Morrison Signs With The Bills

 Posted by at 4:10 PM  No Responses »
Aug 242011
 

Per Jaz Glazer of Fox Sports, Kirk Morrison has signed with the Buffalo Bills. If the Raiders wanted to bring in a linebacker, they are down to Lofa Tatupu as the only remaining serviceable option.

The Raiders were already thin at linebacker before losing Travis Goethel for the season to a knee injury.

Behind starters Kamerion Wimbley, Rolando McClain and Quentin Groves the Raiders have Sam Williams, Darryl Blackstock, Bruce Davis II, Bani Gbdayu and Chris Francis.

That’s an extremely thin group of linebackers and the Raiders will be looking at cuts around the league to shore up the group.

Guided By The Ground Game

 Posted by at 4:57 PM  No Responses »
Dec 122010
 

No one runs the ball better than the Raiders, except the Chiefs. Remember that line from week nine?

In week 14, it could be rephrased. No one runs the ball better than the Raiders, except the Chiefs and Jaguars.

The Raiders and Jaguars are surprisingly in the thick of the playoff run. Both teams are largely reliant on the running game to generate offensive production. The two ground games will battle at EverBank Field today, looking to make a statement about their playoffs chances.

Maurice Jones-Drew is rolling and the Raiders front seven must do what it takes to keep him contained.

On offense, the Raiders must get their own ground game going as the entire offense flows from a healthy running game,

The run game aspect of this match up has been publicized, but how hard is it to stop Jones-Drew and how hard is it to run on the Jaguars?

During Jones-Drew’s streak, five 100-yard games, he’s faced the Cowboys, Texans, Browns, Giants and Titans.

Team Run Defense vs, Jones-Drew
Dallas Cowboys 107.8 yards per game (14) vs. Jones-Drew 135 yards (5.0 avg)
Houston Texans 101.4 ypg (10) vs. Jones-Drew 100 yards (4.2 avg)
Cleveland Browns 119.1 (20) vs Jones-Drew 133 yards (5.8)
New York Giants 98.0 ypg (7) vs. Jones Drew 113 (5.4)
Tennessee Titans 120.6 (21) vs. Jones-Drew 186 yards (6.0)
Oakland Raiders 124.3 (23) vs Jones-Drew

Based upon Jones-Drew’s last five games, you would expect 148 rushing yards against the Raiders. He is tough and he has been particularly tough on teams with unfavorable statistics against the run. The Raiders are the worst run defense the Jaguars will have played during Jones-Drew’s streak.

It’s a tall order for the Raiders, but can they rise to the occasion? In week nine, the Raiders held the Chiefs to 104 rushing yards, limiting Jamaal Charles to 53 yards and Thomas Jones to 32 yards. The Raiders are capable, but this is a cross country road game against on the premier running backs in the NFL. This could be the biggest test for the run defense this season.

The other question is: Can the Raiders run it against the Jaguars?

The Jaguars run defense has surrendered 109.5 yards per game (17). While this is par for the course, the Jaguars have been stopping the run much better in the second half.

Arian Foster, 56 yards. Peyton Hillis 48 yards, Chris Johnson, 53 yards. Their only hiccup against the run came against the Giants with Brandon Jacobs 87 yards and Ahmad Bradshaw 49 yards totaling 136 yards in their only loss since week seven in Kansas City.

What about Kansas City, could the Jaguars stop the Chiefs ground game? Not exactly. Thomas Jones went for 125 and a touchdown, Jamaal Charles added 71 a touchdown and Dexter McCluster and Jackie Battle added 40 more and a touchdown. The Jaguars allowed 236 yards and three touchdowns that day.

If you examine the rest if the Jaguars schedule, you will see plenty of sub-par run offenses.

Denver in week one, San Diego in week two, Indianapolis in week four, Buffalo in week five, and Dallas in week eight.

Oddly, the Jaguars recent surge against the run has come against teams much higher up the list.

Theory is Jaguars can key on one runner, but have trouble with two-back systems. With the exception of Dallas in the final days of the Wade Phillips era, this holds true.

New York Giants have a two-back system. Kansas City has a two-back system. Philadelphia has McCoy and Vick and rushed for a 5.0 yard average.

Tennessee, Cleveland, Houston? All one lead runner.

Add Peyton Hillis. 95 yards receiving against the Jaguars and the shine comes off this defense a little. Could it be the Jaguars might be allowing fewer yards because teams game plan to pass the ball on the 27th ranked pass defense?

The Raiders have chance for another good game on the ground and it’s vitally important for the Raiders to run. The Raiders have won only two games without a 100 yard rusher, last week in San Diego was one example, but Darren McFadden had 97 yards and Michael Bush had 95 yards. The only other example was against Kansas City, but McFadden and Bush combined for 106 yards and the game required some late heroics in the passing game by rookie Jacoby Ford.

Jacksonville is basically the same team on the ground. During the first half, Jones-Drew struggled to get going. Not coincidentally when he did rush for more than 100 yards, the Jaguars won. The only loss in a game where Jones-Drew went for over 100 yards was against the Giants in New York.

He’s come close to or had over 100 yards in the Jaguars seven wins. The exception might be the game against Buffalo, Jones-Drew rushed for 84 yards, but Deji Karim added 70 and receiver Mike Thomas added 53.

The Jaguars are a running team. The Raiders are certainly capable of stopping the run, but it requires the big boys up front to do the dirty work.

