The Oakland Raiders were blown out by the Kansas City Chiefs in perhaps their biggest game of the season this past Sunday, falling to 6-6.
While a number of things went wrong for Oakland, there were still some positives to take away and one of them was the play of rookie cornerback Trayvon Mullen.
Mullen has grown to become a key piece of the Raiders defensive unit since Gareon Conley was traded to the Houston Texans, and head coach Jon Gruden is happy with the growth he has seen in recent weeks, via Scott Blair of NBC Sports:
“He’s getting better,” Gruden said. “He had some really good plays [Sunday]. He was obviously flagged a few times for penalties. One of them, I can’t quite say where it came from, but it was a big reversal in the game. He made a couple great plays against a great receiver and I think he’s getting confidence. I think he’s getting better. I think he performed better and he’s performing better and better each week.”
The play Gruden is referring to was an interception of Patrick Mahomes that Mullen seemed to have come up in the endzone, stopping a Chiefs’ scoring drive. Instead, the play was overturned after a review, one of the few overturned pass interference plays this season.
Despite his would-be interception failing to show up in the stat sheet, Mullen stated that he is happy to see progress in himself. The interception would have been Mullen’s second of the season, with his only other one coming during Week 11 against the Cincinnati Bengals. He has also added in 24 solo tackles, ninth-most on the team and most amongst Raiders rookies.
Over those last six games in which Mullen has started, the Raiders have allowed 291 passing yards per game.
It was particularly impressive that despite the big loss, the Raiders were able to limit the Chiefs to just 163 passing yards. Going up against the reigning NFL MVP is no easy task, but Mullen and the Oakland defense held true.
Mullen is just one part of the Raiders upward trending young defensive players. With young talent like Maxx Crosby, Clelin Ferrell and Johnathan Abram on the roster, defensive prowess should be on the rise for the Silver and Black.
