What do you guys think the Raiders need to improve on except for thier defense?

Hard to say after getting smacked around by the Patriots, but more than anything, it looks like a better prepared offense would do wonders for improving their defense.

The Raiders started off good slinging the ball to Moss, but the offense can be focused on him. Moss is gonna get his numbers, and teams know that. The Patriots quickly adjusted to stopping everything else the Raiders had and ran away with the game.

does everything count? LOL

Really, besides DEF (which is primarilly the problem here).....I would say TE.

The Raiders actually played better defense in the 2nd half of the game. Talent wise I don't know how much the unit will or can improve. I thought they did a good job stopping the run and would have done better overall if their offense could have sustained a few more drives and given them a break. I don't think the Raiders got dominated in fact I think 2 plays during the game were the turning point. The 1st was the missed field goal by Stankikowski who in typical fashion hurried the kick for no apparent reason other than the fact that he has the I.Q. of a brick and the 2nd was the Woolfork play that led to a short field and a quick score for the Patriots. Like I have said before, I did not expect the Raiders to win this game in the 1st place but I came away from it with more hope this season than I have had the previous 2. Their defense is not going to be near the top 10 but it will be better than last season and it looks like they will have a much better running game compared to their 32nd ranked one of 2004. Collins needs to get other players more involved early on and not be so locked in to Moss but you sort of expected that in game 1 because it is like having a new shiny toy that you can't keep your hands off of. I do think Jordan is the real deal and will only get better as the season goes on and he adjusts to being an every down back. The Raiders are probably an 8-8 team that with a couple of breaks could squeeze out 10-6 and if they can manage .500 ball during the 1st half of the season they will have a shot at a winning record. I also would not dismiss Anderson as a weak link at TE because it looks like he will be a favorite redzone target for Collins.

Penalties, Penalties, Penalties

What else is new? I especially liked the penalty that the rookie Routt got for the necktie tackle the same type that Mr. choir boy Harrison got away with. Funny how perceptions change from team to team. When Harrison was with SD he was a dirty player that got fined all the time. Now Harrison is a good guy that plays for the beloved Patriots the NFL version of the Morman Tabernacle Choir.

It looked dirty until you watched the replay. He didn't hit the guy's neck at all, it was all shoulder pads. I thought the same thing and was like "wow where's the penalty!" until I saw the replay and saw that it was clearly all shoulderpads. It was a great tackle.

As for improvements, they need a Quarterback who doesn't suck. Their solution to buying more time in the pocket on the first drive? Scramble Kerry Collins. That's suicide. He talked about how much confidence he was building because all he had to do was heave the ball in the air to Moss and it was a catch. Well I saw the same tendency start branching out toward his other receivers. Half of his throws were at least a couple yards off the mark, and if it wasn't for the 8th string CBs that New England proudly starts, you'd have seen a bevy of interceptions.

Offensive Line blocking is obviously a major issue, but that's the main reason people have been questioning Norv Turner's attempted installment of the Vertical Offense.

Collins threw over the middle about three times the entire game, which is another big problem that the Raiders are going to have to deal with throughout the season.

Also, Porter, Curry, and Jordan seemed to be struggling just to stay in the game. Curry's injury seemed to flare up and he left, but it looked like Jordan wore down fast after that first quarter, and had to take almost 2 quarters off before he could be effective again.

Porter seems to still be dealing with his hamstring, but at least he played through it for the most part. I noticed a lot of overthrows to Whitted, which honestly is kind of a good sign, because he was so used to throwing deep to Porter (much faster than Whitted), and if Porter had been running those routes, a couple of those bad passes may have been Touchdowns.

Oh well it is after all the first game of the season and like I have mentioned I did not expect a win for Oakland in the 1st place. I will say though that nothing really impressed me about NE either. There is a reason no team has ever won 3 in a row and if teams that were loaded with talent like the 90's Cowboys, 80's 49ers, and 70's Steelers could not pull it off I find it hard to believe NE will. NE looked avg. stopping the run and running themselves and if that continues throughout the season they will not win enough games to clinch homefield advantage and that will give another team the oppurtunity to win the AFC. I am very interested in how the Colts play this week @ BAL. If they are able to move the ball with success vs. the so called best defense in the league and their defense starts to play with a little more toughness then I think they have the inside track on getting the playoffs in their house. Their schedule is not nearly as tough as NE or PIT and if they play host in the RCA dome they will not lose.

[quote=MLBrandow]



Also, Porter, Curry, and Jordan seemed to be struggling just to stay in the game. Curry's injury seemed to flare up and he left, but it looked like Jordan wore down fast after that first quarter, and had to take almost 2 quarters off before he could be effective again.

QUOTE]

I actually think Jordan did a decent job considering that was his first official start of his career. Dillon seemed to have the same if not more problems and he has always been a workhorse RB. Jordan's 18 carries for 70 yards and 5 catches for 40 yards was a decent start for a team that ranked 32nd in the league last season rushing the football. The majority of his carries resulted in positive yardage compared to Dillon who was stuffed for negative or no yards several times during his 23 carry 63 yard night. Once Jordan learns to pace himself like a starting RB he should see a whole lot of action and he is a decent dual threat running and catching.

