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It is easy enough to blame Chuck Bresnahan for the Raiders second half collapses this season. He was never Hue Jackson's guy and his performance this season means there will likely be turnover in that area unless the Raiders defense turns into the 1985 Bears the last two weeks and the team squeaks into the playoffs and continues to dominate defensively. That's not going to happen. Jackson will likely get a pass for his rookie season. Dealing with the loss of legendary owner Al Davis and assuming the General Manager duties, losing his starting quarterback, his star running back, and having some of his best players miss time will all be excuses to give Hue Jackson another chance. That's probably how it should be, that's a lot to bite off for any first time head coach. Add to it the Jackson-created hype and expectations and you have a dangerous mix that has a segment of the Raider Nation upset. Playing the blame game Let's take a look at the two phases of the game. Let...

The Raidersblog team gives their grades at the midway point of the season. Quarterback Chris Hansen: B Brandon Dwonch: C - (Incomplete) Nick Silverman: B- Natalie Saar: C - (Boller D) Bram Makonda: C+ Jeff Fagen: B Overall GPA: 2.5 Jason Campbell played his game and did it well enough until he got injured. Carson Palmer, given ample time to learn the offense, tossed three touchdowns and had such command of the offense he was audibling at the line. The grade can be considered incomplete for now, but with significant room to grow. Runningback/Fullback Chris Hansen: A- Brandon Dwonch: A- Nick Silverman: B+ Natalie Saar: A Bram Makonda: A- Jeff Fagen: A Overall GPA: 3.8 Darren McFadden held the league lead in rushing until his injury against Kansas City. Michael Bush is a great replacement back and can consistently put up 100-yard days. Marcel Reece injury really hurt the offense, but he's as good as they come at the position. Richard Gordon and Manase Tonga have done a good job as blo...

After a week one win, on Monday night, against a division rival, the Raiders and the Raider Nation were flying high. The opening game curse was broken, the Prime Time curse was broken, Hue Jackson was 1-0 as a head coach, and the Raiders were back. Week 2 has brought everyone back down to earth a little. Welcome to the first, but probably not last time the Raiders have to look in the mirror and decide what kind of team they are going to be this year. Hue Jackson had a lot of time this off-season to say what he wanted to say. Get his message across to everyone. The time for talk, however, is now in the past. This is a different Raiders team under Hue Jackson, but one win on Monday Night Football is not going to convince anyone. He has to get his persona to show through his players. That's what good coaches do. Rex Ryan is able to get his attitude to show through his players on the field. Bill Belichick is able to get his players to always be right mentally. Mike Tomlin has his playe...

The pain of defeat had a nasty sting to it Sunday when the Raiders blew a big lead in the second half and were downed by the Bills in the final minute. This game, unlike the first game, had many more standout performances. Unfortunately for the Raiders, some of the performances were horrible. Fortunately,  many are correctable. Luckily, the team now comes home for five out of the next six games where they were 5-3 a year ago. Thankfully, the Raiders found out important things about their team in the process. Studs Denarius Moore Yes, the rookie can play. He proved it Sunday. It's going to be hard for the Raiders to keep him off the field. Who's playing time does he cut into? It would be logical for him to cut into Darrius Heyward-Bey's time, but that won't be the case. Most of the damage done by Moore was from the Z receiver position. Jacoby Ford plays this position. Certainly the Raiders will not rob from Ford to give to Moore. Moore is cut into the playing time of the...

Sunday proved that the Raiders offense is good even with their starting receivers out. Jacoby Ford, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Louis Murphy, and Kevin Boss were all out. Surely they would struggle.  Jason Campbell showed that he may be  the Raiders quarterback for years to come. He made big throw after big throw. Rookie Denarius Moore had is coming out party in this game and could be the number one receiver the Raiders have needed for years. Once Ford and Boss are healthy, this offense will be explosive. Nick Miller has proven nothing in the kick and punt return game. He should never return kicks again. Chris Johnson also proved that he can't play man-to-man. He is no better than last year and gets worse every game. I would rather re-sign Lito Sheppard than continue to watch Johnson look like Demarcus Van Dyke did against the Saints. The defense looked great in the first half and looked they gave up the second half. They couldn't stop the run or the pass. No pressure on the quarterba...

