OAKLAND, Calif. — Here was good news for the Raiders’ beleaguered run defense Saturday: The New Orleans Saints had so much fun passing the football they barely acknowledged the ground game for much of the afternoon.

There was more good news: No live telecast of the Raiders’ 45-7 loss was offered to Bay Area viewers. So unless you were there — and oceans of empty seats at the Coliseum suggest you were not — you were spared what qualifies as a remarkably inept effort even by the standards of the NFL’s exhibition season and the Raiders’ recent history.
It was the third — and therefore most important — preseason game for both teams, the one in which starters typically play the entire first half. It’s the closest thing the NFL has to a full dress rehearsal.
And the Raiders got fully undressed.
Still more good news: The Saints pulled starting quarterback Drew Brees early in the second quarter after he directed touchdown drives of 80, 67 and 78 yards. At that rate, Brees would have generated 69 points and 738 yards total offense over 60 minutes.
As it was, New Orleans outgained the Raiders, 536-289. The Raiders were penalized 10 times and their quarterbacks sacked on three occasions. The systemic failure was so comprehensive it’s difficult to know where to start with the critical analysis. But coach Tom Cable gave it a whack.
“This is disappointing and this is embarrassing to me,” he said. “It just really kind of sticks in your mouth like a bad taste.”
If the defense wasn’t of particular concern to Cable, it should have been. The Raiders, who were 31st in the NFL against the run last regular season, came into Saturday’s game ranked 32nd this preseason. That in itself signifies an acute problem, in that the time your opponent spends running the ball (and by extension, the clock) is time your offensive players spend on the sideline shifting impatiently from one foot to the other.
But before it could be determined whether or not the Raiders had addressed that matter Saturday, the Saints dazzled them with the forward pass. During his extended cameo, Brees completed 14-of-17 attempts for 179 yards and two touchdowns. Somehow, his passer rating of 149.8 fell short of the NFL’s 158.3 standard of perfection. Maybe they factored in degree of difficulty based on the opponent.
Brees’ first scoring pass went 40 yards to Devery Henderson, who was crossing unimpeded in front of Raiders safety Hiram Eugene.
“When a guy crosses (in front of) your face and you’re the center field player, you pick him up,” Cable said, explaining what should have happened.
Brees’ second scoring pass was a short one — five yards to Lance Moore, who blew past safety Tyvon Branch.
Late in the first half, Raiders cornerback Stanford Routt was called for two penalties — pass interference and defensive holding — in three snaps, both while trying to defend Moore.
When the Saints finally wearied of throwing the ball, they began running it. With great success, it turned out — 232 yards on 46 carries, a 5.0 average. For the second time in eight days, the Raiders’ first-team defense was shredded by a first-team offense that didn’t even make the playoffs last season.
“We didn’t coach it well, we didn’t play it well,” Cable said. “(But) to put a finger on one thing would probably be very ludicrous.”
Ordinarily, it’s a mistake to put too much emphasis on anything (short of a major injury) that happens in the preseason. But given the 72 games the Raiders have lost over the past six seasons, considering how and why they’ve lost them, this is a disturbing sign.
Cable has spoken during camp and after games this summer about such fundamental problems as pad level, being in position, making tackles when in position, fulfilling assignments that are practiced on a daily basis. Those are defects, not deficiencies, a lack of athleticism and instinct that prevents a player from keeping up with the speed of an NFL game. As much as the Raiders would like to think otherwise, these typically aren’t the kinds of things you cure with coaching and practice.
The Raiders simply weren’t good enough last year, or the year before that, or the four years before that. After a promising first exhibition game, their defensive starters have been buzz-sawed in consecutive games.
“We’ll stay the course,” Cable vowed. “I see what we’re capable of doing.”
The good news: Sometimes unintentional humor is the best kind.