Improving Defense Makes Raiders AFC West's Most Dangerous Team

On Sunday, the Oakland Raiders hung 33 points on the Jacksonville Jaguars in a resounding victory. This isn't news—the Raiders have fielded the AFC West's best offense for most of the 2016 NFL season.

What is news, however, is a defensive effort that was one of Oakland's best this year.

If the porous Raiders defense can consistently start making stops and keeping pace with the offense, the team would be more than just a contender in the AFC West. It would be the division's most dangerous club.

To say the Oakland defense had struggled entering Week 7 is an understatement. The Raiders came into this week's action dead last in the NFL in total defense, allowing a staggering 444.8 yards per game.

The Raiders also ranked last in pass defense (312.7 yards per game) 30th in run defense (132.2 yards per game) and 24th in scoring defense (27.2 points per game). They had overcome those deficiencies thanks to their seventh-ranked offense, but earlier this week, defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. told Eddie Paskal of the team's website he was well aware his unit badly needed to improve:

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If you believe in your players, you believe in your coaches, you believe in yourself, obviously, you'd like the stats to be better. We're at 4-2. We're in a pretty good place record-wise, but the stats need to be better. I think that we need to continue understanding what we are, who we are and getting better at what we're doing. You see the things that are going wrong. We're missing tackles, the ball goes over our head, we'll get reached. Those little things, the details need to be taken care of.

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On Sunday, those details were indeed taken care of. Jacksonville's 344 total yards were the fewest from an Oakland opponent all season. For the first time this year, the Raiders didn't allow either 350 passing yards or 125 rushing yards. And the 16 points the Jaguars scored was Oakland's best showing since a 17-10 win at Tennessee in Week 3.

There were a few reasons why the Oakland defense looked as good Sunday as it has all season.

The first shouldn't surprise anyone. Defensive end Khalil Mack, who came into 2016 as a top contender for Defensive Player of the Year, got off to a sluggish start. After piling up 15 sacks in 2015, Mack failed to notch a single one over the first three weeks of the season.

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Since Week 4, however, Mack has heated up. The third-year pro had three tackles and Oakland's only sack against the Jags, giving him 21 tackles and three sacks over the past month.

They aren't staggering numbers, but given the near-constant double-teams and the lack of help Mack is receiving from his teammates, they're pretty impressive.

Still, as Mack told Scott Bair of CSN Bay Area last week, there's only so much even he can do.

"It's not about just one person, Mack said. "That's the big picture, and it's what I'm focused on. Playing good team football."

Against Jacksonville, Mack got help from a number of his teammates in areas where the Raiders have struggled.

Outside linebacker Malcolm Smith, who has battled injuries throughout the year, tied a season high with six solo stops. Cornerback David Amerson, who has been picked on for much of 2016, intercepted a pass and received his highest game grade from Pro Football Focus since that Week 3 win over the Tennessee Titans.

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And veteran linebacker Perry Riley, who wasn't on the team to begin the year, drew the start at middle linebacker, played all 68 defensive snaps and had the best PFF grade of any Oakland defender.

After the game, Norton told reporters that Riley's addition has provided a lift to the defense: "You can tell that his years of experience have really helped him with the ability to come out here and play right away. You can tell he's paying attention."

One game against a Jaguars squad that entered Week 7 ranked 31st in the NFL in total offense is not going to fix every problem with the Raiders defense. In fact, the Raiders allowed about 25 more yards to Jacksonville than the Jaguars had averaged this year, and the Oakland pass rush is still mostly dormant.

But there were definite signs of progress. With Smith healthy and Riley in the middle, the Raiders weren't caught out of position as much. The beleaguered Raiders secondary picked off two passes and held Pro Bowl wide receiver Allen Robinson to two catches for nine yards.

These are things the Raiders can build on when they travel to Tampa next week. Things they can hang their hats on as they get ready for a huge home showdown with the Denver Broncos two weeks from now.

Seven weeks into the season, there's little question the Raiders have the best offense in their division. No one expects the defense to challenge Denver for the title on that side of the ball.

But there was reason to hope Sunday that the Oakland defense turned a bit of a corner and started down a path that will give the team more balance.

The sort of balance that could make the Raiders very dangerous.

Gary Davenport is an NFL analyst at Bleacher Report and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association and Pro Football Writers of America. You can follow Gary on Twitter: @IDPSharks.