On Monday it was Lincoln Kennedy who was singing the praises of Raiders defensive coordinator John Pagano. Kennedy believes there is less confusion under Pagano and plays are getting in quicker from the sideline.
On Tuesday, another former Raider made an observation on Pagano’s defense. Bill Romanowski says for the first time this season the Raiders are disguising defenses and it’s making life more difficult for opposing quarterbacks.
“For the first time the last two games there were times when we did not know who coming and where they were going to come from,” Romanowski said Tuesday on 95.7 The Game. “In the NFL if you’re playing defense and they know you’re just going to rush four, they are going to eat you apart and that’s what they’ve done.”
Romo also added that he believes some of the disgust from players after Ken Norton Jr. was fired was because players knew head coach Jack Del Rio already had string input on the play calls that were coming from the sideline.
“That did happen at times,” Raiders play-by-play voice Greg Papa confirmed. “What happened was Ken would make a call and Jack would ‘no lets check out of that and run this.’ So there was some of that and there were actual games where he jumped in.”
Reach your own conclusions as to where the Raiders are at defensively, but this much is certain – they will face their first real test under Pagano on Sunday against the Chiefs. That’s when we’ll find out what they’re really about.
twitter: @raidersbeat
No confidence in Del Rio!
I’m sure you’re longing for the days of Lane Kiffin and Norv Turner or Art Shell or Dennis Allen maybe? No? Well than maybe you should try to be a little more patient with a coach that got us to the playoffs and washed the stench of losing off of our team. I mean I don’t know how the rest of Raider Nation feels about him but I’m very thankful that we hired him instead of Tony Sparano we still wouldn’t know what winning taste like if we didn’t get Del Rio. I mean if 6-6 with a chance to win the division is an off year then I’ll take that all day every day and twice on Sunday I mean cmon we were the laughing stock of the league for 14 years even the Browns were considered a more functional franchise at the peak of our ineptitude so on behalf of The one and only Nation the Raider Nation I’m gonna tell you to back up and gain some perspective Raider Nation out
I totally agree
The defense was garbage under KNJ, so any sort of movement forward is good. Maybe the offense is finally coming together and the defense feels more comfortable under Pagano, so they can now look more like the 12-4 team from last year, not the trainwreck they’ve looked like this year
sounds like JDR had already lost confidence in Norton