Raidersblog.com

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...

The Raiders should have been defeated by the Houston Texans on Sunday. The offense came out extremely flat and did not get a first down until the 2nd quarter and only had four at halftime. For most of the game the Raiders were embarrassing on offense. Darren McFadden, the NFL leading rusher, had only 12 yards at halftime and only 51 for the game which is well below his average. Jason Campbell on multiple occasions missed open receivers and made early mistakes. Neither Kevin Boss, Michael Bush or Denarius Moore caught a pass. The Raiders squandered good field position and failed to capitalize on a block punt instead settling for three Janikowski field goals longer than 50 yards. The offensive line gave up three sacks and countless quarterback hurries. It appeared as if the Raiders offensive line was going to literally fall apart. Then, all of a sudden, things changed. Penalty flags started to get picked up and the defensive line started to deflect passes. Lamarr Houston got an intercept...

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...

Stephanie Stradley, AKA TexansChick from the Houston Chronicle was kind enough to do a Q&A with us. Follower her on Twitter @StephStradley  and check out my answers to her questions on the TexansChick blog.  Big thanks to Stephanie for taking the time to answer my questions.  Raidersblog: How much of a difference has Wade Phillips made to Houston’s defense? Has  scheme played as big of a role as the additions of Joseph and Watt and a healthy Cushing? Stradley: "The biggest difference in the Wade Phillips hire is sort of a institutional confidence. The previous two defensive coordinators were first time coordinators. The Texans have had the youngest starting defenses in the league since Gary Kubiak started in 2006. Inexperienced DCs + Inexperienced Players = A defense ranked by Football Outsiders as 31st-2006, 30th-2007, 29th-2008, 20th-2009, 31st-2010. When Phillips took over, he had a clear plan of the players he did not want to retain and which ones he wanted to target in fr...