Raidertopia

Winning Ugly?  This was absolutely hideous.

The Raiders had no business winning this game.

A 13-10 victory at Kansas City.

But hey, it’s so much better on the winning side of a game like this.  I recall a game against Carolina last year where Delhomme had almost as bad a game as Russell did today and the Panthers won by 11.

Maybe this is a sign that things are changing.

All my fears about Russell are unfortunately looking to have validity – he’s terribly inaccurate, has little pocket presence, and stares down his intended receivers.  I think the inaccuracy is the biggest concern.  Do QBs really ever improve in that area?  Or is it innate?  You have it or you don’t?  Name one QB who improved in that area.  I hope I’m wrong, but these are real concerns.  We heard about it all through training camp and he’s looked bad these first two games.  What is he, something like 17 for 50?

Today, he missed wide open receivers on numerous occasions.  One was a potential Louis Murphy TD.  TE Miller never caught a pass and he was open several times.  How do you not complete a pass to Miller in an entire 60 minutes?  Russell was also very, very fortunate that an easy interception-for-a-TD was dropped by KC.  That could have been ball game.  Also disturbing was the fact that he wasn’t getting all that much pressure from the KC pass rush.

Heck, he was having great difficulty even completing screen passes and dump offs.

As for the rest of the offense, the running game disappeared today when they needed it most.  Though he scored the game winner, McFadden gets tripped up way too easy, whether it’s his own lineman or a defender’s hand.  What’s up with that?

166 yards to over 400.  11 first downs to 25.  21 minutes of possession to 38.  How do you win a game like that?

Thank you Michael Huff for finally playing up to your first round potential.  His two interceptions were huge.

The Raider special teams were half very good (Lechler, Jano and the kick coverage), but half scary bad.  By that I mean the return teams were just there to catch the kicks and not make mistakes.  One punt late in the game was muffed and almost lost.

More huge though, were the Chiefs ineptness.  They did things the old Raiders used to do.  They let the clock run out at the end of the half in the red zone.  They committed some bad penalties.  They dropped interceptions.  Their special teams watched punts roll into the end zone.

Lastly, why was dehydration such a factor with Raider players in 75 degree weather?

Nevertheless, a win is a win.  Just expect every team on the schedule to play at least eight in the box and dare him to throw and beat them with his arm.  It should be interesting.  I hope I’m wrong about him, but right now his name is being discussed with Ryan Leaf’s.  Not good.

The Raiders committed a whopping 14 penalties, mostly of the discipline-lacking, pre-snap variety.

And the Raiders won?

Typical Raider buffoonery -  a neutral zone infraction by the Raiders on a Jet punt gave New York a first down and led to their only touchdown.  Oh, and it negated a nice Higgins punt return to boot.

Don’t pull my leg and tell me the Raiders still won.

The Raiders extended their streak and once again could not punch it in from the red zone in the entire first half.

You say the Raiders won?

The Raiders were only 4 for 17 in third down conversions.

The Raiders couldn’t have won.

The Raiders were outscored again in the fourth quarter.

Their typical fourth quarter meltdown to lose in the end….wait….they won?

Janikowski missed an important 40 yard field goal in the second quarter that would have put the Raiders up and perhaps helped to win the game in regulation.

Ah yes, the inconsistent kicker that the Raiders wasted a first round pick on….once again costs them a game.  They surely must have lost by those three points, right?

A running back on the 27th ranked rushing offense gained 159 yards on the Raiders.  Justin Fargas, on the other hand, averaged a measly 2.6 yards per carry.

The Raiders surely couldn’t have won.

The Jets kicked a long, 52 yard field goal to tie the game with three seconds left in the game, barely eeking it over the crossbar.  And that was after a time out was called by the Raiders just moments before a miss.

Of course, the Raiders lost, right?  In their patented torture-the-loyal-fan way, where victory is dangled before them and then snatched away by bad coaching, tackling, penalties….whatever it takes.

Speaking of the kicking game… In my view, this calling time out to freeze the kicker strategy is self defeating.  I always thought that it just gives the kicker a free, practice kick to warm him up and adjust to the turf and wind conditions.  Jay Feely confirmed that after the game:

“I heard the whistle before I started, which is an advantage to the kicker,” Feely said. “If you’re going to do that, do that before he kicks. I can kick it down the middle, see what the wind does and adjust. It helps the kicker tremendously.”

Live and learn, Tom Cable.  Live and learn.

Now, back to my stream of disbelief….

The Raiders’ Michael Huff loses his starting job, yet is in there just enough to drop an interception that hits him in the gut and probably would have won the game earlier in overtime.

Just another event, call it Raider karma, that leads to a heartbreaking Raider loss?

The Raiders offensive play calling was overly conservative in the fourth quarter with only a three point lead, bringing out boos from the home crowd.

