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Two of the normal 3 things that kill us are still worries... 3rd down conversions and penalties. The third is makeing tackles and we actually did A pretty good job there. McClain only had one tackle but the Broncos didnt run inside with any success. DHB is still using his body to catch the ball and its part of the reason he didnt make an effort to keep his feet inbounds on the long pass where he had beaten his man. He is getting open and I think he caught everything that him in the numbers. If he can someday learn to reach for the ball and catch it with his hands, the bashing will stop.Veldheer got a beat a few times as expected. I think we had about 5 false starts including 2 in a row by Heyer. Wisniewski and Barnes were also guilty.Giordano looked good in coverage. We should probably keep him even after Mitchell returns. This game shows why the new kickoff rule is stupid. Why even have the kickoffs? Not even worth watching. Might as well take an even longer commercial break instead of kicking off. That said, Janikowski is the league's best kicker. His immaturity after he was drafted nearly cost him a career but now look at him.
• Agreed about the defensive front, Chuck Bresnahan was doing a good job of rotating them in and keeping them fresh. They hounded and flustered Matt Cassel all night. This is one of the best DL’s in the entire NFL. The Bronco O-Line looked tired and beaten as the game went on.• I too was pleasantly surprised by the effective blitzing. In the first half, the 4 man crew was regularly getting pressure on Cassel, and the mixed in blitzing led to a number of throwaways. But was a little concerned with the 2nd half when the intensity seemed to wane.• Reece is a matchup nightmare for other teams. And he surprised in that he actually did ok blocking. We need to give him about 5 touches a game.• That McFadden had only one catch had everything to do with the specific gameplan. I don’t expect that McFadden will see just one catch per game going forward.• DHB did catch everything he got his hands on. That one catch out of bounds was underthrown and he still made a good catch. He still catches with his body, instead of his hands, but he made 4 big catches and the last one, where he put on a move in the open field to get the first down was a huge play. No, I don’t think DHB deserves to start, but he’s doing better than I gave him credit for. • Denarius Moore definitely needs to be involved more. He only had that end around run that got called back on a penalty. They have to target Moore to take advantage of his playmaking ability. Also, they need to activate Hagan, cut Miller and give punt return duties to Moore. Miller does nothing for this team even in on special teams.• I am pleased as punch to get off on the right foot. It seemed that every year, the week one transcript included a lot, “we made some mistakes, but we’ll learn from them and move on” type comments. And while we did make some mistakes (way too many penalties), it’s nice to learn from them with the benefit of the ledger filled in the “W” column.'ICON211 said:
I agree, and it seems like he's a hard worker, so if it's within him to become a good NFL receiver, he'll achieve it. I think there's a reasonable chance he keeps the starting gig this season and not just because Al Davis wants him there.
That's b/c you see him after seeing McFadden, who is blazing for a big man.
'UnknownCoach said:
Very much down with this line of thinking.
That play along the sidelines is actually Exhibit A on why DHB will never be a good pro WR. OK, it's actually Exhibit Z37 - but the point stands.Instead of going up to get the ball with his hands and coming down with an awareness of the field, like good WRs do, he waited til the ball got to him and caught it with his body. In the process he brought the defender back into the play and lost track of where his feet were. That's a play that a starting WR has to make. He made it look pretty hard, but it really wasn't.The fact that he's starting is a major strike against the team's fortunes IMO. Margins are pretty thin in the NFL and you need to get your best players on the field.
You may be right, DHB may never be a good NFL WR. I guess I have a wait-and-see approach (Do I have any other choice?) On that long sideline play, if it was Denarius Moore, I feel confidnent he'd have adjusted, caught it at it's high point and reeled it in. Even Derek Hagan was making those kind of grabs all preseason long. But the starting positions are determined by Al Davis, and it's frustrating to see the better man on the bench. Having said all that, DHB has the speed to get separation that those other two don't have, although it's a marginal difference. But DHB still needs a perfectly thrown ball to make the catch, and it's as much Jason Campbell's fault in throwing inaccurate passes. Hopefully NFL caliber wideouts Moore and Hagan are on the field more going forward. Like you said, margins are pretty thin in the NFL not to field your best players and playmakers.
