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The Las Vegas Raiders must turn the page after their dramatic loss to the Chicago Bears. Onto Week 5, and now the Silver and Black will have to travel on the road to face the Indianapolis Colts.
Moreover, the Raiders will face a Colts side led by Daniel Jones, who has revitalized his career in Indianapolis. Through his first three weeks of the 2025 NFL season, Jones had a passer rating of over 100. However, that wasn’t the case in Week 4 as the Colts fell to the Los Angeles Rams.
As a result, Las Vegas will need to watch what the Rams did and attempt to replicate it on defense to ensure that Jones has another challenging game. Raiders head coach Pete Caroll revealed what their defense needs to do to ensure Jones has another off-performance.
“The new guy is Daniel Jones in this thing, and he has really thrived with the people around him in the system that they’re running,” Carroll said. “[Shane Steichen is] doing a great job getting him off to a fantastic start.
“I know his confidence is high. He got roughed up a little bit last week with a couple of picks, but they have seemed to put it together really well, and they’ve been wide open, which is why they’ve caught people off guard…
“We’re going to try to make it hard on them. They have used their play-action game so extensively, more than maybe anybody in the NFL, right at the top. That’s been a real benefit to them because of Jonathan Taylor being back there.”
Can the Raiders Cause Daniel Jones to Struggle?
The Colts and Jones have been one of the surprise teams this season. However, against the Rams, Jones was sacked twice and threw two interceptions in the loss. The former New York Giants signal-caller hasn’t been asked to do too much as he’s completed 71.9 percent of his passes for four touchdowns and two interceptions through four games.
Nonetheless, if Las Vegas can make him uncomfortable, Jones showed he can revert to the form that led to the Giants cutting ties with him. It will be interesting to see if Carroll and Co. can replicate what the Rams did in Week 4.
Raiders Are Worried About Jonathan Taylor
One way the Colts can avoid Jones having to make more plays than he’s comfortable with is having a stellar running game. As a result, Carroll spotlighted the player Jonathan Taylor is and why Las Vegas need to control him.
“He’s a great player,” Carroll added. “He he makes people miss just like Ashton [Jeanty] does. They just bounce off him, and he just keeps running, and they can’t stop him. And so our tackling will be of paramount importance this week in gang tackling him.
“And you can’t assume that he’s down. You can’t assume you make a good hit on the guy. He keeps going just like what Ashton does. And it’s a great trait for a running back and I think he’s leading the NFL in rushing right now.
Eduardo Razo Eduardo Razo is a sports journalist covering the NFL for Heavy.com. He previously covered the league for NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports Bay Area & California, and has contributed as a freelance writer for The Sporting News. He also served as an editor for Athlon Sports and Heavy Sports focusing on MLB and the NFL. More about Eduardo Razo
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