The Oakland Raiders have improved on defense in the past month or so, and one of the reasons why is the play of rookie linebacker Ben Heeney.
The fifth-round pick from Kansas has been playing extensively since late November. Heeney has 21 tackles in the past three games, including nine in a Christmas Eve win over San Diego.
“Ben has been really good,” Oakland coach Jack Del Rio said of Heeney. “I think the other night, his ability to close and tackle (San Diego running back Danny) Woodhead in a couple of critical moments of the ballgame, I thought that was huge for us. He’s got the speed and he arrives with a punch. I thought he made a couple real key stops for us, getting him down and on short gains, keeping them as short gains, because Woodhead has got the ability to make that guy miss or outrun that guy and all of a sudden he’s making noise in your secondary. It was good for us to see. A nice job by Ben.”
If wouldn’t be a surprise if the Raiders turn to Heeney as a full-time option at middle linebacker next season since he has recently been getting more playing time than veteran Curtis Lofton, who signed a three-year, $18 million deal as a free agent this year.
Del Rio said he has seen better tackling from his defense overall in recent weeks. Del Rio preaches leverage and is finally seeing it on a consistent basis.
“You can’t play well on defense without learning how to leverage and tackle. It’s something we work on every day and will continue to be worked on, and yes, it has improved,” Del Rio said. “I think we all know that it’s improved and you can see it in the numbers -- the number of big plays go down, your ability to get off the field goes up and you are much more effective defensively when you are doing some of the basic fundamentals that we believe in. So yeah, that’s central to all we do.”
