Raidertopia

I’m not going to make too much out of the first preseason game win over the Cowboys because, well, it was the first preseason game after all.  Although I’ll note that it was Dallas’ second.

The offense didn’t look much better than the 2009 version, but a new QB needs time with a new system and receivers.  I’m optimistic things will improve.  The two things that stuck out was that the WR corps needs a veteran (Terrell Owens might have been a good signing) and the center position is weak.  Satele is no Samson – he was run over and through at least a couple of times.  Maybe Veldheer will be moved up from 2nd team.  DHB had one pass thrown his way and it was broken up because he didn’t go get the ball – sound familiar?

Defense, especially against the run, looked much improved, but I need to see more to get too excited about it.

The game was not very well played, but the hardest part about sitting through a preseason game where the starters only play about a quarter, is sitting through a preseason game against Dallas with their homer announcing team.  NFL Network used to do half the game with each team’s announcers, but I guess the rules are different when Dallas is playing.  I didn’t think it was possible to be worse than the Redskin announcers in terms of shameless rooting for the local team, but these Dallas guys easily surpass them.  I mean, they didn’t even have the courtesy to give us the Raider starters’ names.  That’s plain rude.  The most attention they gave the Raiders was when they mocked them for their “Team of the Decades” motto, the many underachieving first round draft picks on the roster, the Jamarcus Russell debacle, or when they committed a penalty.  The typical “there go the Raiders again” spiel.

They win their first playoff game in about 15 years and their fairly recent mediocrity is forgotten, while no one seems to remember the Raiders’ 2003 Super Bowl appearance, the infamous tuck call that robbed them of a Super Bowl the year before, and Tony Siragusa’s pancake tackle on Rich Gannon in the 2000 AFC Championship game.

Evidently, this Dallas team has no weaknesses and it’s just a foregone conclusion that they’ll be in the Super Bowl in 2011….a handful of players that they’ll cut will end up starting for other teams.  Blah, blah blah.  Almost as bad as the Patriots and their fans in the media.

Back to the Silver and Black – I liked what  I saw with Michael Bennett, but I also like Rock Cartwright’s versatility.  Hope they are able to keep both.  Yamon Figures looked best among the WRs and he can return punts, so JLH might be sent packing.  It’s early, so we’ll see.  The offense and Jason Campbell must improve though.  I’m confident they will, but WRs and the OL could use help.

The former Bronco just can’t let his hatred for the Raiders go.  He continues to rub the Raiders’ noses into the poop of their recent woes.  L-Dizzle has a good round-up of his most recent Raider bashing outburst.  Yes, he’s a loser and, yes, Janikowski was snubbed by the Pro Bowl selectors.

When I first heard of the big Richard Seymour trade, I thought it was a bad deal.  It was panned by some scouts.  Personally, I thought he was a bit overrated and perhaps over the hill.  I was surprised to learn that he was still under 30, though barely, and I didn’t recall he had that many Pro Bowls to his credit.  I also hate getting Patsy cast offs.  Biggest thing  was the fact that the Raiders are giving away a 1st rounder in 2011…..too much in my opinion.

My thinking started changing some when I read about his character in the locker room as a leader and his strength at holding the point of attack against the run, both things that the Raiders desperately need.  Raider players also sounded excited about getting him, which will boost morale and team spirit.  Didn’t realize he was so big either, at 6’6″ and 310 pounds.  When I thought about that lost draft pick….what the heck….the Raiders evidently don’t know how to draft in the first round anyway, so why not use it to pick up a known comodity?  Plus, the hope is that the pick in 2011 won’t be all that high as the Raiders will have improved.

Still, a first rounder is too high.

Upside is that it gets Trevor Scott off the field at least until obvious passing downs.  He’s just looking too much like a non-factor we had playing DE named Tyler.

We’ll see if the haters in the media are right about Seymour not wanting to report.  If those stories are true, it gives them more fuel for their fires.  They’re all playing that “from the best team to the black hole” angle and it pisses me off.  As it stands now, this situation gives them all another rich opportunity to join that idiot Rodney Harrison to ridicule this once great organization.

I’ve got mixed feelings about the trade, but if he doesn’t want to come and play, I’d rather see them void the trade and send him back.  And if this drags out past Thursday and he misses the first, very important, game?  I’d rather Seymour stay in New England.

I didn’t want to celebrate, or even blog about, the Raider win over the Texans last week because I was afraid of a face plant in Tampa Bay like the embarrasment in Baltimore after the NY Jet win or the collapse vs lowly Kansas City after the Denver route.

