Skip to main content

Studs and Duds From Week 5

An emotional win. A big win. The Raiders made it through the toughest stretch of the schedule 3-2. Now the Raiders have a month at home and play three unspectacular teams. Two are division foes and anything can happen. Raiders have plenty of things to work on in practice this week and the coaching staff will not let the players look past the Cleveland Browns.

A few players really stood out in the Raiders win and a few, well, didn't.

 

Studs

Lamarr Houston

Pushed the pile all day long and had the awareness to make the interception on one of the many Matt Schaub tips. Houston had a heck of game in Houston as did the rest of the defensive line. The Raiders really needed the defensive line to take over the game and the Raiders defensive line did just that and Houston was a big part of the Raiders day. Honorable Mention: John Henderson

Tommy Kelly

He had the worst game of his career against the Texans the last time he faced them, but one of his best this Sunday. The Texans had no answer for the Raiders bigs pushing the offensive line into Schaub's lap. Kelly was pushing the pocket and sealing Arian Foster out of running lanes. A motivated Tommy Kelly is one heck of a football player. He proved that again on Sunday.

Richard Seymour

Three studs on the Raiders defensive line. They deserved it and you could really give a stud mention to this entire unit. Seymour applied tremendous pressure up the middle with Kelly and any yardage Foster gained didn't come through the middle. Seymour had a sack and was beating double teams which prompted the Raiders to blitz Rolando McClain up the middle which disrupted Schaub even more. Al Davis traded a first round pick for Seymour and to this point he has been worth it and then some.

Darrius Heyward-Bey

Heyward-Bey had 99 yards on six receptions on Sunday with one touchdown and was two out-of-bounds throws by Jason Campbell from nine receptions for 150+ yards and a touchdown. Did I mention Heyward-Bey is also a great blocker? Heyward-Bey played his best game as a professional on Sunday. Heyward-Bey played with the kind of swagger great receivers play with and his profile with the Raider Nation is turning in his favor.

Michael Huff & Tyvon Branch

The Raiders starting safeties had some tough moments, but Branch had a few key tackles and kept Schaub from walking into the end zone on the game's final play. Huff stepped in from of Schaub's final pass to seal the big win for the Raiders. That's enough to get stud recognition despite the team's struggles covering backs out of the backfield and covering the Texans tight ends.

Rock Cartwright

Not only was the guy all over the field on kick coverage, but he checked to the fake on the punt that gave the Raiders new life and kept the momentum in the Raiders favor. He's the Raiders special teams captain and he plays like one. He's quickly become on of my favorite Raiders to watch. Just watch him work on special teams because it is a thing of beauty.

 

Duds

Stanford Routt

Gave up too many catches for an "elite" cornerback. The Patriots ran a quick slant that Routt wasn't able to defend and the Texans took advantage of the same play to get their first score. He's still clearly the Raiders best corner, but he's not playing at an amazingly high level that is making the team forget about Nnamdi Asomugha. That's troubling, because the two players are making about the same amount.

Quentin Groves

The 12-men on the field penalty on the final drive was a direct result of Groves lack of hustle to get off the field and it cost the Raiders crucial time at the end of the game. Groves also blew his coverage assignment on Texans fullback Lawrence Vickers only for Vickers to drop the sure touchdown. Groves was nowhere to be found when Arian Foster was catching swing passes out of the backfield. He's still rounding into form as a linebacker, but he isn't good enough to make up for his own mistakes.

Jason Campbell

Forced too many throws and didn't always give his receivers a chance to catch the ball. Way too many missed receivers. He missed Chaz Schilens on the flea flicker and threw several passes to Heyward-Bey and Denarius Moore that took the receivers out of pounds or where just too far out of reach. Campbell made enough plays to redeem himself and the touchdown pass to Schilens was a highlight, but he has to play better for the Raiders offense to take the next step. The next step for the Raiders offense is producing when Darren McFadden isn't putting up be yardage on the ground.

Taiwan Jones

He redeemed himself with a big special teams tackle on Shane Lechler's final punt, but he committed a penalty and was getting into Denarius Moore's way on punt returns. The Texans special teams units pushed Jones back into Moore as well. Jones can't stay active on gameday without his special teams ability, so the Raiders will continue putting him into position to make a play on special teams. Let's hope his stop on special teams is the real Jones.

Comments

  1. Shouldn't Seabass be on the studs list? Three field goals of 50 yds. or more in one game!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Oakland Raiders Swing for the Fences in 2016 NFL Draft

[embed align="center"]http://gty.im/153039819[/embed] These aren't your daddy's Oakland Raiders or even your younger self's Raiders. If anything, these are your newborn's Raiders or your puppy's Raiders. These are the Raiders we've never seen before. Indicative of the freshness of the franchise was their 2016 NFL Draft. No longer slave to a high draft pick and desperate needs, the theme of the draft for the Raiders was upside. It's as if general manager Reggie McKenzie got so used to hitting his draft picks out of the park that he started swinging for the fences. We'll have to wait a couple of years before we know if he struck out or if he'll continue his Ruthian ways. First, McKenzie boldly went with a safety at No. 14 overall. Kyle Joseph is coming off a torn ACL and fills a major need, but safety isn't a premium position. Only a handful of safeties have been drafted in the first 14 picks in the last 15 years and include names like Ea

2012 NFL Strength of Schedule

  Disclaimer Some strength of schedule models calculate strength of schedule based on the opponents the team has faced to date.  My model calculates strength of schedule based on all the opponents on a team's schedule.  The reason for this is because it reduces weekly fluctuations. For example, when a team plays their Week 17 game, in the traditional model their strength of schedule would change by 31 games...their Week 17 opponent's 16 games plus the additional game played by each of their prior 15 opponents.  In my model, when a team plays their Week 17 game their strength of schedule will only change by 15 games...one additional game for each of the opponents on their schedule.

The Raiders aren't who we thought they were....they're better

The Oakland Raiders are tired of being the team that will be good in a year or two. The team expects to win now and it is winning now. We thought the Raiders needed more talent. We thought that being in the playoff hunt was a year away for this team, but we were wrong. This isn't the team we thought they were, they're better. On Sunday, they moved to 3-3 on Sunday with a 37-29 win over the San Diego Chargers that wasn't close until the final minute. It was also the Raiders second road win of the season. The last time the Raiders had two road wins by their sixth game was 2011. Before that, a five-year streak from 1998-2002. The Raiders went 8-8 in 1998, 1999 and 2011 and narrowly missed the playoffs each year.  They made the playoffs in 2000, 2001 and 2002. They didn't have a losing record in any of those seasons because teams that can win on the road are usually pretty good. As the season matures, there is more and more evidence that some of the "best-case scenario