Great news getting Boss back in practice! Meyers was a plodder catching the ball against Denver, and really has no burst. A healthy Boss gives upgraded blocking and becomes a key cog. Especially if Ford misses time.It's a concern not having Huff because Fitzpatrick likes to spread the offense and the ball around with the back shoulder fades. It's going to be challenge to the backfield if the DL can't generate the pass rush they got in Denver. I think that is going to be the difference for the Raiders, as KC's D-line was exposed as soft, and the Raiders are anything but.The Raiders come into the game with the #1 rush D and #2 rush O. If we keep that ranking after Sunday, we will have beaten the Bills.
I disagree. Hagan is a very hard worker. Learned the playbook inside and out during training camp, works very hard and runs good routes. He actually played good at the end of last year for the Giants when Steve Smith and Nicks went down with injuries. Some WR's take time to get to a certain level. Look at Brandon Lloyd he played on how many teams before he reached his full potential. Why can't the same be said for Hagan. Don't dismiss him just because he played for couple of teams before coming to Oakland. Some players just need a little time and an oppurtunity to show what they are capable of.
Hagan is 26, coming into his prime. He's a committed pro who doesn't have non-football hobbies. Maybe he wasn't in the week #1 gameplan because of the calf issue. Maybe he will be in this week's game plan, if Ford is out. If he's called on, I have no doubt in his ability to go up and make the clutch catch.
Me either. Nice to see him catch the ones that he was supposed to make, but not a big deal. I am pessimistic about his chances to ever become a viable starter, and it bothers me how much PT he gets, I feel like the team is better with any other WR except Miller on the field. I do root for him, not his fault we took him too high. Should have ignored WR altogether and taken BJ Raji. I really liked the play calls, aside from the lack of passes to DMC. I almost wonder if DMC has a number of touches he is supposed to get, and they'd rather have him run the ball. But really, no excuse for him to not get one screen pass a game. I felt like the offense never got into a rhythm, and there was a few reasons for that. The crowd noise in Denver was impressive, the new stadium, like most new ones, goes straight up, rather than out, and the noise is contained in there. Lots of early penalties leads to plays that you can't use, because instead of 2nd and 6 or 7, it's 2nd and 15. But I liked the misdirection, the mixing it up of DMC inside and out, and the plays we ran for Reece. I liked that there wasn't a lot of deep drops, think Denver had one sack. A lot of substitutions, a lot of moving around, which really can set up the O later on when it notices a defensive shift it likes to create a matchup. The execution was just for crap. Sloppy game on both sides of the ball. Didn't like the lack of pass rush from the outside. Houston is more of a bull rusher, and I felt like Shaugnessy didn't do much early. I dunno, Shaugnessy hasn't done a ton to knock my socks off. I feel like he has had some nice plays here and there, and he's all effort, but based on what we have read about him the last two years, I feel like other people are more impressed by him than I have been. Worried about Huff's injury, saw him sitting on the trainers table on the sideline, then he was not on the sideline that I could see. Listed as day-to-day, but we need his speed deep, or as a nickel corner. Orton may not have been able to exploit a Giordano deep, but Fitz and Stevie Johnson can. There's a reason Giordano was out there, he's not a long term answer. I dunno, I felt like the offense wasn't clicking, but I was willing to chalk it up to 'one of those days', and the penalties hurt. i expected more from the defense. No running game, and Orton had too many plays with too long to throw. Maybe that was my imagination, I know we had some sacks, but dang, he dropped back 50 times, we SHOULD have a few.
Fastest white guy maybe (
) . Ran a 4.48 at his pro day. nice, but not fastest anything.Fastest white guy maybe (
The debate about Giordano being the NFL's fastest player is actually in pads and not in a 40 yard dash. It came from him outrunning Hester and other top players on the field. Would be interesting to know his real 40 time but it doesnt matter... we arent loseing any speed by starting Giordano.
It is amazing to me how one football team, despite having different coaches and different players, can have the same problem year after year after year. Seems like we've been saying "We really have to cut down on the penalties" since 1977. Seriously, is it the uniforms or what?