To my surprise, I received a late Christmas gift in the form of back to back Raider wins.  This one against a team fighting for the playoffs, in their house, across country, and the most unbelievable – after being down by 10 points with only 11 minutes left in the game!

As if the Raider win wasn’t enough, everything else went well this Sunday.  As a Raider fan of late, I’ve had to take pleasure in watching the teams I hate lose.  I know, it’s a little sad and hopefully that will change soon.

The team that is known by their obnoxious fans and mediots as “America’s Team” was absolutely blown out by Philadelphia 44-6 to miss the playoffs entirely.  Ha!  Super Bowl bound, my ass.  They haven’t won a playoff game in over ten years and yet they’re still media darlings.

Speaking of obnoxious fans and media darlings, even better was the 11-5 Patriots not making the playoffs.  Nawt fay-uh, they’re surely crying.  Perhaps this is kismet for all the cheating they’ve done in the past.   Maybe Belicheat is regretting not trying to do just a little more cheating this year to get them over the hump. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.  Ahhh….I think I’ll drink a Sam Adams to celebrate their demise.

Well, that pretty much completes my football weekend.  I think the only thing that might improve on it is if that crybaby Jay Cutler and the Broncos get knocked out of the playoffs tonight at San Diego.  I’m no San Diego fan, of course, but it’s definitely the lesser of two evils.

This is my last weekend in London after a fantastic two months, though the weather could’ve been better.

I was extremely upset, after just a couple weeks into my stay here, that DirecTV’s SuperCast stopped working for me – both the Adobe Air app and the browser-based Flash versions.  I had to resort to watching ESPN’s GameCast and listening to KSFO.  In hindsight, it probably would have been worse actually watching these “performances”.

Anyway, here are just my random notes from the latest Raider fiasco:

I like Tom Flores telling it like it is on KSFO – questioning why the Raiders (soon to be former defensive coordinator, Rob Ryan) keep rotating their high-priced DTs.  Every two plays.  As if they get too winded to play an entire series.  He called it, “disgusting”.

Why is Andrew Walter the emergency QB?

We’re number one!  I thought the Raiders were doing somewhat better overall in terms of penalties this year only to see that they’re tops in the league once again.

With Fargas, McFadden, and Bush, why sign Louis Rankin, another RB, to the roster?

Raiders knew Patsies were going to run screens and still couldn’t stop them.

Patsies running, passing, scoring at will.  Something like 350 yards in the first half.

Fair catch on a kickoff?  Tony Stewart, I guess, doesn’t get paid enough for returning kicks.  There wasn’t a guy within 20 yards of him when he fair caught that ball.

Nnamdi has three holding penalties so far and is getting burned by former Raider and upstanding citizen, Randy Moss, fairly regularly.  Hate to say it, but the way he’s hinting at going elsewhere next year, I kind of don’t mind this.  Maybe he ends up staying if his value drops enough.

Way to give the momentum right back to the Patsies – after a big kickoff return for a TD, allow a kickoff return for a TD.  Untouched and made it look like the Raiders had eight guys on the field.

Our money guy, JaMarcus, looks lost again.  He badly underthrew Lelie in the end zone when the Raiders were actually driving, resulting in an interception.  And why can’t he hold onto the ball?  The most exciting thing about this guy so far in his career is what pimp-gear he’s going to be wearing after the game.

Did Ronald Curry actually catch a TD pass?  Shocking.  Formerly known as my favorite Raider player.

Bright side – I’ve totally turned around my opinion of Johnnie Lee Higgins.  I could do without his dancing in the end zone, but he is one of the few bright spots on the Raiders this year.  He looked absolutely horrible last season, but with the exception of a couple of questionable decisions like fielding a kickoff near the sideline and running out of bounds at the three, he’s looked promising.  Hope my opinion on JaMarcus is equally premature.

If JaMarcus fails as a QB, looks like he can’t be converted to a receiver because he can’t catch either.  Michael Bush threw him a softball that he dropped.

Why not make the embarassment complete?  Moss catches two touchdowns.  Now, LaMont Jordan runs 49 yards for a TD and is a few yards short of 100.  Oh and by the way….Jordan has a grand total of 128 yards all year.  49 points and still six minutes left.  They’re closing in on 300 yards rushing.  And don’t forget, this Patsy team is hobbled.  They even had to sign a LB out of retirement.