“You definitely don't want to ever feel like you're letting your offense down and yesterday we did.” -Stanford Routt “We have a good group of men in that locker room who hopefully have learned a very valuable lesson that we can learn from this and move forward. That we have to play Raider football all the time. Not just for a half, but you have to do it for 60 minutes.” -Hue Jackson “Don’t say you’re sorry, just change.” This is what my mother would say to me when I apologized for doing something wrong, for the millionth time. This is the same message that needs to be conveyed to the Raiders. Following Sunday’s total meltdown, many players from the team tweeted their apologies and promises of a stronger showing next week. Some veterans said in interviews that it was the worst game in their careers. While the Raider Nation was appreciative of the players acknowledging that the end of the game was a huge disappointment, that doesn’t change anything. The Raiders blew a 21-3 lead a...

If Rolando McClain makes a few more tackles... If Nick Miller doesn't trip on his own feet... If the Raiders "daunting" front four sacks Ryan Fitzpatrick just once... If Tyvon Branch isn't called for roughness on a defenseless receiver and it is ruled a fumble... If Ryan Fitzpatrick's dropped snap is a fumble and not a faux spike... If Chris Johnson makes just one play... If Tyvon Branch catches the interception or deflects the ball... If Darren McFadden doesn't fumble... If Denarius Moore comes down with the Hail Mary pass... If Kevin Boss, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Jacoby Ford, Louis Murphy and Mike Mitchell play... If Matt Giordano makes a key tackle... If Rolando McClain doesn't miss his coverage assignment... If if if if if. The Raiders lost this game. Plenty of blame to go around and that's why it was so terribly painful to watch. The defense was terrible. The offense could have been better. Positives? Sure...there are plenty of positives, but it'...

Last year the Raiders had many bad streaks going against them. 0-13 against the Chargers, losing seasons since 2003, and seven straight seasons with 11 or more losses. The Raiders turned all three of these around last year by sweeping the AFC West and going 8-8. The streak the has still lingered is winning outside the division and on the road. This Sunday the Raiders have a chance to make a statement that they are for real. ESPN experts still have counted out the Raiders and look at them as a second class team. See:  Panel Shuts out Raiders Again The issues for this game is who is healthy and which player will be the next man up. The Raiders haven't started 2-0 since the 2002. That year they went to the Superbowl. Too early for that talk. The current report out of Oakland is that Jacoby Ford is out unless there is some kind of miracle that happens overnight. Richard Seymour looks like a go for Sunday and the Raiders really need him to play. His presence in this defense is vital to ...

Any NFL fan, outside of Buffalo, should have been surprised by the complete dominant performance the Buffalo Bills unleashed on the Kansas City Chiefs in week one.  The Bills, who been near the bottom of the AFC East for quite some time, killed last seasons AFC West champions 41-7. The Buffalo Bills, for now, deserve respect.    Going into week two, both the Raiders and the Bills boast a 100 yard rusher and a very physical and at times dominating defensive line.  If the Raiders are to be become “bullies” their defensive line cannot take any weekends off, including ones in Buffalo. Together the savvy Fred Jackson and the explosive C.J Spiller pose a greater challenge to the Raiders defensive line then the maligned Knowshon Moreno and the aged Willis McGahee did.  Both offensive lines will have their hands full. The offensive line that finishes blocks and paves the better running lanes will give their team a huge advantage. Despite this advantage the winner of this game will have to do m...

For two teams looking to turn things a whole culture around, the Oakland Raiders and the Buffalo Bills meet in what is bound to be an early statement game. After demolishing their Week 1 opponents (41-7 in favor of the Bills over the struggling Chiefs and the 23-20 win of the Raiders over the physically outmatched Broncos), both teams are looking to state their case as the up-and-coming team in the AFC by coming out of the gates fast. One can argue that these two teams are night and day schematically and aesthetically (the new-look Bills all white look and the Silver and Black of the Raiders). The Bills relies on a short-passing attack by on offense behind QB Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Raiders employ a hard-running attack behind one of the most complete backs in the NFL Darren McFadden. On defense the two teams are also night and day, with the Bills being stout in the secondary while having a solid but not great defensive line, while the Raiders are dominant in the front seven and are s...