Raiders Buck Broncos, 59-14

 Posted by at 3:05 PM  No Responses »
Oct 252010
 

Now the hard part; recovering from the win. The Raiders have had the uncanny ability to recover from losses, but a marked inability to recover from a win. Back-to-back wins would be a marker for this team.

The concept is simple. Take one game at a time. Win a game, the next week you are 0-0 and looking to go 1-0. Lose a game, the next week you are 0-0 and looking to go 1-0. It’s cliché, but that doesn’t reduce it to rubble. Each team must be able to do both, focus on the next week instead of the prior week.

Next week Pete Carroll’s Seattle Seahawks come into Oakland on Halloween. The Raider Nation doesn’t need a holiday as an excuse to dress up, but on Halloween you will get more than your fair share of crazy costumes and the FOX broadcast will love it.

A win next week means the Raiders could be playing for the division lead when the Kansas City Chiefs visit Oakland in week nine before a bye in week 10. The Raiders sit at 3-4 and have yet another chance to get back to .500 for the first time since 2002.

The Raiders demoralized the Broncos, something Nnamdi Asomugha and Tommy Kelly have seen before and both highlighted with their postgame interviews. The impact an early big lead can have a snowball effect on the opposition. It has happened routinely to the Raiders and now they get to taste what it is like on the other side.

The only negatives Tom Cable could muster in his post game press conference were penalties, blocks could be a little cleaner and two sacks.

In reality, the penalties are an issue in losses, but never in wins. Avoid the mental mistakes, but this isn’t really a big deal. The errors you want to avoid are penalties that turn third and short into third and long or negate positive plays. Timely penalties are worse than penalties overall. Raiders didn’t have many ‘shoot yourself in the foot’ penalties.

Blocks can always be cleaner. No team has ever executed an entire game with perfect blocks. Sometimes an ugly block works just as well. Not many issues with blocking on Sunday. Keeps improving, but if they do what they did in Denver, they should be fine.

Two sacks surrendered? I can remember at least one of them was Jason Campbell holding the ball too long. Tom Cable is taking issue with two sacks? Really? I didn’t think this line was capable of the performance they turned out Sunday.

Raiders did rack up a list of injuries during the game.

Matt Shaughnessy (Concussion)
Chris Johnson (Concussion)
Samson Satele (Concussion)
Louis Murphy (Clavicle)
Kamerion Wimbley (Groin)
Robert Gallery (Calf)
Darrius Heyward-Bey (ill)
Michael Bennett (Hamstring)

Concussions aren’t to be taken lightly. Players must pass several tests to be cleared to play the following week and the NFL is considering a mandatory one week waiting period for all concussions in the future. Tough to count on any of those three this week.

Louis Murphy re-injured the clavicle he originally injured three weeks ago. Thus far, Murphy is the only receiver who has produced. While the Raiders were able to make things happen without wide receivers on Sunday, defenses are going to load the box to stop Darren McFadden if the Raiders can’t find a competent passing game. Receivers must get involved.

Darrius Heyward-Bey started the game, but came down with an illness. He is the receiver the Raiders need to step up more than anyone. Jacoby Ford and Nick Miller can only be counted on so much.

Gallery’s injury didn’t seem serious, but he’s been an injury magnet, so cross your fingers. Wimbley’s injured groin is a big question and we may not find out the severity until Wednesday.

Jared Veldheer had a great game overall. He started as a left tackle before moving to center when Samson Satele was injured. Mario Henderson came into the game a did a good job run blocking, but his pass blocking wasn’t tested. A healthy Satele keeps Veldheer at left tackle. Veldheer needs to stay at left tackle.

The Raiders could go out and sign a center, but the only one with enough knowledge of the scheme to start next week would be Chris Morris. Jake Grove is also available.

Let’s hope Satele’s concussion was minor and he will be able to play this week.

Other Notes:

Didn’t get one complaint from the Raider Nation about Jason Campbell after the game. The talk the entire week was that Kyle Boller should get the start regardless of the health of Campbell.

Late in the week it was looking like Campbell might miss the game due to injury and that Kyle Boller might get the start. Not so fast.

Speaking of injured player surprises, who had Darren McFadden sitting on their fantasy bench? That was 47 points, ouch. I did, but it looks like I might still get the win against @ThunderingBlurb

Studs and duds article should be easy this week? Not so fast. I’ve had to think long and hard about any possible dud on the Raiders and how can I possibly give out studs to only a few players? Harder than you think to pinpoint them despite the huge win.

