Raidertopia

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.

As each losing season passes, as each inept performance on display, as each embarrassment is televised nationally, as the great history of the Raiders is being tarnished week by week, Mike Lombardi’s words appear more true than ever…

I have heard the laughing, I have seen the dumb mistakes and I have been in that airport waiting for the plane ride home after getting my butt kicked in. And no one can imagine how bad that feels — not because of the losing but the fact there is no hope. Not one SINGLE ounce of hope — for tomorrow or next week, or next year. And two years from now, the same thing will happen unless “someone in the building” stops trying to coach and control the team. When I first started in football, I would study this man and learn as much as possible about football and the workings of a personnel department. I had great respect for him and always ignored the bad comments I might hear. When I worked for the 49ers, Bill Walsh told me “the most football I ever learned was (while) working for the Raiders,” and that prompted me to want to join them many years later. Much of what we tried to install in Cleveland in terms of the player personnel department came from ideas I stole from reading and talking to “someone in the building.” But that was then and this is now — and now he is more interested in preserving his legacy and having articles written about his greatness and what player he is making into the next great Raider than he is in winning….(read more)

Raider fans don’t particularly like the guy since he has seemingly been holding a grudge against the Raiders since he left the organization. He takes verbal pot shots at them every chance he gets, but I think he’s spot on here. And it’s very unfortunate.

I agree with a lot of other bloggers that are calling for a kind of boycott. Stop buying tickets to home games and stop buying merchandise. A message has to be sent to Al Davis. As if the continual losing hasn’t made enough of a mockery of the team’s famous slogans and made a light bulb go off in his head.

We should have all seen this coming with the whole Marcus Allen situation years ago. He took a classy guy, a hall of famer, a “great Raider” as he himself would say and benched him for completely egotistical purposes. The saddest thing was that Allen was needed on the field to win football games. Remember “Just Win, Baby”? He, of course, ended up burning the Raiders when he changed teams and joined their hated, divisional rivals.  I used to give Davis the benefit of the doubt there, thinking something happened behind closed doors that I wasn’t privy to. I truly believe now that it was a total power play and Allen was getting bigger than Davis, in Davis’ eyes.  His ego couldn’t take it.  The whole soap opera this year with the team and Lane Kiffin is similar in many respects.

So much for getting wiser with age.

Al – Please hire a General Manager, and (more importantly) go away and retire.

I guess Raider fans can take solace in that, even though losing, they have been losing in varied and interesting ways.  Like performance art.  Yes, interesting if not maddening.  Depressing, isn’t it?

These Raider kool-aiders just make me sick sometimes.  I’m a huge and loyal fan, but I’m not going to apologize for this team.

We’re at halftime of the KC game – KSFO’s Papa is whining about how the Raiders are dominating and are inexplicably behind 10-3.  First, I wouldn’t call 185 -120 edge in total yards a dominant performance.  The most impotent (easily last in the league in passing) offense in the league continues to underperform and stalled again in or near the red zone three times in the first half.

Papa’s halftime comments remind me of the fools hosting the KSFO post game radio show last weekend – boasting of the win and basically telling listeners, “how do you like the team now, naysayers?”….as if week after week of record-setting ineptitude should be forgotten by the fans.  As if this wasn’t a 3-8 team.  As if the offense wasn’t putting up historically bad numbers.

I truly hope they come back, but I’d frankly be surprised, with this offense.  The defense will have to score and they’ll need a big special teams play.  And maybe a turnover or two on the Chief’s side of the field.

I’m still concerned about Russell’s lack of accuracy.  Missed Ronald Curry for a TD that would have tied it in the first half and is well under 50% completions yet again.  Add Thigpen (who!?!) to Flacco and Ryan, as young, rookie or essentially rookie QBs, who have outplayed the number one overall pick in the 2007 draft.  Not looking good.  Note that his mistakes don’t seem to be the typical rookie ones (e.g. complicated coverages), but basic ones like hitting his target.

If the Raiders go on to lose, wonder how the kool-aiders will sugar coat this loss….a huge one to a really weak team.  A game the team needed to establish confidence and climb out of NFL laughing stock territory.

If the Raiders go on to win, look for the kool-aiders to start talking division championship.

Early 4th Qtr Update:  This is exactly what winning teams don’t do.  Come back to tie the game (a massive 1 yd TD drive, by the way), get a stop on defense, then just go three and out on offense.  An excellent punt gets KC pinned back at their own nine, but Raider defense promptly allows them to go 91 yards in a drive almost exclusively accomplished by throwing to one guy (Gonzalez).  And a reminder that this is against the Chiefs.  Yes, the Chiefs.  The last place, 1-10 Chiefs.  At home!

