HENDERSON, Nev. — Christian Wilkins is a hands-up roller coaster guy, “yelling and screaming” with every twist and climb and dip.
That said, he is not enjoying the Las Vegas Raiders’ ride this season, losing to the Los Angeles Chargers, beating the Baltimore Ravens on the road and then getting booed by home fans Sunday in an embarrassing loss to the Carolina Panthers. The defensive tackle also doesn’t treat it as a real roller-coaster ride.
“I try to do a good job of just staying even-keeled through it all,” Wilkins said Monday afternoon. “And that’s what I’ll encourage a lot of my teammates to do. Never overreact, even after tough losses (or) bad plays, whatever. And even when you have a great game, don’t get too excited because that’s just how this game goes. It’s very humbling either way.
“And yeah, it’s a roller coaster, but ride it, have your hands up and take it in stride and have fun with this thing.”
It’s going to be tough for the defense to do this week as the Raiders get ready to host the Cleveland Browns. Their best player, Maxx Crosby, is battling a high ankle sprain. They just lost their second defensive starter to a season-ending knee injury, with safety Marcus Epps joining pass rusher Malcolm Koonce on injured reserve.
Oh, and their coach, Antonio Pierce, accused them of making “business decisions” and not going all out in the loss to the Panthers.
“We’ve got to respond,” Crosby said Sunday night. “We’ve got to get ready to work.”
The Raiders allowed 5.4 yards per carry to Chuba Hubbard and touched Andy Dalton only five times as he became the first QB this season to throw for 300 yards and three touchdowns before Joe Burrow joined him Monday night.
“Our effort, our energy, our passion did not show up (Sunday),” Pierce said. “And that just can’t always be 98 (Crosby). I mean, we obviously know what 98 is dealing with; you see it. He gave it all he had … but there are 10 other guys on the field, and they’ve got to play to a high level. And we did that last week against Baltimore. Those guys did do that. We’ve just got to be consistently doing it.”
Crosby had played every snap the first two games, but after turning his ankle on the second-to-last play against the Ravens, he came out for 13 of 74 plays against the Panthers.
“It sucks,” Crosby said. “It’s unfortunate … but it’s just part of the game. I am going to go out there if I am 100 percent or 50 percent.”
The good news is Crosby said the taped-up left ankle didn’t get worse Sunday. The bad news is he will be a little limited for a while.
Pierce said that’s no excuse for the rest of the defense.
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“We didn’t play bad because Maxx wasn’t like Maxx, right? Maxx at 80 percent is still a lot better than any defensive end in the National Football League,” Pierce said. “So, I think just for all of us, it’s just doing our job, not getting frustrated with a play or two here and letting that go. That really showed up yesterday for our group.”
Wilkins got his first half-sack as a Raider, and 2023 first-round pick Tyree Wilson came close to getting a sack (yeah, the bar is pretty low for him at this point). The Raiders were also missing linebacker Divine Deablo (oblique) against the Panthers before losing Epps.
Epps was a key player in the Raiders’ 3-1 finish last season, and last year’s free-agent signee from the Philadelphia Eagles is largely credited with helping fellow safety Tre’von Moehrig start to reach his potential. Epps could play in the box or deep down the field, told people where to line up and how to adjust, could cover a little and was a solid tackler.
Now all eyes are on third-year player Isaiah Pola-Mao, who was undrafted out of USC and has played 30 games for the Raiders. He is 6 feet 4, has two career sacks and an interception and has shown a nose for the ball in practice and training camp.
“He’s played a lot for us at that third safety (spot),” Pierce said. “He has played in some rotational roles in years past in dime, but now he’s in his third year. We were really comfortable with him. He had a really good preseason, stepped up (Sunday) and did a decent job filling in.”
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Pola-Mao said after the game Sunday that it’s not complicated — not the loss to the Panthers or this week against the Browns.
“It comes down to what we do,” Pola-Mao said. “We didn’t execute, plain and simple. They had a good game plan and were aggressive, and we didn’t respond and that’s on us.”
The Raiders’ defensive players were expected to be the strength of this team after the high-priced signing of Wilkins to join Crosby, the ascension of linebacker Robert Spillane and what they thought was an underrated, aggressive secondary led by Jack Jones and Nate Hobbs.
That still holds true.
“Just the amount of work I know we put in already as a team since OTAs and the guys we got in our locker room and the coaches — that gives me a lot of confidence,” Wilkins said. “And every season is weird, every season is different, but you’re going to have to go through things to ultimately be the team you want to be.
“There’s going to have to be tough lessons and tough things along the way. It’s unfortunate, but that’s just part of trying to achieve a great goal.”
(Top photo of Charles Snowden and Christian Wilkins: Ian Maule / Getty Images)