As if there’s any more reason to hate Mr. Personality, Bill Belicheat, the late challenge on a little 4 yard catch with his team ahead 49-20 and 2:33 left, just adds to the hate.  What a small man.

Why don’t the Raiders run McFadden outside more?  Why don’t they run more inventive plays off the “Wildcat” formation?  They seem to just run up the middle.

Patsies not only had almost 300 yards rushing, they averaged almost 8 yards per rush.

The Raiders are like the US auto industry.  They need a rescue desperately.  It’s a sad, sad state of affairs and this season can’t end soon enough.

This is over a week old and brings up some bad memories, but it’s so hilarious, it’s worth posting. It’s the Thai-Indian News take on the Raiders Monday Night Football embarrassment: Oakland Raiders beaten 41-14 by minnow-like Broncos. Here’s a sample from our Thai-Indian friends:

Oakland Raiders suffered Jay Cutler’s strength and rocket arm to loose face and credence wit a defeat of 14-41….he was the element that led a campaign that saw the Oakland Raiders smashed and demoralized to humility.

The take away here is that even that mega-niche NFL fan base of Indians living in Thailand could tell that Rob Ryan doesn’t know how to run a defense:

Oakland was beaten due to their simpleton game.

But I still don’t get the “minnow” reference.

I’ll get to the “but” part later.

The Raiders ran for a whopping 300 yards and defeated the Chiefs in Kansas City, 23-8.  It wasn’t pretty and the Chiefs came back to within a score late in the fourth, even with their 3rd string QB, but the Raider running game looked strong and the defense went after them.

What a difference from the passive defensive plan that Rob Ryan employed last week.  Could it be that Kiffin’s comments, the fan outrage, and the media ridicule made Ryan reacquaint himself with the concept of a blitz?  I still think the guy is a terrible defensive coordinator because one good game against a hobbled and mediocre team does not redeem five years of bad football.

Besides opening it up and mixing in some blitzes, Ryan had Kalimba Edwards back to rush the passer at RDE and Derrick Burgess finally looked like his old self at RDE.  Last week, rookie Trevor Scott was swallowed up on every play and Burgess was invisible.  DT Gerard Warren had an excellent game as well.

Props to all the running backs – Fargas, McFadden, and Bush, but the most credit should go to the offensive line.  It’s pretty obvious where their strengths lie – the running game.  If they can just improve their pass protection, this unit will be solid.  I was very worried about the left OT situation with Kwame Harris out, but “super” Mario Henderson looked pretty darn good going against a decent DE in Hali.  The Raiders made sure they kept most plays going right, but the young guy acquitted himself very well.

Some random notes:  Higgins looked much better than last year as a return man, but then again he had a return where he tried to reverse field and went backwards.  What happened to Ronald Curry’s hands?  Is Javon Walker ever going to be a factor?  Tyvon Branch looks like a player!  DeAngelo Hall still looks shaky to me.  How did McFadden, with his 4.33 speed, get caught from behind on his long run?  Why doesn’t a professional announcer and a former pro QB not know the rules for touching the ball on punts?

Again, Raider fans should temper their enthusiasm because of the weak opponent, the fact that the opponent had a chance to tie the game late, 55 yards passing is not something to write home about, and the “but” part I alluded to earlier…

He (Kiffin) saw a reporter and said, “See you later . . . maybe,” before ducking behind a red curtain. The he poked his head back out and added with a playful grin, “If I don’t, it’s been good.” ….more

There are reports that Kiffin will be fired by Monday, regardless of the game’s outcome.  If true, this is ludicrous.  Raider fans should all boycott Davis and not attend games or buy merchandise.  I sincerely hope this is media fabrication or just some sportswriter hazarding a guess based on the bizarre week leading up to the game.  From the writer’s perspective, he can just say he was fed bogus info if he’s wrong.  If he’s right, he gets credit for breaking the story.

Here are some disturbing signs that this may actually happen:

• Davis reportedly saying, “He’s not the guy I hired.”
• Kiffin always referring to Davis as “the owner”, which Davis may take as a sign of disrespect.
• The crazy press conference that Ryan had where he disputed (and contradicted himself) the Ryan-as-Davis-stooge theory.
• This quote from Kiffin, “We don’t have a general manager; everything goes through the owner.  That sets up a difficult situation at times. Knowing who the owner is, you know from Day 1 there’s no job security.”

After a day where Raider fans taste sweet victory over a hated rival and have some hope for the rest of the season, it may turn bittersweet by this time tomorrow.

