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ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) -All-Pro cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha believes the problems with the Oakland Raiders defense are simple - as in the defense is too simple.

The Raiders have traditionally been a team that predominantly plays man-to-man defense, with a single high safety, a four-man rush and little blitzing. Everyone knows just what the Raiders like to do defensively, including the opposition, and that's where problems can arise.

"We're a team that chooses to be who we are regardless of who we're playing against and regardless of the matchups or the things that the other team is going to present,'' Asomugha said Wednesday. "We've got one way of doing it and that's what we do, and teams can get us into some tough situations.''

That's what happened last week when the Raiders allowed 384 yards on just 10 plays in a 24-7 loss at Dallas. Oakland gave up 494 yards overall, the most since allowing 527 in a 40-35 win over Tennessee on Dec. 19, 2004.

Big plays have been a recurring problem all season for Oakland (3-8). According to STATS LLC, the Raiders have allowed an NFL-worst 54 plays that have gone for at least 20 yards, with 15 coming on the ground and 39 through the air.

Oakland has also had 79 plays go for negative yardage, one shy of league-leaders Minnesota and Philadelphia, making the Raiders defense an all-or-nothing affair.

"A lot of times it's the player that's going to be putting himself in the best position to make the play just because how our defense is,'' Asomugha said. "You have to be better than the guy in front of you. It's not just the corners, it's the D-line, it's the linebackers.''

Asomugha is perhaps the most respected player on the Raiders team, both for his sterling play on the field and honesty off it. His play has been one of the few bright spots during the roughest stretch in franchise history and he was rewarded this offseason with a three-year, $45.3 million contract. His stature gives his criticisms added weight.

Asomugha said he gets a little jealous when he talks to former teammate Charles Woodson about all the different defenses the Green Bay Packers run. He cited an interview by New Orleans coach Sean Payton, who credited his team's defensive turnaround with taking some of the best parts of what many teams do.

Asomugha said he lobbies his coaches so much for those type of changes that they laugh at him when he keeps bringing it up. He said simplicity in itself is not always a problem, citing the success the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had earlier this decade running the Cover 2 on almost every play. But the Raiders apparently don't have the talent to succeed that way.

"Maybe we don't want to be as multiple as other guys, maybe we don't have to be,'' Asomugha said. "We have to prove that we're good enough to win and play well doing the simple things that we're doing. We're not proving that right now. It's not like we proved it last year or we proved it the year before. This is several years now where we haven't been able to get over the hump of winning more than four or five games a year. Maybe you go back and you think about what we're doing and think about ways to fix it.''

The Raiders appear headed for their seventh straight losing season. Oakland is already the first team ever to lose at least 11 games in six straight seasons and needs to go 3-2 over the final month to avoid extending that ignominious record to a seventh season.

A change in defensive coordinator this season from Rob Ryan to John Marshall has done little to change the problems on defense. The system the team runs is still basically the same one that owner Al Davis has always preferred.

"The game changes, the game is never going to be the same as it was 10 years ago or five years ago with the rule changes and things like that,'' Asomugha said. "You have to be able to adapt.''

Coach Tom Cable said the team has mixed things up a bit more this year, with a few more blitzes and other coverages, but that basically the defense is the same as always. He said the issue has been blown assignments and miscommunications more than anything else.

"You look at those breakdowns and that's been the issue pretty much all year,'' Cable said. "I don't know if that's really the scheme. I think that's staying disciplined with what they're doing.''

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OK - so the coach says they're running the same defense as the previous shitty seasons. The common theme throughout this period of time is missed assignments and discipline. SO rather than evaluate, implement and adapt the scheme to better suit the strengths of the players they continue to run the same shit and repeat the same mistakes.

I believe someone once said that the definition of insanity was doing the same things over and over again expecting a different result.

Is it just me or does this seem completely moronic? WTF?

Alrite that's fuckin' enough!

Somebody get in here and make a fucking change, how many times does the best player in the league need to say something be fore it actually happens.

God fuckin' damn!

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Man, fuck Cable. Disipline? Fuck that! How about playing modern freaking football? You can tell Aso wished he went elsewhere. If I was him, I would have told Al to take that 45 mil and put in his pussy hole. My 2 cents!

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www.790thsfs.com

This proves that this defense is only Al Davis' defense. It doesn't matter who we bring in, Al wants it man-to-man coverage. Al needs to go!!!

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PEACE RAIDER NATION!

No DC, no LB's, no, DL/DE's, or CB's will do jack shit for this team. Not as long as that freaking genius Davis continues to run this franchise.

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www.790thsfs.com

It got even more shitty when Rob Ryan left....

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pedd

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