Las Vegas Raiders: 3 key matches against the Miami Dolphins

As the Miami Dolphins suffer a brutal 35-0 loss in Week 2 and lose their starting quarterback in the process, there are plenty of reasons the Las Vegas Raiders should feel confident heading into the game. Sunday.

The Raiders are 2-0 and have beaten perennial playoff teams in the conference. On top of that, Las Vegas won quite convincingly on the road last week in Pittsburgh, and it looks like the team finally have a competent defense for the first time in quite some time.

However, Miami is bursting with talent despite its slow start and is quite capable of causing a surprise. So of course the Silver and Black have yet to come out and run to take care of business, especially with the clashes below.

Maxx Crosby vs. Jesse Davis

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There’s no coated sugar, the Dolphins’ offensive line has been an absolute mess this season. Collectively, they allowed 34 presses out of 87 passes, so about one press every 2.5 setbacks, and rank last in the league with a 38.2 rating for blocking passes, per Focus on professional football.

Meanwhile, the Raiders currently have the highest team pass mark (87.7), thanks in large part to the production of Maxx Crosby.

Crosby currently ranks second among edge defenders with a 91.2 pass scorecard and leads the group of positions with incredible 19 pushes in two games. For reference, Arik Armstead is second at 15, and Von Miller and Melvin Ingram are tied for third at 11, so Crosby is significantly ahead of his peers.

While the Raiders passing thrower has turned things around a bit this season, he’s left-aligned 77.2 percent of the time. That means he’ll likely face Dolphins right tackle Jesse Davis, who has already given up seven pushes and has a 94.4 pass-blocking efficiency rating. Those two numbers rank in the last 10 for attacking tackles this season, so on paper it looks like Crosby could be in store for another great performance.

However, with Tua Tagovailoa out and Miami struggling to pass protection, I would expect them to run the ball more and that’s where this game balances out a bit.

Davis has been solid as a run blocker so far this season, scoring 71.6 just out of the 15 for his position. Crosby has always been good against the run with a rating of 77.0 which ranks 12th among rims, but obviously he and Davis are much closer to each other when it comes to ground play. Granted, Crosby tied for the most points stops at his position, so the scales are still tipping slightly in his favor.

Against the run is where the defensive lineman will need to be at his best. If he and the rest of the Raiders ‘defense can stuff the Dolphins’ rushed offense and force them to throw, then they can start to stick their ears and take advantage of a weak offensive line.

I went into more detail on how the Phins like to run around the right end of my X-factors column, so Miami can try to test Las Vegas’ defensive MVP early and often on Sunday.

Darren Waller vs. Eric Rowe

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At this point, everyone knows Darren Waller is the Raiders’ best receiver. I know it, you know and your drunk uncle calls him a key player before every game. Wait a minute … that’s kind of what I’m doing here …

Miami has a decent tight end eraser with security Eric Rowe. In the first week, Rowe managed to contain Hunter Henry and Jonnu Smith on two combined catches for 13 yards and a first down. Against the Bills last Sunday, security was not even targeted.

However, Rowe struggled to cover the tight ends of the league’s elite.

Travis Kelce had five catches of six targets for 106 yards and four first downs against him last season, which was unsurpassed by Waller, who caught all five targets with Rowe in cover and all five had a first down and a total of 112 yards. .

To put those numbers into perspective, the veteran defensive back didn’t allow more than 40 receiving yards as the main covering defenseman in any other game last season, and that’s as a whole, without even breaking it down into a single confrontation.

Now Brian Flores is a good defensive-minded head coach so I wouldn’t expect him to leave Rowe on Waller without any help this time around. But, Flores likes to cover a lot of men, and the Dolphins had the league’s second-highest blitz rate last season and made up the third-biggest blitz so far in 2021.

This means Waller will shoot at least a few one-on-one matches with Rowe or Miami will have to change their game plan and come out of what they do best. Either way, it’s a victory for Silver and Black.

Hunter Renfrow vs. Xavien Howard

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This confrontation may come as a surprise to some, given that Xavien Howard is primarily an outside corner and, of course, Hunter Renfrow does most of his work in the slot machine. But, as mentioned above, the Phins like to use a lot of male cover, and Howard generally overshadows the opponent’s best receiver.

While some might designate Henry Ruggs III as the best spread in Las Vegas, personally I wouldn’t agree, and think it would make more sense for Byron Jones to cover Ruggs as they are closer to each other in terms of speed. According to Palm tree of the treasure coast, Jones’ 40-yard time is 4.36 seconds, while Howard ran 4.58 on the combine in 2016.

Howard has also spent 28 of his 137 defensive shots covering the slot this season, while Jones has only seen 15 of 150 indoor shots. When Miami played against New England last week, the former had Mainly attracted Jakobi Meyers in the cover, the Patriots’ slot receiver, while Jones was on Nelson Agholor, who has played away this season.

So unless there’s a change in philosophy, I think it’s safe to say we’ll see a bit of Howard vs. Renfrow this Sunday, and it’s a clash we’ve seen before.

Last year, the dolphin won this head-to-head battle hands down. Renfrow was targeted once with Howard covering him and had a take for a negative yardstick. With the Clemson product currently leading receivers for the Raiders with 15 targets, history cannot repeat itself this weekend.

Renfrow has become a staple of the Las Vegas offense and they can’t afford to lose his production when Howard covers him up. It’s a tough task to ask a wide gap to systematically break free from one of the NFL’s top cornerbacks, but if there’s one player on the Raiders roster that’s up, it’s the third killer.