Subsequent to the KC drive, Fargas fumbles the ball back to the Chiefs whereby they get a field goal to go up 20-10.  Raider offense has 37 total yards and zero first downs in the second half.  There’s 8:48 to play.  Can a game be any more over with this anemic, pathetic, fill-in-your-own-adjective-here, offense?  I hope I’m wrong, but odds are with me on this one.

Russell continues to miss receivers in the second half.

We’ll see how the Kool-Aiders spin this one.  It’ll be a very demoralizing loss to a very, very weak opponent that wasn’t even near full strength coming into the game.

Things are just bad and I don’t see it getting better this season.

How bad?

Well, besides the huge embarrassment of historic proportions last weekend, luck is just not on the Raiders’ side…again.  What does it say when your prize draft pick who was supposed to be the dynamo of the offense has not one, but two, turf toes?  When your top, pass rushing defensive end has been out with a triceps injury?  When your stud special teams player and nickel back hurts his shoulder when he falls down on his own returning a kickoff?

It’s not going to get better on defense with Al Davis’ scholarship player, Sam Williams, starting at outside linebacker.  The Raiders are also very weak at the point of attack at defensive end with either Kalimba Edwards or rookie Trevor Scott starting.  And the most depressing thing about it is that Rob Ryan is still the Raider defensive coordinator.

On offense, Russell needs to improve or bust talk will really accelerate.  Regardless of the supporting cast, he just hasn’t looked good at all.  The problems at fullback with Justin Griffith’s injury is  another key to the offense’s regression, along with the disappearing act of the entire cast of wide receivers.  It’s really shocking how low their production has been.  They have to be approaching some kind of record.  I’m very disappointed to see how poorly one of my favorite Raiders, Ronald Curry, has been playing. Now, he’s not happy and sees himself elsewhere next year.  He should look in the mirror and realize that he’s been benched because of his dropped balls and look to improve and get back on the field.  I don’t know why he seems so baffled at his benching, although the lack of communication between him and coach is troubling, if true.

I guess in the bigger picture, the Raiders problems are nothing compared to the trials and tribulations that everyday life provide.  It is only a game after all.  A game played by millionaires, mostly.  To put everything in perspective, read about Jim Otto and what he’s going through in his life after football.

The Raiders looked like the historically bad 2006 Raider team today in Baltimore, losing 29-10 and dropping to 2-5 on the season.  I’m extra sad because my brother and two nephews made the trip all the way from St. Louis to witness it.

Bad defense, really bad special teams, and embarrassingly bad offense.

I could have written this post mortem around the middle of the second quarter because the game was essentially over by then.  It was 19-0 and the Raiders had something like 35 yards total offense.

If you could look at one stat, try third down conversions.  The Raiders have been horrible on third downs all year.  This game, the offense was only 2 for 13, while the defense allowed Baltimore to convert 10 of 18.

Could it have been any more obvious which Ryan brother is the smart one and which is the dumb one?  Rex’s defense was without three out of four starters in the secondary and started Raider bust Fabian Washington, yet they looked like they were in another league.  They attacked with blitzes and allowed no running room for the Raiders.  Raider runners averaged less than 2 yards per carry.  The Raiders defense, on the other hand, looked weak against the run again and could not stop the trickery and let a rookie quarterback get way too comfortable (again!) in the pocket.  Zero sacks.  Very few QB pressures.  One very noticeable zone defense mistake which resulted in a 70 yard TD pass.

Rob Ryan is not putting the players in a position to win and utilize their skills best.  He is just an absolutely terrible defensive coordinator this year and for the last five years and is proof that Al Davis is lost in what he’s doing with this once proud franchise.  Note that last week’s win versus the Jets could have easily been another loss if Brett Favre hadn’t over thrown a wide open receiver in overtime against a loose Raider zone.

That said, a lot of Raven third down conversions were accomplished due to Raider missed tackles and  some poor run defense.

The Raider Special Teams contributed  to this pathetic display of football as well.  They allowed a huge punt return by a back up returner that led to a field goal, made some untimely penalties, and featured the Bonehead Play of the Week:  With the Raiders struggling with bad field position all game, Johnnie Lee Higgins fields a kick off at the two yard line while he allows his momentum to carry him out of bounds.  Note to Johnnie – let those bounce into the end zone and down it there.

But all in all, the core of the Raider loss was due to the inept offense, just like back in 2006 when the Raiders went to Baltimore with Aaron Brooks as their quarterback.  They are painful to watch.  While the offensive line has greatly improved since then, the results are the same.  I think that in this game, they layed right to Baltimore’s strengths and insisted on running the ball up the middle on just about every first and second down….and, curiously, a lot of third downs.  Please be more inventive Greg Knapp! The other offensive coordinator schooled you today.  Remember, both teams had rookie quarterbacks….actually, JaMarcus is not a rookie, which should have put him a little ahead of Flacco.

