Rod Marinelli won’t make massive changes to Raiders’ defense

Rod Marinelli didn’t have much of a reaction to finding out Sunday night he would take over as defensive coordinator for the remainder of the Raiders’ season.

That’s not really in his nature.

“I don’t change, I don’t care what happens,” the 71-year-old defensive line coach said. “Up or down, it’s how you respond. I respond with poise and patience. When you do that, you know what you’re doing. Panic, you don’t know what you’re doing. So it’s all poise.”

Marinelli doesn’t have a whole lot of time to make massive changes to a struggling defense with his first opportunity to call plays coming up on Thursday against the Chargers.

He hopes to just make sure everyone understands their assignments and shows maximum effort in trying to carry them out.

“I want to see discipline and knowing exactly what we’re doing. That takes no talent,” he said. “And I want to see great energy and tackling. Gang tackling. Guys hustling to the ball and I think when you see that, they enjoy it. I want to see that we really enjoy this game. That can’t be one or two guys, it’s got to be a team defense. Defense is about team and quick, fast and physical. That’s what I keep preaching.”

The opportunity for Marinelli comes at the expense of Paul Guenther, who was fired after Sunday’s defensive debacle.

Quarterback Derek Carr said while it’s just a part of the business, it’s never easy to see someone lose their job.

“The best thing you can do is come together as a team and rally around each other,” he said. “You feel bad for coach Guenther. We all spend so many hours here, and he worked his tail off.

“He tried his very best to do certain things. So we feel for him and love the man and wish him the very best. As a team, you have to compartmentalize the feelings and emotions with the job you have and the task at hand.”

In the hunt

Baltimore’s dramatic win over Cleveland on “Monday Night Football” dealt a blow to the Raiders’ playoff chances, but it wasn’t a knockout punch.

While the Raiders don’t control their own destiny, they still have a very good chance at a postseason berth should they find a way to win their final three games.

The New York Times’ Upshot playoff simulator currently gives the Raiders a 20 percent chance of making the playoffs. Should they win their three remaining games, however, those odds increase to 88 percent.

A loss in any of the three remaining contests would be crippling, but it doesn’t necessarily eliminate them from contention.

Carr is excited to just be playing meaningful games at this point.

“If that doesn’t get you excited, I don’t know what will,” Carr said.”To work so hard and get to this point in the season and still be playing for something, we haven’t done that a lot around here.

“We can look at (our situation) and make a bunch of excuses or look at it as we have a heck of an opportunity still to do something nobody thought we could do.”

The Ravens losing one of their final three games or the Browns losing twice would provide the best path for the Raiders to make the playoffs should they win out.

Injury report

Several key pieces on defense missed the team’s first practice of the week Tuesday with injuries.

Safety Johnathan Abram, cornerback Damon Arnette and linebacker Nicholas Morrow remained out with concussions. Arnette and Morrow are also dealing with neck injuries. Abram has a knee injury.

Defensive lineman Clelin Ferrell did not practice because of a shoulder injury suffered in Sunday’s loss to the Colts.

Wide receiver Bryan Edwards did not participate in practice for noninjury related reasons.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.