• The Raiders’ defensive tackle issue has been bad enough to shape the conversation around their defense.
  • The Rams arrive in Week 7 with a different kind of mess: injuries, turnovers, penalties and a special teams unit that has already put them in a hole.
  • The Raiders’ pressure rate has been high, but they are still 31st in sack percentage, and only Thomas Booker has posted a pass-rush win rate above 10% among the defensive tackles.
  • The Raiders have also had trouble turning defensive activity into actual stops.
  • They failed to get off the field in pivotal second-half moments, and the defense has been giving up 27.0 points per game.
  • Even with pressure showing up, the finish has not.
  • That is the backdrop for a team that is in a three-game losing streak and trying to break the funk against a Rams offense that can still stress a defense in different ways.
  • Los Angeles brings a top-two passing offense and a rushing attack described as red-hot and ready, but the Rams’ season has been defined just as much by what they’ve given away as by what they can create.
  • They have committed nine turnovers.
  • The Rams will be without Puka Nacua, Trent McDuffie and Nathan Landman, and Davante Adams, Myles Garrett, Kobie Turner and Poona Ford’s absences have already been confirmed.
  • For Las Vegas, it is a chance to stop a losing streak before the interior defensive issues become an even bigger season-long storyline.