We all know if it was Rich Gannon who "tucked" the ball and the Patriots swatted it out of his hand it would have been a fumble. Most of the penalties is the players, but the uniforms do cause some of them. I thought the one call on Chris Johnson was a bad call and that the Donkey's deserved to have as many personal fouls as we did. I forget who it was on but there was a personal foul on a Raider for simply pushing away a Bronco who was in his face. When you have pushing on every play by both teams why do we get called for that?
I agree, I was asking myself the same thing during the Broncos game. They were doing just as much shoving, pushing, and hitting as the Raiders but they weren't getting the personal penalty calls.
I was away from the play, but the defensive PI calls are where I feel we always get hosed.
http://www.ibabuzz.com/oaklandraiders/2011/09/15/s-huff-wr-ford-and-dt-seymour-miss-second-straight-practice/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+iba_raiders+%28Inside+The+Oakland+Raiders%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
I dont expect anything from him this season. He had only a few days of practice with the team so far and this is a kid who has a lot of work to do before he's ready to contribute on game day. If he wins the appeal, we might see him active late in the season. If he loses it, we might not see him at all this year.'Raider Nation said:I can. not. wait. until Pryor is eligible. You just KNOW Hue already has a special package of plays up his sleeve just for the kid.Line him up wide... end-around handoff giving Pryor a run/pass option. If the WR is open, let it fly. If not, tuck it and go!
Regarding the bolded: Eh, maybe, maybe not. Nothing says he needs to know the whole playbook to come in and run the option with DMC, or have a short yardage rollout package of plays.The question to me is, is he worth having as one of the active players on gameday? It's a risk, to leave an O-lineman or DB off the active roster.I dont expect anything from him this season. He had only a few days of practice with the team so far and this is a kid who has a lot of work to do before he's ready to contribute on game day. If he wins the appeal, we might see him active late in the season. If he loses it, we might not see him at all this year.'Raider Nation said:I can. not. wait. until Pryor is eligible. You just KNOW Hue already has a special package of plays up his sleeve just for the kid.
Line him up wide... end-around handoff giving Pryor a run/pass option. If the WR is open, let it fly. If not, tuck it and go!
I think he's a healthy scratch all year long as long as we're still in the playoff hunt. We have no spots on the roster for OTJ training. If we fall out of contention, then I could see Pryor as a game day active, but he needs a whole season plus some to get acclimated to the playbook.Regarding the bolded: Eh, maybe, maybe not. Nothing says he needs to know the whole playbook to come in and run the option with DMC, or have a short yardage rollout package of plays.The question to me is, is he worth having as one of the active players on gameday? It's a risk, to leave an O-lineman or DB off the active roster.I dont expect anything from him this season. He had only a few days of practice with the team so far and this is a kid who has a lot of work to do before he's ready to contribute on game day. If he wins the appeal, we might see him active late in the season. If he loses it, we might not see him at all this year.'Raider Nation said:I can. not. wait. until Pryor is eligible. You just KNOW Hue already has a special package of plays up his sleeve just for the kid.
Line him up wide... end-around handoff giving Pryor a run/pass option. If the WR is open, let it fly. If not, tuck it and go!
I'm looking forward to seeing what Hagan can do with this opportunity.
Weird, rotoworld says DHB is active.
I am hoping for more passes to DMC, personally. This game, to me, comes down to less penalties, and controlling the Bills passing game. I want to see more pressure from the front four. I am more concerned about the early East Coast start and the short week, but the Bills offense ain't no joke. Need to start fast.
I'm sure that will end up being the case - more RB involvement throughout the game. Lots of McFadden, Bush, and Reece. I just want a WR to emerge as a true possession receiver, so that DHB can be moved back in the line-up, and I think Hagan is the Raiders best shot at that.
Haha. Hey, I didn't like being a negative Nancy. Hated being pessimistic, and I am LOVING seeing nice, long, drives. The team looks so much better than last week. A lot more crisp.
I think it's almost about time people realize this is not a terrible O-line. Somehow survived the loss of Gallery, it seems.