John Henderson, Quentin Groves and Khalif Barnes are ready to square off against Kirk Morrison and Slade Norris.

Both teams will be guided to a win by the running game, it’s just a matter of which run defense shows up.

Step Up Your Game: Thomas Howard

 Posted by at 6:51 PM  1 Response »
Jul 262010
 

Third in a series analyzing players on the 2010 Raiders that need to step up their game for the Raiders to become a playoff team.

Who Will Cover?

The strength of the starting linebackers in 2009 was certainly their ability to play the pass. Thomas Howard, Kirk Morrison and Ricky Brown were all more adept at playing the pass than they were at playing the run.

(Photo Credit: Jeffrey Beall)

Flash-forward to 2010 and the starting linebackers are Trevor Scott, Rolando McClain and Kamerion Wimbley. Three new linebackers, two pass rushers and one rookie.

The drastic change comes on the heels of yet another poor year stopping the run. While some of that can certainly be placed upon the interior line play, the one constant had been Morrison and Howard. Morrison was shipped out of town, but Howard remains with an uncertain roll.

The Raiders have a totally different question surrounding the linebackers in 2010. Can they cover?

Scott, a converted defensive end, was effective rushing the passer and stopping the run last season, but still has a ways to go in coverage. Wimbley is also playing a new position. The college defensive end turned 3-4 outside linebacker will play the strong-side linebacker position for the Raiders. Coupled with the fact that McClain’s only perceived weakness was playing the pass and the Raiders have completely flipped the position upside down.

Howard finds himself competing for the job as a nickel linebacker. Ricky Brown and Quentin Groves will also figure in, although Groves has similar issues covering the pass. Howard’s struggles were not apparent last season, but the coaches saw enough on film to move him from the weak-side to the strong-side and basically replace him in the offseason.

With the stated liabilities of the other linebackers against the pass, Howard will need to embrace his new role and thrive covering the pass when spelling Scott and Wimbley.

The revamped core of linebackers will need to prove they can cover to stay on the field, while Howard will get on the field for his coverage abilities.

Howard is the rare physical specimen that could force his way into a starter roll if he can stop the run. He will be relied upon to play the pass well.

If Howard steps up his game, he has the potential to make this core of linebackers special. If he doesn’t, there is the potential for the linebackers to be a pass coverage liability.

Step up your game Thomas Howard, the Raiders defense needs you to cover up their liabilities, as they will yours.

Morrison Will Sign Tender

 Posted by at 10:37 PM  No Responses »
Apr 142010
 

According to a source, Kirk Morrison will sign his restricted free agent tender.

This keeps him in Silver & Black unless the Raiders decide to trade him.

The tender will earn him about $2.5 million in 2010.

Morrison failed to generate enough interest for a team to give up a third round draft pick as a restricted free agent.

The deadline was looming for Morrison to sign with another team and he opted to sign the tender over holding out until June 1.

The source tells me Morrison isn’t likely to show up for voluntary team workouts.

Signing the tender allows the Raiders to retain him or trade him.

In the end, Morrison and his agent knew holding out wouldn’t allow the Raiders to explore trading him at the draft.

It isn’t known if the Raiders will explore a trade, but it is likely, as there would have been no other reason to place the low third-round tender on Morrison.

Expect the Raiders to dangle Morrison for as low as a fourth round pick.

Training Camp, ESPN, Local Beat Writers

 Posted by at 2:48 AM  No Responses »
Aug 052009
 

ESPN is at it again. People who work for ESPN can’t do anything on Twitter. They can tell you they are going to the bathroom or waking up in the morning, but anything sports related will have to go through ESPN approval process. Basically, all the ESPN peoples twitter feeds are nothing more than either A) Boring or B) tools of the empire.

Twelve NFL teams also ban Twitter among players and beat writers during camp. For most teams with open training camp, that means the fans can better use Twitter to communicate things than can the beat writer. The beat writer would have to sacrifice his access to players and coaches to tweet. Now fans will tweet incorrect information that the beat writer would otherwise would have cleared up before tweeting it. Such as why a player sat out a practice, etc.

Thankfully, our beat writers have kept the tweets rolling in from the “private” training camp in Napa. I won’t be too hard on these guys, but there seems to be a disproportionate amount of coverage on Heyward-Bey. Mitchell has probably gotten about much coverage as JaMarcus Russell.

Where are the updates about the defensive line? Where are the updates about the running backs. They seem to be few and far between. Aside from a few WR lower on the depth chart, what other players are on the bubble? This stuff better be forthcoming guys.

Now on the the updates they did provide.

DHB had hands of glue in the evening practice. For the first time he caught the ball consistently. Russell also was looking sharp. Unfortunately, both McFadden and Thomas Howard felt the practice was sub par. Interesting that the beat writers had a different take than those two. What are the coaches saying?

You have to feel good about Tyvon Branch and Mike Mitchell. Our prospects at Safety couldn’t be better.

Mario can separate himself from Barnes if Barnes misses a few practices with a sore knee and ankle. Gallery looks to be fine after his surgery and holding him out is precautionary. Center remains fluid it seems. RT could be Green’s to lose especially if Barnes isn’t receptive to a move to that side.

Thomas Howard admits he put on a couple pounds. Take that for what it is worth.

Kirk Morrison and Fabo (Ravens CB Fabian Washington) like Shark Week on Discovery channel.

I’ll have more…stay tuned.

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