The Raiders must prove their defense won't be gone with the wind.
A 16-6 win over the Cleveland Browns was their signature performance under defensive coordinator Paul Guenther, who has had precious few of those since arriving with coach Jon Gruden in 2018.
The Raiders held Cleveland to single digits and no touchdowns, the first time that's happened in 39 games. The Browns had 223 yards of total offense, the lowest figure during that span, beating the previous best of 236 against the Chicago Bears last season in London.
Next up are Los Angeles Chargers for a quick road trip to SoFi Stadium, a 2-5 team that has perfected the art of the come-from-ahead loss but with an offense capable of racking up yardage and first downs under rookie quarterback Justin Herbert.
"Explosive offense," Guenther said during a video conference Thursday. "They're up there in all the categories. It's another big challenge for us."
A big challenge made more difficult with the pristine conditions inside a brand new domed stadium.
After the Cleveland win, safety Jonathan Abram said the location doesn't matter.
"It does not matter where we go or where we are at," Abram said. "We can show up on the concrete at six in the morning and we are going to be ready to play ball."
Abram had better be right, because only two games the rest of the way for the Raiders are potential bad weather games — at the New York Jets on Dec. 6 and at Denver in the regular-season finale on Jan. 3. Every other game will be in a dome, five of them at home at Allegiant Stadium.
The Raiders did the job defensively when called upon against Cleveland, but also had the help of winds of 35 miles per hour or more along with rain, frozen rain and some snow. The passing game on both sides was severely affected. Cleveland quarterback Baker Mayfield was 12 of 25 for 122 yards.
The Raiders offense, meanwhile, ran the ball 45 times for 209 yards and possessed the ball for more than 37 minutes. When the Raiders defense got off the field, they stayed off it for long stretches.
"We had only 23 minutes on defense,": Gruden said. "That was a big help."
Still there were good things evident from some tweaks were made after being sliced and diced by Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the previous week. The Raiders blitzed a little more with their best player, safety Johnathan Abram, against both run and pass. They played nickel corner Lamarcus Joyner a bit at safety, and his end zone hit late in the game broke up a Browns touchdown.
The Raiders got their first fumble recovery, by linebacker Nicholas Morrow, courtesy of a trailing strip from Nick Kwiatkoski against Cleveland tight end Harrison Bryant.
While the Browns were without Odell Beckham Jr. against the Raiders, the Chargers have Keenan Allen and Mike Williams on the outside and Hunter Henry at tight end. Running back Austin Ekeler is out, but that didn't stop Justin Jackson (17 carries, 89 yards) from leading a 208-yard rushing effort in a 31-30 loss to Denver.
Beating the Browns was big in terms of positive reinforcement, at least, and gave Chargers coach Anthony Lynn an opportunity to say nice things about the Raiders' defense without sounding ridiculous.
"They do a good job of creating pressure, playing good team ball nd mixing it on you," Lynn said in a conference call. "A young quarterback has really got to study going to against this defense because he's going to see multiple looks and that can slow you down if you allow it to."
For the most part, the "pressure" of which Lynn speaks has been sporadic. The Raiders have just seven sacks, one of just four teams with less than 10.
The Raiders are mindful that what worked against the Browns won't necessarily be effective against the Chargers.
"You've just got to sit and realize what you have," Guenther said. "Your assets are what they can do the best. And as coaches, whether it be a matchup on a guy or a scheme, whatever it is, getting those guys in positions where they can do the best."
