Defensive Coordinator Ken Norton, Jr., held his weekly press conference Thursday afternoon heading into the team's Week 13 matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs.
Here is what we learned from his time behind the microphone.
Norton shared his thoughts about the Chiefs offense.
"Alex Smith is really good with his legs, a high completion percentage, really understands how to use the field, has good skill players around him, uses his running backs. He's that type of offense. A lot of screens in his offense, so they do a lot to really stress the defense."
He also spoke about the importance of forcing turnovers.
"We work hard and talk a lot about takeaways, find different ways how to get the ball out, find different ways to get an edge to get in front of the ball and make plays. Then on the other side of it, the offense tries to make it a no-turnover day where they try to protect the ball a lot. So they've done a really good job of protecting the ball and we'd like to continue to improve our ability to take the ball away."
Cornerback David Amerson is a player on the rise.
"He's still emerging. We probably still haven't seen the best that he has to give. We'd really like to see consistency. Anytime you see a game of that magnitude from a player, you want to see him consistently stay at that place now. Now the challenge is can he do that each and every week. Anybody can show up and have one of those games of a lifetime, but can you have that game consistently, week after week? That's the tough thing about being a top athlete."
The Raiders defense needs to keep a constant eye on wide receiver Jeremy Maclin.
"He's been explosive, been caching the deep balls. He's been obviously a player that we have to keep our eyes on."