What a clueless statement. Kerry Collins is a VERY good QB. He is probably top 5 in the league in throwing the deep ball which is exactly what Norv Turner's system is centered around. For you to say that Collins, a seasoned veteran, is developing a tendency to lob the balls to other WR's just because he does it with Moss just shows how much you DONT know about football.
Uhhh waht problem is that?
2 quarters off? Are you even sane?

I think Norv Turner's offense was always centered around Emmitt Left, Emmitt Right, and Aikman to Novaceck or Irvin to keep the chains moving.

Seriously, the Raiders will be fine this year. Like I said in one of the other posts, I really didnt give the Raiders alot of chance to win because of the emotion that the Patriots would be playing on. Week 1 brings alot of knee jerk reactions, while it takes 2-3 games to really see what some teams are gonna do.

Remember that Porter was almost held out of the game for Oakland, and I dont think they really wanted to use him more than necessary, nor did he appear to have the ability to do just a whole lot. Let's see what this offense does when Porter is lining up at 100% opposite Moss and Curry is in there in the slot creating havoc for everyone.

Dear Zepp,

Okay smartass, I'm really starting to get sick of the way you argue. Rather than refute anything I say, you just resort to name-calling.


In response to "Kerry Collins is a VERY good QB."

Drive Summary: (Drive) comp / att / yds / results)
1) 4 / 4 / 63 PaTD
2) 0 / 4 / 0 PUNT
3) 1 / 3 / 27 Missed FG
4) 1 / 1 / 73 PaTD
5) 1 / 3 / -4 PUNT
6) 0 / 1 / 0 HALF
7) 0 / 1 / 0 PUNT
8) 0 / 2 / 0 PUNT
9) 0 / 1 / 0 INT
10) 1 / 3 / 3 PUNT
11) 1 / 2 / 6 PUNT
12) 3 / 7 / 56 PUNT
13) 3 / 7 / 42 PUNT
14) 4 / 6 / 15 PaTD (0/1 2PT)

You'll notice what ultimately led to Oakland's downfall was the series of drives in the middle of the game that ended in punts, a direct result of Collins' inability to do something called "Quarterback". He wasn't given much help by his running game which stymied out from LaMont Jordan consistantly coming up 1-2yds short of the first down marker (not because he was stopped, but because he ran out of bounds shy of the marker--but I'll get to that later in this post).

Now, I'm not sure what game you were watching Zepp, but I saw a QB who consistantly threw shaky and off-target throws, even on his completions. It was the ugliest 265, 3TD performance I've ever seen.

You'll notice that after that Hail Mary to Randy Moss, he proceeded to attempt long passes that were off-target and incomplete. LONG passes, meaning greater than 20 yards. This is Collins' strength (when he has adequate blocking).

To his credit, they lack a Pro Bowl offensive line, but Collins requires about 5 seconds in the pocket to make a good play. The average O-Line buys you about 2.5 seconds on any given play. "Adequate" for Collins is defined by about 4 seconds on any given play--Hence the 1.5 second connundrum I proposed entering this season.


Now, you can't just throw the ball long every play. Sometimes you have to throw short and medium passes. The problem is, Collins hardly has that luxury.

What the hell do you need a Posession Receiver for? To go over the middle in short or middle plays. It's what you have your Jeremy Shockeys and Keyshawn Johnsons for. Oakland has a bunch of Z-Receivers. After all, Norv Turner doesn't need X's or Y's. There's no X or Y in Vertical Passing Game. (plenty of Z's though haha )

If you're wondering why Rodney Harrison, habitually a league leader in tackles among safeties, was so quiet all night (only special teams tackles and 3 assists) was because Norv Turner didn't have anyone that could catch the ball over the middle, and didn't want to risk further injury to his already depleted receiving corps that featured the smaller, but slower, Alvis Whitted for the better part of the game.


and for 3, here you go:

Here's a drive-by-drive for LaMont Jordan. Note that the "Jordan Ratio" is the number of plays where he touches the ball versus the number of plays in the Raiders Drive).

1,1Q Oakland Raiders at 14:55 (carries / yards / avg / rec / yards / avg / Jordan Ratio)
2 / 9 / 4.50 / 1 / 28 / 50.0%

2,1Q Oakland Raiders at 06:58
3 / 16 / 5.33 / 0 / 0 / 37.5%

3,1Q Oakland Raiders at 01:59
6 / 8 / 1.33 / 0 / 0 / 50%

4,2Q Oakland Raiders at 09:04
0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0%

5,2Q Oakland Raiders at 04:43
2 / 13 / 6.5 / 1 / -4 / 42.9%

6,2Q Oakland Raiders at 00:53
3 / 18 / 6.0 / 0 / 0 / 75%

7,3Q Oakland Raiders at 12:31
2 / 8 / 4.0 / 0 / 0 / 50%

8,3Q Oakland Raiders at 09:21
1 / 2 / 2.0 / 0 / 0 / 25%

9,3Q Oakland Raiders at 06:37
1 / 2 / 2.0 / 0 / 0 / 50%

10,3Q Oakland Raiders at 04:59
0 / 0 / 0 / 1 / 3 / 25%

11,3Q Oakland Raiders at 02:34
0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0%

12,4Q Oakland Raiders at 14:08
0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0%

**I cut out the last two drives because New England made it a two touchdown game on their next posession, and teams almost never run the football in that situation.