Surely, just conservative enough to keep the Raider defense on the field and tired, thus allowing Brett Favre to drive the Jets to victory, right?

And the Raiders gave the great Brett Favre three (three!) chances to beat them in overtime?

This has 1-5  and a last place tie with the lowly Chiefs in the AFC West written all over it.

Wait?  Regardless of all this, the Raiders came away with a 16-13 victory?  You don’t say?

I can’t take too much satisafaction from it because it was a totally maddening experience.  I must have thought to myself, “here we go again”, at least a half dozen times during the course of the game.

A win feels a heck of a lot better than a loss though.  Enjoy it guys and let’s fix the mistakes before the trip to Charm City.

Well, the Cable era didn’t exactly get off to a very good start.

The Raiders had two weeks to prepare for this?  Granted, there was the whole coach firing thing, but still.  The team looked flat and listless.

The Raiders went up 3-0, after once again failing to score a touchdown in the red zone.   Then, I kept waiting….and waiting….and waiting…for some sign of life from that offense.

It never came.  The Raiders never scored again and lost 34-3.

Funny thing is, they were just down 10-3 halfway through the third but the defense just couldn’t get off the field and the offense was impotent.

Here’s where I have to mention my concern about Jamarcus Russell.  Granted, he’s little more than a rookie, but look at other rookie QBs like Joe Flacco and Matt Ryan.  No one’s making excuses for them and they weren’t the number one overall pick in the entire draft.  I love the guy’s coolness and leadership and, of course, his raw physical ability, but one word sums up my biggest concern about him….

Accuracy.

To be a successful QB in the NFL, you gotta have accuracy.  Drew Brees has it and unfortunately it was on display today.  Who cares if you can throw the ball 70 yards from your knees if you can’t hit someone with the throw?  Russell missed Miller for a probable early touchdown.  Later, Russell missed a deep throw to a wide open Schilens.  He could have underthrown the ball by ten yards and still gotten the TD.  Instead, he overthrew it terribly.  These were not isolated instances.  His lack of accuracy was on display all day as he only completed about one of every three throws.   He could have, indeed should have, had at least five balls intercepted.  Yeah, everyone has bad days, but JaMarcus has been missing guys all season long.  The offensive line protection was pretty decent all day at New Orleans, so no excuses there.

I can already hear people saying, “but his wide receivers aren’t very good and his timing with them is off”.  I don’t buy that.  An open receiver is an open receiver.  He’s had a full camp and the timing with these guys should be there by now.  It’s week five.

I just hope that he improves, but I hate to say that accuracy is usually something you either have or you don’t.

Until he hopefully improves that critical part of his game, he needs to get better in a several more areas: ball protection, running when it’s there to run, and throwing into coverage.  He needs to wrap up the ball when he gets hit.  Most of his fumbles were just due to carelessness, not violent hits.  Today, against New Orleans, he had at least two chance to run for big yards and instead forced the ball downfield.  I just hope the coaches aren’t telling him not to run.  He’s a big, 265 pound man.  He can take a hit and probably deliver some to those small DBs.  One more thing, why is he sitting back on the bench when the defense is on the field?  At least the cameras always catch him there.  Shouldn’t he be watching a guy like Brees to see how he operates to learn something?  Just saying.

“You have to use him as a model if you are the Oakland Raiders,” said new Oakland coach Tom Cable, who took over last week for the fired Lane Kiffin. “That’s where we want (Russell) to get.”

I don’t mean to diss on JaMarcus so much, but these things really concern me.  I’m obviously going to root for him to succeed but I’m just a little worried.

My concerns about JaMarcus are mirrored on the defensive side of the ball by Michael Huff.  What’s with this guy?  Besides letting journeyman tight ends get behind him, he doesn’t even appear to have the speed he was touted to have coming out of college.  Could he be on the way to bustville like Fabian Washington, Derrick Gibson, Phillip Buchanon (now starting at Tampa, by the way), and Stuart Schweigert?

My favorite defensive coordinator, Rob Ryan, had another magnificent game today.  I lost count of how many three man rushes he called on passing downs.  I don’t think that worked very well (again!), Rob.  Brees was 26 of 30 for 320 yards.  He was without his best pass rusher, Derrick Burgess, and he still played soft.  Brees was comfortable in the pocket all game.  Brees reminds me so much of the last, great Raider quarterback, Rich Gannon, it’s maddening.

“I wasn’t feeling pressure all day,” Brees said. “We knew the type of pass rush this defense could bring. I felt like we held most of those guys at bay.”

Lastly, what about Al Davis’ brilliant waste of a first round pick – Sebastian Janikowski.  I don’t care if he owns all the Raider kicking records.  He was picked that high so he could make those 50+ yard field goals.  He missed two today.  And he’s lost many more games by missing chippies than he has won.  Look it up.

Hey Al, Tuesday is the trading deadline.  Can we order a wide receiver that can get open?