If you drink, get nice and lubed before this one starts; that is, if you're a happy drunk. If you're an angry drunk, either stay sober or grab yourself some Nyquil and chug it down about an hour before the game starts. Read about it Tuesday morning or, like waking up in the dentist's office prematurely and discovering that you're laying on your stomach with your pants down around your ankles, just pretend it never happened.
There isn't a lot of sense in going into detail for this game. Eli Manning's older brother is on fire and so is the rest of his team. John Fox is a damn good coach and their defensive coordinator, Jack Del Rio, looks like he'll pour a can of gasoline over his head and self immolate if he doesn't win a Superbowl with this team. His players are playing like they feel the same way.
It's horrible to have to admit that such a hated rival is probably the best team in the NFL, but they are. And the NFL schedule makers saw fit to put the Raiders, easily one of the preseason's best bets to lose to a good community college team, on the Monday night schedule against what was easily going to be one of the best teams in the league. I personally don't think Americans like to watch getting fish shot in a barrel but I don't do the programming at ESPN. If Al Davis hadn't assumed room temperature a couple of years back I would be crying about conspiracy theories designed to humiliate him. Or maybe the league just doesn't like Mark Davis's haircut and this is their way of giving him a wedgie on national TV.
The best Raider fans can hope for is to keep this one competitive until some time into the 3rd quarter. Just look respectable baby.
On the other hand, maybe Denver hasn't really played any good teams yet. After all, the Giants, a team the Broncos stomped in New York last week got trounced by the Panthers 38-0 this week. And maybe because the Colts beat the 9'ers in San Francisco, and because Oakland played the Colts tough in Indi... feel that warmth? That's the cozy feeling of sunshine being blown up your ass.
The most interesting thing about this game is that Denver is favored by 15 points: FIFTEEN! The problem with taking Denver and giving up the points is that garbage time touchdowns become very meaningful. If you have to bet this game, take the Raiders and the points. Manning is playing lights out but this point spread assumes he's going to continue doing so. That's by no means a certainty. The Raider defense, despite it being a group of nobodies under one year contracts have been playing well. It's too early to say they're better than the embarrassing group of fumble-fucks from the last ten+ years but so far they've held their own pretty well.
If you don't like the spread then maybe the 49.5 over/under seems like a good thing. I like the under in this one. It allows for six touchdowns and two field goals. In most NFL games that's a lot of points.
So far on the year I'm 50% which means if you've bet the way I've told you, you've lost money, but only on the juice. My disclaimer remains the same: if you listen to some guy on the internet that you don't know and has no verifiable track record when it comes to betting games, you're a moron.
Raiders 17
Denver 31
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Oakland Raiders vs. Jacksonville Jaguars Post-Game Review
Today the Raiders got their first win of the season by not being as bad as Jacksonville. That's not to say the win isn't a good one; all wins are good no matter who they're against or how they come about. And while the Raiders didn't blow the Jags out, they did win comfortably, which is what should have happened. At this point that's good progress, and that's all Raider fans can ask for.
Rushing Offense
McFadden showed up big time today, something he hasn't done since last year against the Steelers in Oakland. Today, the O-line gashed holes in the Jags defense which allowed the Raiders to rush for 226 yards at a 6.6 yard per attempt average. Marcel Reece ran six yards for the only Oakland TD. It was a damn good day on the ground against what is easily the most wretched team the NFL has seen since Detroit went 0-16.
Passing Offense
The Jags starting cornerbacks were an undrafted rookie free agent and another guy that only joined the team a couple of weeks ago. Against this fearsome tandem, Terrelle Pryor went 15/24 for 114 yards. As always, the offensive line isn't the greatest in the world but at times Pryor's accuracy was downright spastic. Often he didn't see wide open targets and when he did he missed them badly. The 15/24 statistic is somewhat misleading because a lot of Pryor's passes were dumpoffs to backs or useless throws that gained three yards or less. But like last week in regard to his picks against the Colts, it's totally okay.
