The Raiders defense was bad on Sunday, but it wasn’t all bad.
Second-year cornerback Trayvon Mullen has solidified himself as the Raiders top cornerback and he played one of the best games of his career on Sunday.
Here he is defending New England’s best receiver, Julian Edelman, on a big 3rd and 6 in the first quarter…
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Mullen was targeted four times by Cam Newton and had four pass breakups – good enough to earn the second-best Pro Football Focus coverage grade of any cornerback in the NFL on Sunday.
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Mullen’s 92.7 coverage grade this week was the highest of his short career, with his next best being week 11 in 2019 against Cincinnati (91.7).
Unfortunately for Mullen and the Raiders, stopping Cam Newton was only half the battle. It was the Patriots running game that ended up gouging Paul Guenther’s defense for the last three quarters of the game… to the tune of 250 yards on 38 carries.
twitter: @raidersbeat
One of eleven ain’t good enough! We need our entire defense to step up and play hard and smart every week on every play. The awful coverages, missed tackles and calculations are killing us! It’s up to the coaches to first hold themselves accountable and then to each and every player on our team, regardless of their role or position on the team. Every coach and player should be all in or all out!
The game of football is hard to play and simple to comprehend…every man do his job!
Train..Retain…Prepare…and Execute!
At some point it’s not only the defensive coordinator, but the head coach as well.
The Patriots talent isn’t that much better if better at all. The coaches aren’t getting the most out of their players. Plain and simple. That falls at the top.