Growing Pains Continue for Raiders' First-Round Pick

D.J. Hayden sat in front of his locker, head down and covered by a white towel. The Oakland Raiders’ first-round draft pick politely declined all requests for an interview, his mind undoubtedly swimming with visions of footballs raining out of the sky.

On an afternoon in which the Raiders were terrible all the way around on defense, Hayden painfully stood out.

The rookie cornerback has had his share of growing pains this season, but nothing like what he endured in Week 9 against Philadelphia when Hayden become the personal whipping boy for Eagles quarterback Nick Foles.

Hayden was beaten for two touchdowns, one that went for 17 yards and another that turned into a 63-yard score. Both scores were by Philadelphia wide receiver Riley Cooper whose NFL career has been mostly been defined by the controversial racial comments he made that surfaced in the preseason.

The 12th overall pick, Hayden also gave up a 59-yard pass completion in the second half that set up Cooper’s third touchdown.

“He had a tough day but everybody’s gone through it,” Oakland safety Charles Woodson said. “But if you want to play a long time then you’ve got to get past it. Nobody’s going to feel sorry for him.”

Certainly not the Eagles, whose offense had been in the ruts before churning out 542 yards against the Raiders. It’s the fourth-most yards allowed in franchise history and the most given up since 2003.

Clearly it wasn’t all Hayden’s fault. Yet the life of an NFL cornerback is such that successes and failures tend to get magnified.

In this instance, Hayden’s mistakes didn’t need much enhancing.

“Obviously when you play out there on the island and you have a tough day, those things stand out a little bit more,” Oakland coach Dennis Allen said. “He’s a young player. He’s going to continue to work, he’s going to continue to get better. We still (have) confidence that he can go out and do the job.”

Hayden had been playing fairly well before his nightmarish game against the Eagles. He had a somewhat rough start to the season but had improved over the past few weeks and had allowed only one touchdown.

Against the Eagles, Hayden gave up 139 yards and two touchdowns on the three long passes alone.

Foles, who tied an NFL record with seven touchdown passes overall, insisted Philadelphia wasn’t targeting Hayden even though that appeared to be the case.

“No, I just feel confident in my receivers,” Foles said. “No matter who they go up against, I feel confident that they're going to win. Studying the Oakland film we knew we were going to have to really be on key on the routes. I was going to have to be pinpoint and all that stuff. I didn't really focus on (any) of them.”

Hayden’s performance was actually better than it looked.

On each of the touchdowns, he had decent coverage but appeared to lose his footing. On the long completion to DeSean Jackson, Hayden was with the Philadelphia receiver stride for stride but whiffed in his attempt to knock the ball down.

“Those are plays he’s going to have to make going forward,” Woodson said. “I know he’ll replay those plays in his mind every second of the day going forward and he’ll figure out what he needs to do to make those plays. He was right there step for step. He was in position in every play. From here on, he’ll just have to make a play.”