Raider offensive coordinator, Greg Olsen needs to open up the playbook. Running for almost twice as many yards as you throw for is the stuff of college football. Back in the day the Nebraska Cornhuskers would blast opponents for 400+ yards on the ground while throwing for for 50. That was fine then but the wishbone offense doesn't even work in college anymore.
On the other hand, when you have Denarius Moore dropping passes for first downs and possible touchdowns, it doesn't make your quarterback's stats look very good. Whatever; the passing game has to get opened up if Terrelle Pryor is to continue his development.
Defense
They gave up some painful 3rd down conversions but overall they kicked ass, including one play that's already been incorporated into Charles Woodson's career highlight film. Woodson leaped over two players and clothes-lined Maurice Jones Drew. That play kept a TD from being scored and unfortunately for the Jags, it put MJD out of the game for good. Not that I wanted to see the guy get hurt, he's been a workhorse for his team over the years; I'm just digging Woodson's acrobatic smash move.
Special Teams
Janokowski missed an easy field goal but then went on to make four in a row. Let's hope we're not seeing the first signs of deteriorating accuracy in what has been a rock steady placekicker for so many years...
"One day Pop-pop was fine and the next morning we found him sitting naked in the yard with a giant spoon, a gallon of milk, and the cat's litterbox between his knees."
I'm sure it's not as bad as all that.
Besides Janokowski's miss, the coverage teams were nails and we even had a good punt return that set us up for an opening drive TD.
Overall
This game went how it should have gone. Last week against the Colts the Raiders showed they might have a little more under the hood than anyone capable of drawing stick figures gave them credit for. So the expectations were upped for this game and Oakland came through. Five field goal attempts is worrisome and it might be a preview of how teams plan on defending against Terrelle Pryor. This means (as already mentioned) that the Raider passing game must improve.
Next week the Raiders play against a bunch of insufferable assholes in some stadium located in the superfluous second anus of the nation. It's going to be ugly.
Thanks for reading.
Rushing Offense
McFadden showed up big time today, something he hasn't done since last year against the Steelers in Oakland. Today, the O-line gashed holes in the Jags defense which allowed the Raiders to rush for 226 yards at a 6.6 yard per attempt average. Marcel Reece ran six yards for the only Oakland TD. It was a damn good day on the ground against what is easily the most wretched team the NFL has seen since Detroit went 0-16.
Passing Offense
The Jags starting cornerbacks were an undrafted rookie free agent and another guy that only joined the team a couple of weeks ago. Against this fearsome tandem, Terrelle Pryor went 15/24 for 114 yards. As always, the offensive line isn't the greatest in the world but at times Pryor's accuracy was downright spastic. Often he didn't see wide open targets and when he did he missed them badly. The 15/24 statistic is somewhat misleading because a lot of Pryor's passes were dumpoffs to backs or useless throws that gained three yards or less. But like last week in regard to his picks against the Colts, it's totally okay.
Raider offensive coordinator, Greg Olsen needs to open up the playbook. Running for almost twice as many yards as you throw for is the stuff of college football. Back in the day the Nebraska Cornhuskers would blast opponents for 400+ yards on the ground while throwing for for 50. That was fine then but the wishbone offense doesn't even work in college anymore.
On the other hand, when you have Denarius Moore dropping passes for first downs and possible touchdowns, it doesn't make your quarterback's stats look very good. Whatever; the passing game has to get opened up if Terrelle Pryor is to continue his development.
Defense
They gave up some painful 3rd down conversions but overall they kicked ass, including one play that's already been incorporated into Charles Woodson's career highlight film. Woodson leaped over two players and clothes-lined Maurice Jones Drew. That play kept a TD from being scored and unfortunately for the Jags, it put MJD out of the game for good. Not that I wanted to see the guy get hurt, he's been a workhorse for his team over the years; I'm just digging Woodson's acrobatic smash move.
Special Teams
Janokowski missed an easy field goal but then went on to make four in a row. Let's hope we're not seeing the first signs of deteriorating accuracy in what has been a rock steady placekicker for so many years...
