensive backs need to be all on the same page.

Of course, it’d be grand if the Raiders defense can take the ball away from the Bills — Las Vegas is ranked second with 10 takeaways on the season but the total dwindled drastically over the course of the first five games.

“It’s always the same. That’s why it’s called takeaways; you have to take it away. It’s not going to happen by accident,” Leonard said while adding “no”, the amount of takeaways Las Vegas racked up didn’t mask his defense’s defeciencies when asked.

“I’d really like to move on. It wasn’t our best performance from that game. We just didn’t do well. We got to improve,” Leonard responded when asked if he was surprised Las Vegas couldn’t get to Patriots quarterback Drake Maye last week.

But here’s another intriguing aspect of the Raiders-Bills matchup: Buffalo’s red zone defense is lacking, too.

Defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard (pronounced Leonard like the Raiders’ defensive boss) captains the 27th-ranked red zone defense. And the Bills defense overall is statistically worse than the Raiders ranking 28th in points allowed (141) and 30th in yards yielded (1,943). Buffalo gives up the second most passing yards (1,402) and fourth-highest passing touchdowns (13) and has just two interceptions (25th in the league).

If there’s ample time for Klint Kubiak’s Raiders offense to click once more, it’s against Buffalo.

Las Vegas has the eighth-most passing yards (1,268) and second most passing touchdowns (12) to just four interceptions thrown (fourth best). But getting the ground game going (ranked 28th in yards gained at 410; dead last in yards per carry average at 3.0) is vital, too.

Buffalo is likely going to replicate what other defenses have done: Load the box with eight defenders to stymie the run game and dare Kubiak and quarterback Kirk Cousins to beat them over the top — which Las Vegas hasn’t done well, at all.

“Yeah, we have our calls and we have the different ways that we want to attack different defenses. Every defense gives a unique approach, and we have to have a solution for the different things that they present to us,” Raiders offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko said. “So, whether it’s loading the box, light box, different stuff, we really try to give the players the best answer. But it really comes down to us putting the players in their best situations and the guys executing their techniques and playing fast.”

Head-to-Head

Sunday’s clash marks the 44th time the Raiders and Bill will meet. Buffalo leads the all-time series 22-21 (2-0 in playoff action) and currently holds a three-game win streak over the Silver & Black, dating back to 2017 (Buffalo dropped Oakland 34-14 at home that game). The most recent outing between the two teams was in September of 2023, which the Bills won 38-10. The Raiders’ posted back-to-back wins in 2014 and 2016 (26-24 and 38-24, respectively). The Silver & Black own the longest win streak of the series at six from 1967 to 1972.

Quote of Note

“I think that you do what you got to do to win the game, man. Your weaknesses come out, and what the numbers say that they are, and we’re just trying to go win the game. So, we’re trying to improve all of our weaknesses. That’s offensive, defense, special teams, and the other side of the ball, they’re going to come after what you’re good at. They’re going harp on, ‘Hey, this team, they’ve taken the ball away,’ so they’re going protect it better. So, we’ve got to continue to take the ball away and just continue to improve as a team.”

—Las Vegas Raiders head coach Klint Kubiak when asked if the team’s ability to create turnovers through first three weeks of season hid some of the defense’s weaknesses