- Richard Seymour is fucking ridunkulous. It seemed retarded to bring him in so close to the start of the season but I think it really rejuvenated this defense and the whole team really. He made a huge impact right away as our DL dominated the Chargers OL for much of the game (granted a lot of their starters bit the dust early in the game). He commands a double team and it seems to already be making Ellis, Kelly and Scott look A LOT better. Side note: Trevor Scott looked excellent back in his old role of being a pass rush specialist playing only on passing downs. He can't seal an edge or play the run at all and it seemed like in the preseason he did dick on passing downs because he was so beat up from the previous few plays. He looked really good last night and that pass rush of Ellis, Kelly, Seymour, and Scott seems pretty money on passing downs. - Secondary looked brilliant as well. Al Davis' archaic man defense with cover two worked for much of the game. Chris Johnson seems to be proving last season wasn't a fluke. Nnamdi did get beat on the one play but I'd say that was more of an aberration as it was a poorly thrown ball and two defenders should have made the play. Still a great job by Rivers and Jackson. Tyvon Branch looks like a stud starting at safety, he was everywhere. - The defense overall looked like a Raiders defense of old. They had passion and energy we haven't seen in years. They played like it mattered to them and they seemed to care. And they played well most of the night. - The O-Line gave Jamarcus a shitload of time to throw and dominated in the run game the first half. They looked excellent tonight. Can't fucking wait for Khalif Barnes to come back so we can bench Cornell Green's fat ass. Worst starting RT in football by far. Chris Morris blew a few blocks too but I won't give up on him quite yet as it was his first career start. Mario Henderson looking real solid at LT. - Jamarcus was fucking terrible. Granted I don't think hes as bad as he showed last night. The TD-INT ratio is already fucked for him as the first INT, while completely legitimate, rookie WR Louis Murphy did him no favors with that shitty route and made no effort to come to the ball. The second INT was on the hail mary on the last play of the game. Can't blame him for that one. You could argue he should have had two TDs on the night as one was overturned. Also keep in mind that he was working with two rookie WRs the entire night. DHB and Murphy dropped/fucked up at least 3 balls that should have been catches perhaps more. Inaccuracy is a major issue with him but you can tell when he consistently throws pretty good balls to Miller (his favorite receiver), Higgins, Stewart, etc. and more than half of his passes to DHB/Murphy are terrible that having that rapport is critical for him. He also needs to keep his fucking passes lower or hes gonna get one of his receivers heads knocked off. Hes really got to step up his game. - McFadden and Bush were great. No surprise there. SD did a good job of preventing big plays by McFad but they also consistently gave up good chunks of yardage. - Special teams gave up a few huge returns by Sproles. Also made some nice tackles stopping him deep. -Michael Huff is actually starting to make some plays. -I'm afraid our schemes are too simple on both side of the ball and we'll get shut down in due time. - SD looked like shit in the first quarter so I'll take all of that dominance with a grain of salt.
Oakland wins last night by double digits if Garcia was QB'ing. He's exactly what the team needs a vet QB who can make those 5 yard dump passes to Miller & McFadden and someone who can actually throw a sideline pass.
Jamarcus looked like shit and that was a big factor but there are a number of things we could have done differently and won big time. I don't disagree with your statement but we'd also have won if we stopped them at all on their last two drives and didn't play prevent defense. Or if we didn't let Sproles get two huge special team returns. Not to mention DHB and Murphy dropped a few passes that should have been completions which would have made a big difference. We woulda won if Jamarcus was better but I don't really blame him for the loss. We had plenty of opportunities and ultimately he gave us the lead with about 2:30 to play and let the game rest in the hands of the defense.
Do you expect to turn the corner soon Run? Jamarcus really seems to be struggling I hope you guys figure this out I'd like to see Oakland be relevant again. A minor note but I thought your uniforms were real cool, the alternate helmet and silver numbers on the front and back matched up well imo. Maybe the best in the NFL.
