Defensive Coordinator Ken Norton, Jr.
After six weeks of play, the Oakland Raiders defense still seems to be in a funk. The Silver and Black haven't been able to get on the same page defensively, but continue to work every day at developing as a unit. Defensive coordinator Ken Norton, Jr., spoke before practice about last week's loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, and is looking forward to getting the wheels back on track this week. The Raiders will have an opportunity to fix some things on defense this Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Here are the quick hits from his time at the podium:
**Norton talked about where the team stands as a whole, but stated that the defense needs to improve.
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"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. You look at real good defenses, you look at our defense, there's not a lot of differences, but they make the plays that we're supposed to make."
He shared that each individual genuinely cares about correcting the mistakes, but the communication has to develop more.
"We have a group of guys, a group of coaches and our leadership, everybody cares a lot. They come in early in the morning and they stay late at night working their tails off. I think that each time we go out, again we're obsessed with improvement. The communication, the playmaking, the coaching, all of it has got to continue to improve."
With communication serving such an important role, Norton broke down how you fix what's wrong.
"Well, you have to practice. You have to make sure that you made things clear. You have to practice communication again. It's just a matter of asking the right questions, answering the right questions and then making sure that everybody is on the same page."
**Since arriving, linebacker Bruce Irvin has made an impact on the team, and Norton praised him for it.
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"Bruce is doing everything. Bruce is really good at going forward. He's a really good cover guy. He's a really good leader, and he's done a lot good things for us. He's certainly made us have the ability to do a lot of things, but he can go forward and cover. He can do it all."
He made it very clear that the team needs to improve in a multitude of areas, but knows the effort is there.
"We need to stay on top, we need to tackle, we need to certainly be more clear and everybody wants to talk about communication, but it's about consistently over the duration of the game showing up with a game mindset and winning. You have to win ball games and you have to be sharper. We have to be sharper and we have to play better."
