Raidertopia

The quarterback of a football team is supposed to be the leader. The guy who speaks for the team and takes responsibility for the team’s failures, especially offensively since he controls the ball on every snap.  He’s accountable.Not the Raider’s quarterback.Therein lies the problem.Whether he’s too young and immature or just happy to have his 30 million guaranteed dollars and just doesn’t care, it’s plain to see that JaMarcus Russell does not feel like he’s accountable.

“I don’t think it’s me personally, I really don’t. It’s a bad combination of one guy doesn’t do something right one time.”

What quarterback says that? Add his comments to the way he conducts himself off the field, most notably his weight, rumors of missing meetings, and general lack of commitment to this football team. And watch him on the sideline. He reportedly sits in his usual spot on the bench and doesn’t engage other players or coaches much at all. The most animated he has been was cheerleading for Bruce Gradkowski when he replaced him last Sunday.

Miller said he didn’t talk to Russell about being benched but hopes it will have a positive effect in that he’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again. That’s Cable’s plan, anyway.“You hope so. If a guy’s wired right, that’s exactly how they’ll use it,” Cable said. (more)

Let’s all hope that this guy is “wired right”. All signs point the other way right now.

Want a laugh?  Try this site: Vote JaMarcus Russell for the 2010 Pro Bowl!

Here’s the main reason the Raiders are so inept offensively: horrible drafting.  They have Russell, McFadden, and Heyward Bey when they could have Adrian Peterson, Joe Flacco, and Crabtree or Maclin.  The sad thing is, they have so much invested in these players, they’re going to have to suffer with them until it’s obvious beyond any reasonable doubt that they are busts.  These lean years will continue because of it.

Crabtree watch:  In his first game, Crabtree has already surpassed Heyward-Bey’s productivity.  DHB has played virtually every snap for seven games.  They could be tied if he hadn’t dropped a touchdown pass late in the Jets game. Bad hands, but man he can run really fast.

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.

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.