Friday, Oct. 18, 2024 | 2 a.m.
Raiders coach Antonio Pierce’s sideline entourage shortened in Sunday’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he couldn’t have been happier.
Las Vegas’ head coach still hasn’t completely abandoned his tendencies from years as a linebackers coach. When the Raiders are playing defense, he typically stands with current linebackers coach Mike Caldwell.
The pair of former NFL players turned coaches had another linebacker join their group for a three-week stretch as current Raider Divine Deablo often watched the game with them as he recovered from an oblique injury. Pierce said Deablo benefitted from the experience, and it might have driven him to one of the best games of his career versus the Steelers.
“There’s a lot of coaching throughout the game and things that we’re talking about,” Pierce said. “And when (Deablo) got out there, what you saw was somebody that was fresh, explosive.”
Las Vegas goes into its Week 7 game at the Los Angeles Rams, with kickoff set for 1:05 p.m. Sunday airing on CBS, on a two-game losing streak after a 32-13 loss to Pittsburgh.
But the defeat was to little fault of the defense, which held the Steelers to 4.7 yards per play and kept the Raiders in it until late in the fourth quarter. It was to even less fault of Deablo who looked nothing like the player that Pierce said needed to develop more consistency after an uneven start to the season.
Against the Steelers, he had a sack, two tackles for loss and an interception that was overturned because of a penalty.
“After coming back from this oblique injury, it felt really good to be out there with my guys,” Deablo said. “I felt really good personally and hopefully my play reflected that, and I keep it going.”
Las Vegas badly needs him to keep it going as it’s running out of other options at linebacker. There was some optimism when Deablo went down that his absence could open the door for younger backups to make an impression, but rookie fifth-rounder Tommy Eichenberg has looked raw and is now dealing with an injury (quad) of his own.
Las Vegas also lost third-year linebacker Luke Masterson, who started two games in place of Deablo, to a season-ending injury in practice two weeks ago.
The team has continued to bring along rookie undrafted free agent Amari Gainer and second-year, 2023 sixth-round pick Amari Burney slowly as the pair has only 30 combined defensive snaps to this point of the season.
It might have been rash to assume any of the developing options could have filled in for Deablo without any drop-off. While he hasn’t established himself as a star, the Raiders’ defense has been at its best over the last three seasons when the fourth-year, former third-round pick is showing off his versatility in the middle of the field.
“It was awesome,” edge rusher Maxx Crosby said of playing with Deablo again. “He was flying around, balling, had a smile on his face, hit a couple of dances. I missed my guy.”
The statistics say the Las Vegas defense as a whole missed Deablo. His greatest asset is his ability to hold his own in pass coverage, tapping into his background as a former defensive back at Virginia Tech.
The Raiders have swelled to the No. 27 ranked defense in the league by the DVOA ratings against passes over the middle of the field. Pittsburgh may have schemed to attack the weakness, but receivers weren’t running as openly free with Deablo back in.
He saw one potential interception go through his hands in the end zone, and had actually earlier picked off another. But a roughing-the-passer penalty on defensive tackle Matthew Butler negated the takeaway.
“It’s a damn shame that the interception didn’t count, because he was on his way to having a hell of a game that day with tackles for loss, sacks, big hits,” Pierce said. “I mean, he was all over the place, and he’s healthy. He’s fresh. He’s in the right mind space. So, I’m looking forward to (watching) him this weekend as well.”
Deablo wasn’t satisfied with his performance against the Steelers — which Pro Football Focus graded at 89.8, a career-high mark — mainly because the defense gave up 183 rushing yards on 35 attempts.
He’s no longer the Raider defense’s assigned “green dot” guy — the one player who can hear from the coaches pre-snap with the in-helmet communication device — like he’s been portions of the last two seasons. Fellow starting linebacker Robert Spillane has carried the responsibility this season.
But he still feels plenty of ownership about the unit’s overall success and believes he can help get the defense back to where it wants to be as one of the NFL’s tougher groups to move the ball on.
“Assignments,” Deablo said when asked how to fix the Raiders’ run defense problems. “I feel like some of the guys are doing their own thing and we’ve just got to make sure we’re one of 11 pieces. You’ve just got to make sure you do your job. That way, as linebackers, we can do our job and the safeties can do their job instead of worrying.”
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or