Now, that might be a little cumbersome to read if your name isn't ML Brandow, so let me do it this way. Here are his drive-by-drive YPC stats for Lamont Jordan.

4.50
5.33
1.33
0.00
6.50
6.00
4.00
2.00
2.00
0.00
0.00

Now, I'm no expert, but it looks to me like I was right in what I said.

ML - 3, Zepp - 0.

Dude the reason why I get so fumed is because you are like a cult member. You have made this big prediction that the Raiders are going to suck donkey balls so EVERYTHING YOU SEE you try to make fit into that fold. You dont try to analyze something you just want to try to support your predicition which is going to fail miserably.

You see this is another reason why I get frustrated with you. You say that Oaklands downfall was because Collins played badly....then in your next sentence you go on to say the run game sucked. You know Belicheck is a pretty good defensive mind and I think he knows how to take advantage of a situation where the team is having difficulty running. If you can't run the ball that leads to a domino effect of not being able to pass the ball. This is a fundamental of the game. Not that I agree with your assesment because in my opinion Oakland's downfall in the game was clearly on the defensive side.

I know what you tried to see or what was looking for was anything to support your stupid predicition. Collins threw some beautiful passes last night but I dont need to sit here and defend Kerry Collins' arm because anyone with any little bit of football knowledge knows that Collins can throw, can throw deep, can throw hard, and is very accurate doing that. I have yet to hear one person who has played the game say this guy can't throw. But since you said it I guess you must be right and everyone else wrong

First you have Randy Moss, Jerry Porter and you aren't going to throw it deep? What the hell do you think Daunte Culpepper did all these years? Moss made Culpepper not the other way around and that was because all Daunte had to do is throw it up and Moss will get it. Second of all, the vertical game is the Norv Turner offense so it isnt surprising that deep passes were called often.

Again this is bullshit. First Collins can do just fine behind an average offensive line. For crying out loud he went to the super bowl with an average offensive line. Second of all the Raiders offensive line will be fine. They just happpened to be playing a very good defensive front last night and yeah any line will have problems.


Tell that to Denny Green...once he had Moss any Qb he stuck in there looked good cuz all they had to do was throw it to Moss and deep.

Looking at the stas last night I see the Tight end caught 2 TD passes. Passes to the Tight End is a result of being able to stretch the field with your wide outs. Expect him to get more involved as the year goes on.


Uhh no its because he was playing as deep as possible to take away the vertical game.

No I think its clear to anyone that you are completely wrong. Again you are just trying to find any piece of information take it out of its context and try to make it fit your prediction. One thing that you have failed to take into account is that the Raiders played a team with a very good front seven. For crying out loud they didnt win the Super Bowl for nothing.

I have always said you dont need stud CB's to win and the Patriots prove that. What is more important defensively is that front seven and the Pats are stacked there. They can stop the run and they can put enough pressure. The Raiders lost the game because they couldnt get close to Brady and he just stood back there and picked them apart. Any defense that gives up 30 points is the reason they lose that game not the offense.

*sigh*. You and Intelligent Design advocates have something in common....

Its called knowing and applying fundamentals of football.

Ok..........Jordon had a solid game. My only real gripe is that Lamont didnt appear to play with any enthusiasm. The guy is finally out from under you know who's shadow and I expected him to be flying high and ready to show the world he deserves to be the man. I just didnt see any intensity out of the guy. A solid showing.. sure. Hes got talent and can be a reliable back, I was just hoping to see him really flaunt his stuff this weekend.

No offense Zepp, but it looks like 13 weeks later, I'm still right. Didn't I say something like they would be no better than a .250 ballclub? I know I wrote a very long article about it and all you did was go "you're dumb because Kerry Collins used to play for the Giants so I love him"

You think They'll get 5 wins?

I still don't....

Wait a minute...you said they would be 3-13...they already have 4 wins. Thats number 1. Number 2 is that you attributed their playing poorly with not having a possession receiver and not having a good QB when the reasons have been totally different. The reasons they've had such a bad year is because they don't have much of a defense and that Randy Moss has been injured. Sorry you can't take away their best player and expect them to play well. So yeah while your end result predicition ended up being more or less right, your reasoning for getting was as clueless as it was 13 weeks ago. The Raiders were in a lot of games early in the year and just didn't have the defense to stop the team when they needed to. They have 5 losses all within a TD.

OMFG!!! I agree with Zepp!

Yeah, I guess I didn't make it clear, I personally predicted they would be 3-13 (maybe a bit ambitious), but I guaranteed in numerous places they wouldn't eclipse the .250 mark. Oh well. All I know is someone over at FSW has to wear a premade avatar by me once they go 4-12. In all fairness they shouldn't have beat the Cowboys or the Redskins, but they should have beat the Chiefs.. so that makes them 3-11