Backed by Klint Kubiak, Rob Leonard seeks improvement for Raiders defense

If Rob Leonard’s confidence has wavered as the Las Vegas Raiders’ first-year defensive coordinator, he didn’t say so Thursday afternoon as he preps them to play the Seattle Seahawks.

The Raiders have surrendered at least 30 points over and over and over and over and over and over. But he’s planning to stop the six-game streak.

“All I think about is the guys,” he said. “I want them to play fast. If anything messes with that, I’m like, ‘Take it out. We won’t do it.’ I want their confidence to be extremely high at all times, so just having conversations in and out with them, and the ultimate vision of what I have, we’ll get there in time.”

With a public vote of confidence from Raiders coach Klint Kubiak in hand — issued Monday with a declaration that the coaching staff won’t be changing this season — Leonard and his embattled defense are searching for solutions to apply Sunday afternoon at Allegiant Stadium. Their streak of opponents scoring at least 30 points is a modern NFL record, and Leonard knows his defense is letting down the offense.

The Raiders are eighth (26.4 points per game) in the NFL in scoring.

Said Leonard, whose unit (29.8) is last in scoring defense: “There’s a weight that you feel that you carry, especially when the offense is scoring, that we need to do our part. That doesn’t feel great for me personally, and I know collectively as a defense — and we’re very transparent about that. We’ve got to do our part. We have to show improvement.”

Leonard referenced “times” this season the defense has “played really, really good football,” but noted consistency remains elusive. The only thing consistent about it is the way opponents are punishing it: with effective runs that work in concert with passes to open targets down the field.

No team has allowed more rushing yards (1,361) than the Raiders, their opponents logging 5 yards per carry, tied for worst in the NFL. Opposing passers have the fourth-most yards (2,238) to go with a league-high 20 touchdown passes, accounting for 103.6 rating, also fourth-best in the NFL.

The “really, really good football” Leonard mentioned might emerge for a drive or quarter at a time. There was the fourth quarter in a Week 8 win over the New York Jets during which the Raiders forced a punt, a field goal and secured an interception. And in the following week’s third quarter of a loss to the San Francisco 49ers, they had an interception and forced a turnover on downs.

Asked what’s disrupting consistency, Leonard said, “I’d say fatigue makes cowards of us all. When you’re on the field a long time, mistakes tend to happen more often. We’ll just put it that way.”

The Raiders are 29th (28:33) in time of possession.

“We’ve had really good spurts of football,” defensive end Maxx Crosby said. “We’ve also had some really low moments and recently we haven’t played good football. I’m just being completely honest and that’s on all of us. We’re about solutions in the business. It’s not like we’re blind to the fact that we haven’t played a great level.

“We have to be a lot more sound across the board and it takes everybody. That’s coaches, players, everyone. … There’s no more talking. I can’t sit here and say, ‘We’re going to go out there and do this.’ We have to go do it.”

Leonard believes the Raiders can and so does Kubiak.

“It means a lot,” Leonard said of Kubiak’s public endorsement. “Not too many people in this profession do things like that, and it’s early in the season. I can’t tell you how much respect I have for Klint Kubiak — as a man first, as a coach second. We share a lot of the same values of transparency, honesty, straight to the point, and yeah, it was very humbling.”

Contact Sam Gordon at [email protected]. Follow @BySamGordon on X.