In Sunday’s 20-10 win over the Tennessee Titans, veteran linebacker Devin White finally had a breakout game as a member of the Raiders.
White led the Raiders with nine tackles on Sunday and played a key role in two pivotal defensive plays.
White’s strip sack in the second quarter setup the Raiders’ only touchdown in the first half and his interception with 16 seconds remaining in the half most likely took a field goal away from the Titans.
But not everyone who watched White on Sunday came away impressed.
Pro Football Focus handed White the lowest defensive grade on the team on Sunday (50.5), largely on account of his 28.9 tackling grade. Additionally, White received a 37.5 coverage grade in the game and was credited with giving up seven receptions on eight targets.
The one play where White didn’t give up a reception in coverage was the batted ball that led to his interception.
Pro Football Focus is hardly the gold standard for grading performances, but White’s grade this week is reminder that box scores don’t always tell the story. Additionally, head coach Pete Carroll and the coaching staff wouldn’t trade a higher game grade for a performance that didn’t produce the game-changing plays that White was able to make on Sunday.
Football is the ultimate team sport and thanks to a well-timed blitz and a batted ball, White was one of the heroes of Sunday’s game… in no small part because he was where he was supposed to be and did what he was supposed to do.
x: @raidersbeat
Devin White was one of the sparks and stars of the game. The whole defense played well, but White stood out. What a weird system, shows that stats don’t tell the story.
That’s the value of PFF and play charting/ grading services. They watch and measure all the snaps, the majority of which we don’t notice for guys who don’t touch the ball.
Yep. Most people don’t seem to understand this. It’s a neutral system that simply assigns points between -3 and +3 per play.
One or two great plays can still only earn 3 points each. If you blow your coverage or miss tackles on 10-15 other plays, that easily negates a few +3s.
It’s like a QB throwing one really nice TD bomb, but then missing 12 other open throws. Nobody would call them a star, because people can see each throw. For a LB, 90% of what they do is invisible to he average fan.
Still don’t understand why we let Spillane and Diablo go?
Yeah. Money!