(PS In honor of the blown call by Ed Hochuli that gave the Denver Broncos a second life vs the Chargers (and led to victory), the photo above shows another call the zebras missed on Sunday. It was called an incomplete pass and took a sack away from Burgess and the Raiders. It wasn’t reviewed. By the way, that bad call by Hochuli was exactly like the play where Russell fumbled near the goal line last week vs Denver.)

I’m not a huge fan of Jason Whitlock (after all, he is a Kansas City sports journalist), but finally!….someone who recognizes that the Raiders’ recent trend of mediocrity is surpassed by others.  He centers on the last 20 years of KC Chief football and makes some good points. 

…Under Peterson, we’ve been the Oakland Raiders for 20 years — except we don’t have three Super Bowl titles, a bundle of playoff victories and a 2003 Super Bowl appearance to soothe our embarrassment.         

And what about those bandwagon favorites, the suddenly re-popular Dallas Cowboys. When was the last time they actually won a playoff game? It was 12 years ago. When they had three 5-11 seasons in a row starting in 2000 (while the Raiders were winning division titles and being robbed of Super Bowls by inept officials, by the way), Dallas was not being brutally treated by the press like the Raiders are.

Anyway, enough about them. Hopefully this season will mark the return to excellence for the Raiders. Depth, OL pass protection, and generating QB pressure are major concerns for me, in addition to the rush defense. It should be an exciting and interesting season though.  I look forward to watching super, young talents like Russell, McFadden, and Bush.

Some notes about former Raiders. I found it oddly satisfying that Stuart Schweigart was cut by the lowly Redskins.  Serves him right for speaking so bitterly of the Raiders, the team that made him a high draft pick, paid him a lot of money, and gave him more chances than he probably should have had to show his worth as a safety.  After his insults, it’s doubtful he’ll ever be welcomed back with the Silver and Black, which they have been known to do.   Rod Martin was cut and brought back to be a mainstay of the Raider linebacker corps and intercept three passes in the Super Bowl.  Stuart might just end up joining Daunte Culpepper in early retirement.

I’m also very surprised that Raider bust Tyler Brayton is actually listed as a starter on the Carolina defense at LDE.  Man, this is definitive proof that their defense is not as strong as I thought! Good luck with that choice, Panthers.

Lastly, can’t wait to see Jerry Porter suit up and disappoint his new team….if he ever gets healthy. Of course, fully expect him to use his “injury” as an excuse for his continued underachieving.

• 1  Darren McFadden, RB, Arkansas
  Personally, I would have rather the Raiders took Dorsey, but that said, McFadden might be the big play guy the Raiders have been missing for years.  His character issues and skinny legs bother me, but we’ll see what happens.  One thing about the NFL Network coverage – this guy was a human highlight reel and yet after the Raiders picked him, they show a couple of ten yard gains and a bunch of plays highlighting how easy he is to tackle low.  All other picks had a nice set of positive plays in their highlights.  And they wonder why we Raider fans say the media is biased.

• 4a Tyvon Branch, CB, Connecticut
  The Raiders did their typical second day move of trading a lower round pick to move up a few slots to get their guy, giving up a 7th to Dallas to go from 105 to 100.  Surprise!  They picked a fast cornerback. Don’t know the guy outside of what I read, but he sounds like a great athlete and he looked awesome in his combine video.  But why a cornerback?  I saw where Jason Jones said he thought he’d be a safety, bso if that’s the case it makes more sense.  If he can return kicks, then even better.  Higgins is a bust and I don’t want him back there on either punts or kickoffs – he’s too frail and fumbles too easily.  I like the Branch pick….especially if he is a good tackler and unseats Schweigert at Safety.  Not a choirboy though, as he was involved in a pellet gun shooting incident with four other Uconn players in 2005.  The media will have some fun with that story as well as McFaddens history.

• 4b Arman Shields, WR, Richmond
  This guy looked good in his combine video as well.  Size, speed, and leaping ability.  He came from just down I-64 too – the Richmond Spiders.  Another guy who had a dazzling time in the 40.  Why are the Raiders so smitten with guys who are a hundredth of a second faster in the 40?  Didn’t they learn their lesson with James Jett?  At least this guy has size and seems to be a football player first, track star second.

  The Shields pick came in a trade with Baltimore for former first round pick, Fabian Washington.  Now that’s depressing.  A former first for a fourth.  The Raiders even traded up to get Washington that year.  Fabian’s only 24 and he can still be a good one.  I think this was way too cheap.  It’ll make much less sense if Shields isn’t a player too.