The Henderson Hangover (and How to Fix It)

 Posted by at 2:51 PM  No Responses »
Sep 132010
 

If the Raiders expect to win more than five games behind the current offensive line, they are mistaken.

There were silver linings in the loss, but there are no moral victories. The Raiders stunk up LP Field in Nashville. A rotting corpse may smell better than the Raiders did during a 38-13 spanking.

The Raiders didn’t just get beat by a better team. If they did, you wouldn’t have received so many postgame apologies.

Richard Seymour and Nnamdi Asomugha weren’t apologizing. Tyvon Branch did and Quentin Groves followed that up.

Branch made multiple mistakes. At least one of them resulted in a touchdown. It could be that 14 points are on the hands of Branch alone. How different would the game have been in the first half without the Nate Washington catch for a touchdown and Javon Ringer 15-yard rush for a touchdown?

The key to beating the Titans was always to grab a lead and force Vince Young to beat you. The Raiders were doomed if Chris Johnson received 20 or more carries. Johnson received 27.

Vince Young looked good, and many quarterbacks do when the defense must respect play action.

Asomugha asked this simple question postgame, why couldn’t the Raiders claw back into the game like they had before?

“It snowballed on us,” said Richard Seymour.

Of course it did, the game plan relied upon an early lead the Raiders never had. They couldn’t claw back into the game, because this team was never good to come back on an elite rushing team like the Titans.

The biggest reason for the early struggles was the offensive line. Everyone could see it. Mario Henderson, Robert Gallery, Jared Veldheer, Cooper Carlisle and Langston Walker those are the whipping boys.

The Raiders will watch the game video today. The initial impression was that Henderson and Walker were utter almost total failures.

Was the defense lining up illegally? Maybe, but not matter where the lineman are, the offensive lineman needs to block them. Teams would rather have Alex Barron ripping off Brian Orakpo’s head than Orakpo ripping off their quarterback’s head.

It seems there could be a player surprisingly available that could help solidify the Raiders offensive line. Jake Grove.

Jake Grove was a very productive player when healthy last season. He had a good year in 2008 for the Raiders also.

The Raiders definitely wanted Jake Grove back last offseason, but with his injury history, weren’t willing to pay him the kind of money Miami did.

Miami cut Grove due to his bloated contract and injury history. He still performed well.

With the first game over veteran contracts are not guaranteed. Grove is healthy now, but would be of very little risk.

Grove is still good friends with Robert Gallery. The best case scenario is sign Groves and move Veldheer back to left tackle and let him take a few lumps as the starter. He couldn’t be as bad as Henderson and the overall net gain for the line should be positive.

Tom Cable treats Henderson like a son. As parents often do, Cable makes excuses for Henderson’s poor play; time and time again. Cable promises the public Henderson’s flaws can be fixed, but everyone but Cable are having serious doubts.

Mario Henderson may have better luck on the right side and he can compete with Khalif Barnes and Langston Walker for the right tackle position on a week-to-week basis once he get used to doing everything the opposite way.

Mario Henderson seems like a good guy and it isn’t personal. Henderson just no longer merits a starting job on the Raiders offensive line.

If Cable doesn’t do something quick to solidify the area in which he has so much expertise, he could be handed walking papers in just a few short weeks.

Al Davis wasn’t pleased in Nashville and judging from his face, his fuse is short. He just ordered a new overhead projector bulb. Delivery time is 3-6 weeks.

Raider Open in Primetime, Sign Center Wade

 Posted by at 6:49 AM  No Responses »
Apr 012008
 

Home Game, Monday Night, Broncos, PRIMETIME.

Al Davis’ offseason moves have already left a favorable impression on the NFL schedule makers.

We rarely have received Monday night games the past few years, and we hardly ever get them in Oakland. A home game in primetime is truly exciting for Raider Nation and I al already pretty excited about it.

Also the Raiders signed Center John Wade. He has started every game for the past three seasons. I’d expect Grove and Wade to battle it out. Grove has to prove he can stay healthy to earn a role. This may mean we don’t want to roll the dice with Newberry and perhaps could spell the end of his illustrious career. Or it could mean Grove is out, either way, we are picking up deals on the offensive line to round out Tom Cable’s system fits.