Will Dennis Allen prove to be better than Hue Jackson? – Part 2
Continued from Part 1.....
Why the heat fell on Jackson for failing to lead his team to the playoffs come as a great surprise. The Raiders had been failing to reach the playoffs since 2002 and it was something not new. Under Jackson, the Raiders had put up a considerable stiff fight
ending up at 8-8.
In this case the only likely reason for Jackson’s ouster appears to be McKenzie’s desire to bring his own man in and not something that had to do with Jackson’s incapability.
No doubt, the Raiders defence came out to be its weakest point with its failure to contain the opponent’s rushing offense as it came up with its worst performance this season.
The defence conceding 5.1 yards per carry and by allowing 31 touchdown passes this season became one of the four teams in the National Football League (NFL) to do so.
It is also worth mentioning that the Raiders broke the record this season for committing the most number of penalties which was earlier held by the Kansas City Chiefs since 1998.
In this case the blame should have been attached to the defensive coordinator, Chuck Bresnahan. Bresnahan and not Jackson should have faced the heat and subsequent firing.
Coming back to Allen, he was hired after a considerable long search by McKenzie who surely wanted to bring in the best possible coach.
Allen, no doubt has a lot of potential and he has indeed proved his worth as the defensive coordinator for Denver Broncos with whom he had a remarkable stay.
It seems that the idea of bringing in a defensive specialist will pay well in the end as the Raiders need to take some shots at their fragile defence. Allen turns out to be a good choice in this regard.
He helped the Broncos reach the playoffs this season as the Broncos improved in terms of points and yards allowed per game. Being the worst team in the league on account of allowing 29.4 points per game, the Broncos improved to the 24th rank.
In terms of allowing yards per game the Broncos improved their performance to the 20th place in NFL from earlier having conceded an average of 390.8 yards per game to the current figure of 357.8 yards.
Though McKenzie had denied earlier that the offensive or defensive requirement will have an effect on the hiring of a new coach, it seems imminent that the choice to bring in Allen was in fact driven by the team’s need to address its defence issues.
Allen is a defence specialist and seems the likely candidate who can help the Raiders overcome their weakness.
He becomes the first defensive coach to be hired by the Raiders after many decades. It was way back in 1969 when the then team’s owner, Al Davis last brought a defensive coach, John Madden to the team in 1969.
McKenzie driven by his desire to bring a change to the team has decided to bring in Allen as the new coach but will that decision pay off remains to be seen. It could have been much better on his part had he decided to retain Jackson and had brought in a
defensive specialist, especially the same Allen if possible in place of Chuck Bresnahan.
Anyways only time will tell whether Allen proves to be better than Jackson or not.
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