• 6 Trevor Scott, DE, Buffalo
  This guy started out at TE in college and Buffalo is not exactly an football powerhouse, but maybe the Raiders saw something in him.  Great workout numbers again here (yes, and speed), and a competitor with a good motor, but he’s a project.  Sounds a little too much like Tyler Brayton, but at least if he doesn’t pan out, it’s just a 6th rounder.  Had some sacks but his thin lower body frame is a concern.

• 7 Chaz Schilens, WR, San Diego State
  Can a guy named Chaz make it in the NFL?  Not much scouting info on this guy.  He wasn’t even listed with all the other San Diego State players eligible to be drafted on NFL.com until well after the Raiders picked him.  Even then, the data was sparse.  Just three lines: “Schilens excites people because of his exceptional size and speed. Due to his pure athleticism, he will have a chance to make the roster. He still needs some polish as a receiver.”  Jason Jones has a YouTube video of the guy though and, although the video quality is pretty bad, the dude looks like an exciting player. Big, really big, too.  It’s the seventh round, so why not?

In summary, and as usual, a lot of great athletes, but at least this year they’re also decent football players in terms of production on the field.  McFadden was a TD machine, Shields had some 100 yard games , and Scott led the team in sacks two years in a row.  Character issues with the top two picks are troubling as well.  McFadden,  Branch, Shields, and Schilens would make a great relay team.  I just hope they can play some football at this level.  McFadden is the key – will he be the home run hitter we need?  It’s gonna be a lot of fun watching them.

Nightmare scenario:  Glenn Dorsey terrorizing the Raider backfield twice each year, consistently overpowering the weak center of our OL.  Dorsey hitting McFadden hard and low behind the line of scrimmage, causing an ACL tear.  Noooooooooo!

For Raider fans, when the words of Ray Ratto actually ring true, you know things are bad in Raider Nation.

Maybe we don’t know everything yet. Maybe Kiffin did something really outrageous to warrant this letter of resignation. I hope we soon find out and this thing gets resolved, because it’s pure poison to the team.

After all, the Team is what we loyal fans care about. What are the players thinking? The rest of the league is laughing at us. What free agent in his right mind would want to come and play here? And the Team needs players….bad.

I’m more of a pessimist by nature, but the signs aren’t good. Too many sources are confirming this story:

I spoke with someone familiar with the Raiders’ situation within the last hour that confirmed ESPN’s report that Al Davis sent Lane Kiffin a letter of resignation to sign….But the more I hear about the dysfunction in Raiderland, I’m convinced Al Davis will do everything he can to get rid of Kiffin….The Raiders deny all of this. But these things don’t fall out of the sky….From what I hear from The Bee’s Matt Barrow’s, the friction between Kiffin and Rob Ryan was obvious at the Senior Bowl. Jason Jones

I wanted to clarify if the Raiders were denying the entire report after I was told by a very reliable source that hasn’t been wrong once that Al Davis did send Kiffin a letter asking for his resignation. Jason Jones

The letter hasn’t been seen, but too many people know about it, and have spoken quietly about it for the better part of a week. Ray Ratto

According to SI’s Don Banks and the Chronicle’s Nancy Gay , Kiffin has been exiled by Davis.

Of course, add to that ESPN’s Chris Mortensen and NFL Network’s Adam Schefter.

And remember, the Raider denials never deny that Kiffin was asked to resign.

Unless Kiffin kicked Al’s walker from under him, I don’t see what he could have done to warrant this. Sure, he made some mistakes his first year. The Raiders lost many 4th qtr leads. Clock management could have been better. But the team was competitive and the players, for the most part, played hard for him. The defense was the biggest disappointment, and he wanted to fix that, rightly in my opinion, by firing Rob Ryan. That potential firing was further justified by Ryan’s ridiculous post-season comments. Al stopping this from happening is further proof that he should retire from personnel and coaching decisions. Al also is evidently upset that the cancer named Randy Moss was traded. Did he actually think he would perform for this team?

I’ll be watching the Senior Bowl closely today, hoping that we get some comments from Kiffin at some point. If all we get is more “no comment”, then that’s bad news.

Might I add: the Raiders came out with a strongly worded denial of Ryan’s departure – again, one firing that should have occured – but besides John Herrera and Amy Trasks comments (when asked), they have not done the same for their young Head Coach.

That’s not right.  That is, if things are right in Raiderland.