Regardless of next quarterback, Raiders must overhaul defense this offseason

By Case Keefer (contact)

Monday, Jan. 2, 2023 | 2 a.m.

Jarrett Stidham stood at the forefront of the Raiders’ spirited upset bid throughout Sunday afternoon’s game against the 49ers at Allegiant Stadium, and he wasn’t done stepping up even after the team’s eventual 37-34 overtime loss.

After the fourth-year veteran’s first career start, he addressed the team in the locker room postgame and apologized. Stidham told his teammates he felt he could have done more.

“I think every single person on the team said, ‘Man, get out of here with that. You balled out. You did your thing,’” top receiver Davante Adams recounted the reaction to Stidham's speech. “We’ve got to find a way to help him.”

More specifically, the defense has to find a way to help Stidham — or whoever is playing quarterback for Las Vegas. It’s too late this year after the defeat dropped the Raiders to 6-10 on the season and eliminated playoff hopes that were surprisingly and momentarily revived Sunday.

But, if the Raiders’ defense stays as feeble as it's been for most of the season, then it won’t matter who’s playing quarterback. All progress the Las Vegas defense had appeared to make in recent weeks was lost against San Francisco.

The 49ers weren’t running anything fancy for do-everything running back Christian McCaffrey, and yet he gashed the Raiders with a season-high 193 all-purpose yards. As if that wasn’t enough, rookie quarterback Brock Purdy, who started the season as a third-stringer, put up a career-high 284 passing yards in his fourth start.

Las Vegas held Purdy in check for much of the game but had no answer for him after Stidham threw his third touchdown pass of the day, a 60-yarder to Adams, to go up 24-14 in the third quarter. For the fifth time this season, the Raiders surrendered a double-digit lead when their defense couldn’t stop an opposing offense pressed into action on the comeback trail.

“(Purdy) is a good young player,” McDaniels said afterwards in his postgame news conference. “I thought our guys hung in there, fought, battled and made some plays to give us an opportunity. That’s all we can ask for.”

Stidham is a consummate pro so he wouldn’t ask for more, but he certainly could have. He deserved better for what McDaniels called a “solid performance” but one that often bordered on spectacular.

No one expected the 26-year-old former New England Patriot to play on the level of displaced starter Derek Carr, who is away from the team ahead of a surefire trade or release this offseason. But Stidham might have topped the nine-year veteran who had been a mentor.

Stidham threw for 365 yards, 58 more than Carr had any game this season, and three touchdowns, which Carr had done only twice in 15 games. Stidham’s QBR of 77.3 was better than in all but two of Carr’s starts this season.

And those two starts came against Houston and Seattle, two of the only defenses in the NFL that have played as poorly as Las Vegas’ stop unit. San Francisco’s defense meanwhile is rated No. 1 by almost any all-encompassing metric.

“Jarrett, I think, he shocked a lot of people,” Adams said. “He didn’t shock me.”

Carr called Stidham “five star dual threat” — what his scouting report by recruiting services read coming out of high school in Stephenville, Texas — all training camp but Sunday showed there was some truth to the joke. The Auburn (by way of Baylor) product repeatedly picked up first downs with his legs in the first half, rushing for 34 yards on seven carries.

That only seemed to open up passing lanes, which included a wide-open deep pass on a 24-yard touchdown to tight end Darren Waller to put the Raiders up 7-0 early. Later, Stidham began to target Adams frequently regardless of how much the 49ers schemed to slow the All-Pro receiver.

Carr had been criticized in some games throughout the season for shying away from Adams when he was double covered or not getting the ball in his vicinity. Stidham wasn’t going to make the same mistake as Adams racked up seven catches for 153 yards — his second-most productive game of the season.

Las Vegas’ second touchdown came when Stidham threw a fade route in the corner of the end zone to allow Adams to fight off a cornerback and drag his second foot right before halftime to go up 17-14. In a two-minute drill at the end of the game that concluded with the Raiders tying the score at 34-34 on a one-yard rush by Josh Jacobs, Stidham fired a 45-yard pass down the sideline that Adams was able to dive and cradle for a catch.

“He’s an amazing player clearly,” Stidham said of Adams. “I just tried to put the ball somewhere where he could get and touch it. That’s my job as the quarterback.”

If only the defense could have executed its job half as well. The only time the 49ers didn’t score in their final four drives of regulation was when Robbie Gould sailed a 41-yard game-winning field goal attempt at the end of regulation.

The Raiders’ defense is extraordinarily beaten up with linebacker Denzel Perryman, edge rusher Chandler Jones and cornerback Rock Ya-Sin all added to injured reserve this week. But it’s on the coaching staff and front office to have developed depth to allow them to overcome such obstacles.

The Raiders haven’t. And even their best players on the field didn’t have strong days.

Edge rusher Maxx Crosby, after 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan called him “the second-best defensive player in the league” this week, looked uncharacteristically human with only one quarterback hit as the visitors dedicated extra attention to him. Top cornerback Nate Hobbs was targeted repeatedly, giving up a large chunk of 49ers receiver Brandon Aiyuk’ season-high 101 receiving yards.

“I thought (our defense) practiced hard and went out there and played their butt off,” McDaniels said. “It wasn’t always perfect. It’s a really good unit over there with a lot of talented players.”

San Francisco’s offense has been good under Purdy, but its defense has been great all season. The Raiders’ 7.6 yards per play on Sunday was the second-most the 49ers surrendered this year, behind only a 44-23 walloping by the Chiefs midseason.

It’s a shame the Raiders’ defense wasted such a successful offensive outing.

San Francisco’s defensive force was bound to come through if given too many chances, and it finally happened in the first passing attempt of overtime. Defensive Player of the Year favorite Nick Bosa bull-rushed Raiders’ left tackle Kolton Miller into Stidham, causing a misthrow that 49ers’ safety Tashaun Gipson intercepted and returned 56 yards to the 7-yard line. The turnover was not on Stidham, even less so than his earlier interception on a pass that Kerry Hyder batted down at the line into the Drake Jackson’s arms was.

Stidham should have done enough to earn more consideration as Carr’s permanent successor, but McDaniels was noncommittal after the game. The Raiders probably already have the bones of a plan in place for next year’s quarterback, likely involving a free-agent quarterback but also potentially through the draft.

No one they bring in, however, is going to be good enough to overcome the defense if the unit stays anywhere near its current form. The Raiders’ perennial defensive failings were undoubtedly a simmering frustration of Carr’s — just not one he voiced.

Now Stidham should know how he felt. The new quarterback, who’s guaranteed only one more start next week against the Chiefs, took accountability for the loss but he didn’t need to.

“I spend more time with these guys than I do my own family so you just get close and want to do everything you can to make those people happy,” Stidham said. “It’s just tough the way today we went.”

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