JaMarcus looked better on a couple of his long throws, but his accuracy and decision making still bother me.  He just looks like he’s locking into one guy on a lot of plays.  This game showed that the Raiders’ unimaginative offense actually only puts one receiver out into a pattern, so I’m not so sure I should blame JaMarcus or the play calling.  I do like that he took off and ran it one time though.

This game was a step backwards.

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?

I think he conned me like he conned all you people.
Al Davis on Lane Kiffin

At least this team keeps things interesting, even when they’re struggling.

Should we have seen this coming when Davis called Kiffin “Lance” at the opening press conference?

Even by Raider standards, today was a strange, stunning day.

Al Davis finally fired Lane Kiffin as Head Coach and gave a long, detailed press conference.  If everything is true – from the Arkansas job interest to lying to the press – it’s hard to argue with the dismissal.  Actually, it begs the question as to why he wasn’t fired earlier.

In retrospect, I was giving Lane a lot of leeway because he’s a young coach, learning the ropes.  Al Davis even mentioned this.  Kiffin was just not a good Head Coach yet.  In fact, he did some really bad coaching.  His clock management the last two weeks was atrocious.  Davis also mentioned asking him why he didn’t call the time outs in Buffalo and was given an “unacceptable” answer.  His offensive play calling did not produce touchdowns.  His offensive playcalling couldn’t even produce critical first downs and third down conversions when it meant the difference between a win and a loss.

It’s also disappointing to hear that he didn’t want to pick JaMarcus.  The letter Al Davis displayed at the presser stated that fact and some other interesting things, including the fact that he did have control over what was called on defense.  So if he had control, why didn’t he tell Ryan to be more aggressive (i.e. blitz) on defense, especially in that national TV embarrassment on Monday night?

This whole thing can become even more weird tomorrow when Kiffin gives us his side of the story.  Interesting though, that Kiffin skirted the question on BSPN about talking to Al after the Buffalo game.

I really like Tom Cable.  He impressed me in his press conference.  I love the fact that he said he was a Raider fan growing up as a kid and how this is a dream of his.  He is undoubtedly an excellent Offensive Line coach and looks to be a great motivator.  Now let’s see if he makes a good Head Coach.  I’ve got a good feeling about this guy.

Then again, can things get worse?

Update:  Maybe even better than the press conference itself, were Al’s post-PC ramblings as transcribed by the notorious Tim Kawakami.

As a Raider fan, I went into this game with low expectations.  What, with the coaching turmoil and the many key injuries to Raider starters.  Then, I saw Gerard Warren in there playing like a monster, and Derrick Burgess starting, as well as Asomugha and McFadden.  Terdell Sands decided to play as big as his size.  Jamarcus was starting to air it out a bit more.  Not only that, the Raiders were absolutely dominating San Diego through the better part of three quarters.  At that point, my attitude was reversed and I fully expected a Raider win.  After all, they couldn’t lose another game like last week at Buffalo where they had a two score lead going into the fourth quarter and were in control, could they?

They did.

Optimism can be cruel.

Raiders go down 28-18, although that was padded, along with Tomlinson’s deceiving stats, with a late, 40 yard TD run.  By the way, nice tackle attempt on that run, Michael Huff.  Still pales in comparison to the pathetic attempt bySam Williams that cost the Raiders two points on what should have been a stuffed two point conversion.  What was Williams doing in there, anyway?

Shame on me for dreaming about a .500 record going into the bye.  Shame on me for thinking about being only one game back of first in the AFC West.  Shame on me for believing the big win, that would end a five year streak of losses to San Diego,  would stabilize the head coaching situation.

I should’ve known better.  After all, I’ve been a Raider fan for this cursed, last half decade of football.

So long Lane.  We hardly knew ye.

Ryan to be next Head Coach of the Raiders?

Maybe before you read this?

“Hell, somebody had to stand up and be a leader on this team,” one Raiders source said proudly in the postgame locker room Sunday, praising Ryan’s stance against Kiffin. “Rob acted like a leader. He stood up for this team and these players. He took responsibility. Unlike the head coach.”

By doing so, Ryan probably assured himself of becoming the 17th head coach in Raiders history when Davis finally decides he’s had enough of Kiffin.

…. “He’s ready,” another Raiders source said of Ryan as Kiffin’s replacement.

So much for speaking your mind and telling it like it is. I guess those aren’t leadership qualities that Al Davis is looking for. I missed the part in leadership training where they say “being a yes man” is a desired leadership trait.  The source above pretty much said that’s what a leader is to the old man.  Loyalty is one thing, blindly following your leader over a cliff is quite another.

If there’s anything good to come out of this, it’s that maybe Ryan will no longer be defensive coordinator.  But that’s probably too much to ask for.