"One day Pop-pop was fine and the next morning we found him sitting naked in the yard with a giant spoon, a gallon of milk, and the cat's litterbox between his knees."
I'm sure it's not as bad as all that.
Besides Janokowski's miss, the coverage teams were nails and we even had a good punt return that set us up for an opening drive TD.
Overall
This game went how it should have gone. Last week against the Colts the Raiders showed they might have a little more under the hood than anyone capable of drawing stick figures gave them credit for. So the expectations were upped for this game and Oakland came through. Five field goal attempts is worrisome and it might be a preview of how teams plan on defending against Terrelle Pryor. This means (as already mentioned) that the Raider passing game must improve.
Next week the Raiders play against a bunch of insufferable assholes in some stadium located in the superfluous second anus of the nation. It's going to be ugly.
Thanks for reading.
Friday, September 13, 2013
Raiders Vs. Jaguars Preview
The Jags are awful. They're so bad that even Raider fans like myself feel sorry for them. As it stands right now, I've personally scored just as many points in NFL games as the Jacksonville offense, although their special teams, by blocking a Kansas City punt attempt through the endzone is up on me 2-0.
Jacksonville started a corp of receivers last weekend that had a total of seven catches in NFL games combined. To keep with the theme of the first paragraph, that's only seven more catches than you and I have made in the NFL. To further harp on the matter, Julian Edelman of the Patriots made seven catches by the third quarter on Thursday night against the Jets.
The Jacksonville coaching staff also seems to have kicked off their debut with a resounding fart banked off a wooden pew during an aggrieved moment of silence at a funeral. Blaine Gabbert, a guy whose career is about fifteen games from evaporating was given the nod for the starting job at quarterback despite having a busted-up thumb on his throwing hand. During the game he injured his hand further and now he's gone for X amount of weeks. Not that I care what happens to the Jags after this Sunday but it's worth mentioning as a possible microcosm of the ineptitude of the Jacksonville coaching staff. Or maybe it was a stroke of genius because they wanted to get rid of him as quickly as possible. I'm going with the Stupid angle.
The word "Should" will now infest the following few paragraphs to the point where it loses all meaning. It's like saying the word "soap" over and over again. After a while it just becomes a sound. So hang in there.
Defense
Maurice Jones Drew: much respect to the guy but he's 29 now; ancient for an NFL running back who's carried the ball as many times as he has in his career. So it stands to reason that Raider defensive coordinator, Jason Tarver, should be able to stack eight in the box to shut down Jacksonville's only legitimate threat. Meanwhile Chad Henne, the Jags starting quarterback and guy who's made a career in the NFL by hanging on to backup status by his fingernails will squirm around like an insect that's had its legs pulled off by an eight year old boy/future serial killer. That's what should happen.
But we've read this script before. Last season, Raider fans breathed a sigh of relief that Jacksonville, a team perceived as even more horrible than Oakland would show up, roll over, and give Dennis Allen an easy victory. Instead, the Jags came into Oakland and put up a quick14-0 lead. Gabbert looked all-pro and MJD was scraping his cleats on our defense. Then, within a ten minute span, both Gabbert and MJD were lost for the game due to injury, thereby allowing the Raiders to eventually shamble to a heroic last second win on the foot of Sebastian Janokowski. Please note that here I use the word "heroic" as in "The winner of the boxing match made a heroic comeback win after his opponent's arms fell off in the third round".
And don't forget this: Three seasons ago, when Henne was the starting quarterback for Miami, the dude came in and tore us a a new one. That was another game that should have been an easy win. In that game, Henne wasn't the starter or the second string quarterback, he was the third string quarterback. God, what a painful day that was. The Phins traveled almost three thousand miles, started a guy who'd make more money in the Arena League, and put up 33 points against the Raider defense.
That shouldn't happen this time. Shut down their running game and put the pressure on Henne to win it for Jacksonville. It doesn't get much simpler than that. The Raider defense should be able to dominate this limp-dick Jacksonville offense.
