ALAMEDA, Calif. – Remember when David Amerson was seen as a flop by the team that drafted him and Washington cut him last year? What about that time Sean Smith got benched in his first game after signing a $40 million free-agent contract with the Oakland Raiders?
Small sample sizes, sure, and so was Week 3, but Amerson and Smith had such good games against the Tennessee Titans that they were the two top-ranked cornerbacks in the league by Pro Football Focus.
“I don’t know if there’s any magic in that stadium or what it is,” Amerson told reporters Tuesday of Tennessee’s Nissan Stadium, where he had six passes defensed and an interception last year. “Really, it’s just great preparation, man, just going out there and executing."
PFF gave Amerson a grade of 96.8 after he broke up five passes on Sunday, three more than any other cornerback last week, and allowed four catches on 11 targets for 38 yards.
“I just think everybody’s coming in and being locked in on the little details you really have to clean up, based off the first two weeks,” Amerson said. “Teams were coming out and attacking us in a certain way and we had to really ... make the adjustment.
“The offense was really putting the numbers and we weren’t really holding up our end of the bargain. Everybody took that personal and we came in and had a great week of practice and I think it showed on the field.”
The Raiders surrendered a combined 1,035 yards in Weeks 1 and 2 to the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons, including 808 yards through the air. In Sunday’s 17-10 victory, the Raiders limited Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota to 214 yards, with 93 yards coming on his final drive, and intercepted two passes, one by Smith and another by free safety Reggie Nelson on a ball tipped by Amerson.
“Our corners played really well,” said Raiders coach Jack Del Rio. “They’ve been taking a lot of heat, and obviously they played much better [in Tennessee]. Both of the corners did. I thought overall our secondary was a whole lot sharper.”
Smith had a grade of 90.5 by PFF after giving up just one catch, for 19 yards, on seven targets, to go with his interception.
“Everybody else was making plays on the ball, I figured it was my turn to get one, too,” Smith said after the game. “I was just trying to join the party.”
Said Amerson: “That’s what I expect of him. I know he’s a great player. ... He’s been doing it for a long time and then, as a cornerback, you’re going to take some bumps and bruises every now and then but you’ve got to just keep competing, going to the next play, the next game. Just make plays. He’s a playmaker, so I wasn’t surprised.”
Of course, the mantra of a defensive back is to have a short memory. But that does not mean they should simply live game-to-game, either.
“You want it to be like that every week,” Amerson said. “You don’t want [accolades in] Week 3 and then you don’t hear it again. At the end of the game, even though it was exciting, we can’t allow it to be that exciting. I think we can definitely do a better job of getting off the field.”