Hue Jackson revitalized the Oakland Raiders offence as co-ordinator in his first season with the team.
Now that he has been promoted to head coach, Jackson's biggest worry is fixing a defence that had been one of the team's strengths.
With 10 starters back from a unit that excelled at times last season, the Raiders went into training camp believing their defence would be in good shape even without All-Pro cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha.
Three exhibition losses later, the Raiders have to be rethinking that presumption. Now Jackson and co-ordinator Chuck Bresnahan have less than two weeks to solve the problems before the season opener in Denver on Sept. 12.
"I think it's easily fixed. I feel comfortable and confident that we'll get them addressed and taken care of," Jackson said. "There were some positive things from last night. Obviously there were some things that we all wish we could do better and I know we need to do better before we start this season. But I'm very comfortable and confident. I know the men in that locker-room. I know what their goals are, what their aspirations are and we're going to go get it done."
The defensive performance by the Raiders has been downright offensive so far this pre-season, with all three opponents posting at least 400 yards of offence with an average of 438.7 per game. While it's only pre-season, the Raiders are last in total defence, last in yards allowed per play at 6.8, and second-to-last in third-down conversions at 55 per cent.
Oakland has been unable to find a replacement for Asomugha, with rookie DeMarcus Van Dyke repeatedly getting picked on for big plays and his backups faring little better.
"He's a very resilient young man," Jackson said. "He knows and understands that people want to keep throwing the ball on him. He needs to get better, we need to get better and we'll do so."
The run defence, a problem for years for the Raiders, has struggled with missed tackles and missed assignments, but did fare better Sunday with the New Orleans Saints focusing on the pass.
There have been major issues each week. Arizona put up 400 yards the first game, including 290 through the air as the Cardinals won 24-18 on a last-minute comeback. Most of that damage came against reserves as Oakland's first-team defence played only six plays all game.
The past two weeks it hasn't mattered whether starters or reserves were on the field as the Raiders struggled up and down the roster.
San Francisco did its damage on the ground with 239 yards rushing and 402 total yards as the first-team defence struggled to get off the field against an offence that had not scored a touchdown in its other two pre-season games.
Then the worst performance came against Drew Brees and New Orleans, which had 514 total yards, including 388 through the air. From the first play of the game when Brees beat Van Dyke for a 37-yard gain to Devery Henderson to Joique Bell's 60-yard catch and run when he hurdled rookie Chimdi Chekwa and ran through a tackle attempt by Bani Gbadyu, the Saints had their way with a Raiders defence missing Pro Bowl defensive tackle Richard Seymour and starting cornerback Chris Johnson.
"We made mistakes, but all of the mistakes are easily correctible," cornerback Stanford Routt said. "We still have time. We're 0-3 in the pre-season, but we're 0-0 in the regular season. That's the beauty of it. We've just to got to keep fighting. Mistakes are going to happen. You want to try to keep them at a minimum, but the beauty of mistakes is they're easily correctible."
There were some bright signs for the Raiders in their third straight pre-season loss.
Jason Campbell had plenty of time to throw and completed 12-of-17 passes for 150 yards. The running game looked the best it has all pre-season with Michael Bush rushing for 32 yards on five carries and rookie Taiwan Jones showing he has football ability to go with his game-breaking speed, gaining 81 on 13 rushes, including a 22-yard touchdown run.
Derek Hagan, signed more than a week into training camp, might be the steady, veteran presence the Raiders have been lacking at receiver in recent years. He had six catches for 121 yards and a touchdown and appears certain to make the team.
Middle linebacker Rolando McClain also looked better than he did the first two weeks, breaking up two passes and forcing a throwaway by Brees after an effective blitz.
NOTES: Jackson said he is close to finalizing his starting offensive line after he was pleased with the work done by Jared Veldheer, Stefen Wisniewski, Samson Satele, Cooper Carlisle and Khalif Barnes. ... Backup CB Jeremy Ware sprained his ankle on a special teams play. ... Johnson is not expected back at practice this week.
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