Its too early to say whether we're turning a corner. Jamarcus is better than what he showed in that game but certainly has accuracy issues. I don't want to defend his atrocious throws too much but you do have to keep in mind that it was two rookie WRs. I heard on the radio the other day Jamarcus was something like 6 of 9 passing to TEs and RBs but only completed, what, 4 passes to the WRs? He was 5 of 5 passing to Chaz Schilens in the preseason. I dunno if I've ever seen him miss Zach Miller, and hes pretty consistent dumping the ball to McFadden and Bush. I think there's something to be said for the poor accuracy in Monday's game being caused in some part by having two rookies starting who Jamarcus hasn't built much chemistry with. You could even see as the game progressed Jamarcus and Murphy were more and more on the same page. I don't think anyone expects Jamarcus to be a Brady, Manning, Brees, etc. But there are some aspects to his development that I am satisfied with. He really is not turnover prone which is a major problem for young QBs. Since hes been here all of his OCs have stressed not trying to do too much and overall not turning the ball over. Hes been good at that- he put up 13 TDs to 8 INTs as the youngest starting QB in the league and "his rookie year" as many analysts say (I don't really buy that shit though). That's not terrible especially with our horrendous receiving corps and defense causing us to play form behind most of the time and therefore pass a lot more than we'd like. One major bright spot that I feel was overlooked on Monday was how Jamarcus lead drives in clutch situations. Jamarcus ended the second quarter with a drive for a TD to Murphy that was overturned and was instead a FG. He also lead the Raiders to two scores on the last two Raider possessions of the game. The first drive included a 25 yard pass to Russell and the JLH end-around where Jamarcus blocked for him in the flat. We got a FG. Then on our last drive he got injured in the middle of the drive but came back I believe 4 plays later. He responded by throwing a bullet to JLH for a big 3rd and 15 conversion but JLH got drilled and dropped it. Next play on 4tth and 15 he threw the 57 yarder to Murphy for the win. He showed a lot of leadership and balls on those drives and hopefully it will lead to more clutch success from him. And regarding the team as a whole, I'm not going to get my hopes up too much. The defense was really energized by Seymour being there but how long will it last? Our scheme is archaic and ridiculously simple. We NEVER blitz which IS a problem. OL was insanely good on Monday, I'm not sure if that keeps up. Special teams did play below par though and I expect the passing game to only improve as Jamarcus gets Schilens back, gets a rapport with the new WRs, and matures.
And yeah those jerseys are fucking badass. White with silver numbers outlined in black. I liked the Bills throwbacks too.
Schilens is nuts. 6'4 225 and he runs a 4.3 I think. Looked real good before he got injured. DHB was commanding double teams in the pre-season though. For all his lack of production defenses have to respect his ability to break away if single covered and Jamarcus can definitely get it to him down the field. Murphy looks great though. Another speed demon with good size, seems to have nice hands and read defenses well. Got tons of hops on the one TD that was called back. Hes been better than DHB all camp and showing it now during the season. Seems like JR is getting some chemistry with him too.
Honestly, I just kept thinking of Tavaris Jackson while watching JaMarcus. The two resemble each other so much, except Russell is far more impressive athletically. I'm hesitant to give Russell too much credit for those dump-off passes, because those passes are the easiest in the game. Miller, McFadden, and Bush can all create separation against LB's and dumping it off to them doesn't require too much skill. The mark of an inaccurate inexperienced QB is when his most impressive completions are short passes to the TE/RB/FB that don't result in first downs.
The Raiders need to improve their linebacker core and pull the plug on Russell. The secondary is outstanding and they have some legit weapons on offense. They just need that vet QB to make sure everyone is on their marks, takes advantage of mismatches, and makes the right decisions with the football. Too bad Rich Gannon isn't around anymore to lead this talented, young offensive team. I agree the Raiders defense at the end of the game was moronic. Why were the linebackers dropping back 10 yards and letting Sproles catch a 1 yarder and then sprint for another 12? Rivers wasn't completing anything long and you have shutdown corners out there. The Raiders made it easy for San Diego to move the ball down the field on that last drive. Fundamentally the Raiders have improved though let's see if they can get better week in and week out.
IMO its still too early to give up on Russell. He just turned 24. If he doesn't show any growth over this year then we can start considering that. The only weak spot in the LB group is SAM where Ricky Brown plays. There's no free agents options available and at this point in the season there's no one we can bring in who will do better than him though. Hes also young and could grow to be fairly serviceable. Morrison is a stud but many think hes more of an OLB than MLB. It'll be interesting to see what kind of season he has behind Seymour who's going to take up a few OL every play and thus make his job easier. Howard is also a stud. Totally agree about the week to week improvement though. That's the key. The Raiders got us excited in week one but it means dick if they just go back to being the same old Raiders from here on out. I do believe that the energy and enthusiasm the team showed in week 1 was sincere though so I think Cable's already won half the battle.
