Oakland Raiders coach wants to block J.J. Watt with entire team
By Bryan Rose
Oakland Raiders head coach Dennis Allen knows he has a challenge ahead of him this weekend.
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Yes, the Houston Texans are without star rookie Jadeveon Clowney but they still have J.J. Watt, likely the best defensive player in the league. Add in Allen and his Oakland Raiders are likely to be a man down in the backfield due to Maurice Jones-Drew’s injury and things aren’t setting up as planned.
The last thing Allen wants to do is give Watt a free run at rookie quarterback Derek Carr, thus the Oakland Raiders head coach jokingly suggested he’d like to try and block J.J. Watt with all eleven guys on the field.
“I wish we could take all 11 and block him because sometimes I think that’s what it takes,” Allen said. “You watch the game last week and he wrecked the game offensively for Washington. Obviously, we’ve got to have a plan to deal with him, both in the run game and in the passing game. Really, you try to slow the guy down, and that’s really about all you can do. He is going to make some plays. He’s done it in every single game. What you try to do is you try to limit the amount of game-changing plays that he is able to make.”
As noted above, Watt was nothing short of amazing during Week 1 and doesn’t look like he’s going to be slowing down anytime soon.
Allen hopes a collection of fresh looks and double team situations will be enough to keep Watt out of the backfield.