Raiders’ focus is stopping Clowney

The last time the Raiders played the Texans, the only answer the offense had for defensive end Jadeveon Clowney was the one Jack Del Rio gave the following day when asked why the Raiders couldn’t run the ball.

“Clowney,” Del Rio said.

Clowney, the former No. 1 overall draft pick in the 2014 draft out of South Carolina that brought Khalil Mack and Derek Carr to the Raiders, played in a career-high 14 games this season and had six sacks and 16 tackles for loss.

“I feel pretty good, man,” Clowney said. “That was the key thing in the offseason, get my body right. Get it to the form where I could sustain the long 16-game season. I worked a lot in the offseason on taking care of my body and it’s paying off for me.”

With Clowney (6-foot-5, 270 pounds) and nose tackle Vince Wilfork up front, Houston held the Raiders to 30 yards on 20 carries.

“He was very disruptive, and so was Wilfork,” Del Rio said. “Those two guys were a tough matchup. They’ll be tough again. They’re not even using an extra man in the box very often. They play with a lighter box and count on those guys to be disruptive.”

Clowney conceded he had solid game against the run in the first meeting, but said he tries to play like that every game. The Houston scheme will move Clowney to give him different angles, at times matching him with a tight end.

It’s in that area where Clowney was at his most devastating, according to Jon Gruden, who did ESPN analysis for the Mexico City game.

“He ate (Mychal) Rivera and (Clive) Walford up,” Gruden said in a phone interview. “They couldn’t block him. They couldn’t secure the edge. I thought Houston did a nice job moving the front. They didn’t just line up and play straight-ahead defense. They slanted the front, blitzed occasionally, and Clowney has a great motor.”

Clowney expected the defensive calls to be more exotic with rookie Connor Cook in his first start.

“We’re going to disguise a lot more because he’s a rookie,” Clowney said. “We’re going to try to make him find the reads. We’ll do a lot of disguising to get after him. That’s the key.”

This story was originally published January 4, 2017 at 9:52 PM with the headline "Raiders’ focus is stopping Clowney."