With seven sacks in the last four games, Elvis Dumervil has quickly become one of the NFL’s most lethal pass-rushing threats. So you’d think that as he watched the Raiders allow nine sacks to the Seattle Seahawks last Monday night — including three in succession during one disastrous first-quarter possession — that the rookie would be licking his chops.
Not so.
“It makes me mad, because now the offensive coordinator (Tom Walsh) is going to put in a max-protection scheme,” Dumervil said.
Even if the Raiders’ pass blocking hadn’t endured such a problematic evening on Nov. 6, it’s likely they would have been tweaking their schemes to account for the rookie’s performance. Dumervil found out first-hand at Pittsburgh that the double-teams that are typcially the purview of his veteran linemates were now directed at him after he got to Ben Roethlisberger for a first-possession sack.
Closing notes from INVESCO Field at Mile High as the Broncos look to quickly nurse and heal the wounds from their first home regular-season defeat in 23 months …