Oakland Raiders vs. Los Angeles Rams Pre

The first Monday night Jose Cruz Jr. Jersey of the 2018 NFL season features two games. In the early slate, we've got the and the , but in the late game, we've got the upstart paying a visit to Jon Gruden and the (10:15 p.m., ESPN, ESPN2).LA and Oakland were two of the busiest teams in the NFL this offseason, with the Rams going on the league's biggest shopping spree and the Raiders handing Gruden $100 million to leave the announcer's booth and return to the sideline. Once they get on the field, however, it seems fairly clear that one of these teams has a major advantage over the other in almost every area of the game.Let's walk through exactly why the Rams seem so likely to take the Raiders to school on Monday night.When the Raiders have the ballThe Rams had one of the NFL's best defenses last season, ranking 12th in points allowed (seventh in points allowed per drive) and sixth in defensive efficiency, as determined by Football Outsiders' defensive DVOA. They then went out and added more defensive talent than anybody in the league this offseason. First came a trade for star cornerback , who has more interceptions than any player in the NFL since he entered the league. They followed that up with a deal for former cornerback , who has been one of the best defensive backs in the league for years. And after he was cut loose by the , the Rams then brought in , giving them the best interior defensive line duo in the NFL now that Suh is paired with in the middle of Wade Phillips' defense.In other words, it is going to be unbelievably difficult to move the ball and/or score points against the 2018 Los Angeles Rams. More NFL The Rams already had one of the NFL's best pa s defenses, as Phillips' unit ranked 12th in yards allowed per attempt, fifth in opponents pa ser rating, and third in pa s defensive DVOA in 2017. They were strong against the pa s in every area: 12th in DVOA Yuli Gurriel Jersey against No. 1 receivers, fourth against No. 2 receivers, seventh against all other receivers, 19th against tight ends, and ninth against running backs. They were 11th on pa ses to the left side, fourth on pa ses to the middle and fifth on pa ses to the right; fifth against deep pa ses and ninth against short pa ses. They e sentially had zero weakne ses. And now they have upgrade in a big way at three of the most important positions on defense. It stands to reason that they'll be even more difficult to throw against in 2018. And because of the additions of Peters and Talib, they'll be able to trust their cornerbacks on an island even more often. That will allow Phillips to drop an extra defender into the box more often, improving the team's run defense. And considering Suh is a wrecker against the run in his own right, he should have a strong impact on the team's ability to stop the run as well.This is what the Raiders will be up against in Week 1. It's difficult to see them having all that much succe s, but if they do, it will likely be because the offensive line won the battle in the trenches.The Gerrit Cole Jersey group up front for Oakland includes rookie at left tackle, at left guard, at center, at right guard, and at right tackle. That's most of the core group of maulers that made one of the most well-protected quarterbacks in the league over the past couple seasons, plus an early first-round pick for whom the team obviously has high hopes. The guys with the most work cut out for them are obviously Osemele, Hudson, and Jackson, who will have to collectively deal with the terror that is Donald and Suh, plus . Donald is coming off another monster season during which he led the NFL in total pre sures despite mi sing two games. Suh has routinely seen and beaten double teams since the moment he stepped on the field. And Brockers gets extremely underrated because he's happened to play on the same team as the NFL's best interior defender for the past few years. It'll be important for that group of linemen up the middle to set the pocket for Carr, who is one of the league's most skittish quarterbacks when he has defenders anywhere near his feet. (This has been his biggest i sue going back to college.)While it may seem like Carr is well-equipped to deal with an elite pa s rush and elite defensive backfield based on his reputation, it's become fairly Preston Tucker Jersey clear that his reputation outstrips his actual on-field performance and abilities. Consider that among the 40 quarterbacks who have thrown at least 500 pa ses during Carr's time in the league, he ranks 27th in completion percentage, 20th in touchdown rate, 25th in pa ser rating, and 37th in yards per attempt.It would be one thing if he had an elite pa s-catching corps, a dominant run game, and/or an offensive genius scheming him into position for succe s. But Carr's best pa s-catcher is , who has struggled with drops and is coming off a dreadful season. His No. 2 wideout is , who the felt they didn't need anymore. His slot man is , who you may or may not be first hearing of right now. His tight end is arguably the most inconsistent player in the league. Oakland's run game was extremely inconsistent last season, and the team ultimately finished just 14th in rush offense DVOA. And while Jon Gruden has the reputation of an offensive mastermind, he has been out of the league for a decade and the teams for which he called plays during his first stint in the league had an average ranking of 15th in yards, 17th in points, and 16th in DVOA. In other words, his offenses have typically been pretty average. He has also expre sed an interest in bringing football back to 1998, or trending in the exact opposite direction of what the most succe sful teams in the league have been doing. Contrarianism can work on occasion but Gruden appears Carlos Lee Jersey to have an antiquated view of the kinds of things that drive succe s in the NFL right now. That does not bode well for his offense's chances against one of the NFL's best defensesWhen the Rams have the ballOf course, it's also true that around this time last year, we could have said a whole lot of negative things about the Rams' offense. LA was coming off a season during which it ranked dead last in the NFL in yards, points, and pa sing, rushing, and overall offensive DVOA. Sure, they hired a new coach in Sean McVay, but looked like a lost cause, was coming off a sophomore slump, and their wide receiver corps included two castoffs from the and a third-round rookie from Eastern Washington.Of course, we all know what happened next: the Rams made a miraculous turnaround and became one of the best offenses in football in 2017, leading the league in scoring and ranking sixth in overall offensive DVOA. Goff went from having arguably the worst season for any rookie quarterback in NFL history to throwing for 3,804 yards and 28 touchdowns against only seven interceptions, while leading the NFL in both yards per completion and adjusted net yards per attempt. He more than doubled his touchdown rate, and slashed both his interception rate and his sack rate (thank