Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr faced little pressure during a 24-16 win over the Denver Broncos in Week 1. Carr went 22-of-26 for 259 passing yards with one touchdown pass and no interceptions. He wasn’t sacked once.
So what happened to superstar pass rushers Von Miller and Bradley Chubb? Why weren’t they able to generate any pressure?
Part of the problem was that Denver’s defense was allowing Oakland’s offense to get into third-and-short situations — running situations.
“They were getting three, getting two, getting four, getting five [yards] too many times,” Broncos coach Vic Fangio said of the Raiders’ early-down success. “You know that plays into the third-and-short stuff they had. ”
With few obvious passing situations, Miller and Chubb didn’t get after Carr as often as they would have liked to.
“[We need to get] off the field on third down and putting them in a tougher position, like third-and-long and not so much third-and-short,” Chubb said. “I feel like they did a good job on first and second down of moving the chains. We just have to be better on first and second down, and third down will come to us.”
When Oakland did have a handful of obvious passing situations on third down, Carr got the ball out of his hands quickly. Miller took responsibility for not generating more pressure when he had a chance to.
“I didn’t get to him once,” Miller said. “Not even a quarterback hit, so I’m disappointed in myself on an individual level. They were throwing the ball quick, but we have to find a way to get there.”
Miller and Chubb will get a chance to redeem themselves when the Broncos host the Chicago Bears in Week 2. Bears quarterback Mitchell Trubkisy was sacked five times in Week 1 and doesn’t get rid of the football quite as quickly as Carr.
Miller and Co. plan to move on from Monday’s defeat and turn their attention toward bouncing back against Chicago.
“We’re all disappointed,” Miller said. “It’s OK to be disappointed, but we can’t get discouraged. We have a really good Bears team coming up this week, and we have to play better.”
