Maxx Crosby has lined up against Josh Allen enough times to know what the week feels like. After Wednesday’s practice, with the Las Vegas Raiders preparing to host Buffalo, the edge rusher said the plan has to be aggressive without turning into backyard football for Allen.
“You still got to rush. You got to get after him,” Crosby said. “It’s similar to Pat. Every time we go against Pat you can’t be scared to go rush him. You got to be aggressive and also be conscious of step-up lanes and him scrambling, because he’ll cover every yard of the field if he wants to.”
Allen’s climb, and Buffalo’s supporting cast
Crosby has faced Allen twice in college at Wyoming and twice in the league. Asked what Allen has improved most since then, he pointed to the work that does not show up in a single clip.
“If you put the work in, put the time in, you start doing laps around people,” Crosby said. “All the work that you do in the dark is going to come out in front of everybody, and I think he’s a testament to that.”
He also refused to treat Allen as a one-man problem. “James Cook led the league in rushing last year and it doesn’t really get talked about,” Crosby said. “They got a lot of really good players, and we got to be at our best.”
After New England: rhythm and technique
Nakobe Dean and Darien Porter, speaking in the same Week 6 scrums, framed Sunday’s loss at New England as a rhythm problem more than a mystery. “We’d have a good play and then we give up an explosive play,” one of them said of the secondary’s day. “You just couldn’t really get into a rhythm.”
The corrective list was familiar: win one-on-ones, clean up technique, cut down penalties, and stay on base calls. “Improvement is improvement for me. You just got to take it a day at a time and continue to do everything with a purpose,” Dean said of carrying film corrections into Wednesday’s practice.
Crosby: don’t ride the roller coaster
Crosby said the locker room’s confidence did not swing with the outside noise after a close loss to Kansas City and the New England setback. “You can’t live in extremes,” he said. “Two weeks ago everyone says there’s not one bad thing about our team and we’re going to the Super Bowl, and then you lose. Inside, nothing’s changed as far as our confidence.”
His near-term mission was simple. “Our mission right now is Wednesday and having a great Wednesday, and then move from there,” Crosby said. “That’s what you play the game for. You want all eyes on us in this matchup.”
The Raiders host the Bills on Sunday, October 18.
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