Offense: The Running Game
First, the Colts defense sucks. It sucked last year and they didn't upgrade it much during the offseason. But even then, they shut down our running game. Granted, the Raider O-line bears close resemblance to Frankenstein's monster, patched together from dug up parts that were rotting in the ground. That doesn't matter though. Roger Goodell isn't going to make the Jags spot the Raiders an extra rushing touchdown. You have to deal with what you have. Which leads us to...
Darren McFadden: We're still hoping for a return to the days when he ran like lightning shot through the crack of a wall. Don't bet on it. Look for something in the vicinity of 50 or so yards on the ground and another 20 in the air.
The rest of our backs, plus Marcel Reece will put up another 50. And if Pryor can duplicate half of last week's scrambling performance then we should be looking at something in the neighborhood of 150+ yards on the ground. That would be nice.
The Passing Game
Right now we're all hoping that after over a decade without a franchise quarterback that we now have one in Terrelle Pryor. The dude looked good last week, no doubt about it. This week we expect more of the same. Pryor should be able to lead the offense to enough points so that at the end of the game, we have more than Jacksonville.
There's always the yin to the yang though. The Colts had one real game film of Pryor's tendencies; a game that took place last year.There's some preseason footage but that's limited in its usefulness. Now there's a full, current game film on Pryor. It's probably not enough to dissect him just yet, but Jacksonville isn't going in blind against him like the Colts were. Don't be shocked if we see Pryor bottled up a lot come Sunday.
Back to the yang: if the Jags have to put too much effort into containing Pryor's running game, that should create a lot of openings in the secondary for our receivers. It should also soften up the middle for McFadden but we'll see how that goes.
At the corners, the Jags are starting a rookie 7th round draft pick and Will Blackmon, who didn't even go through training camp with the team. Yes, I know that the corners don't make up the entirety of the pass defense but given adequate time, Pryor should be able to find open targets down-field more often than not. I also understand that the offensive line giving Pryor adequate time is an enormous assumption but let's throw all good sense into the crapper and assume they'll be able to do it often enough for receivers to get open and Pryor to hit them.
As far as the receivers go, they're coming along just fine so far. A lot of fans have said we need trade Denarius Moore or are spouting other similar nonsense. At the very least, it's nonsense for now. The receivers and Terrelle Pryor are now into their second full week of taking snaps together. With the Jacksonville corner situation being what it is, Moore, Streater, and Criner should be able to pick up some nice yardage.
One thing to keep in mind about the Jags defense is that the Jags offense never got farther into Cheifs territory than the KC 36 yard line. What this means is that under similar conditions, any defense in the league would be vulnerable to giving up multiple touchdowns. It's not safe to think that after one game that Jacksonville's defense is as bad as the stats say.
Special Teams
The Jags blocked a punt for their only points of the game last week. There you go.
Overall
A single week isn't enough to be able to accurately evaluate a team. Some of the better teams look in midseason form but the rest, who knows? I wouldn't be surprised if the Raiders lay an egg and Jacksonville gets their first win this Sunday. They shouldn't though. Last week, for the first time in I can't remember when, the Raider coaching staff appeared to make effective adjustments as the game went on against a pretty damn good quarterback. The same thing applies to the offense. The Raiders didn't have a single three and out on offense. And at 14-0, Oakland didn't cave in and call it a season. The truth of the matter is that the Colts didn't win that game, the Raiders lost it. If Jano makes that field goal before halftime then a simple chipshot with time running out for a 23-21 wins that game. I'm definitely not saying the loss was on Janokowski, it was a team loss. The point is that the Raiders were right there in a tough road game that anyone with any common sense, including myself, thought we be a killing field.
With that in mind, I tepidly predict a Raiders win.
Raiders 20
Jags 16
The Spread
The Raiders are favored by 5.5 points. My recommendation is to not bet the spread in this game. And if you bet the house on the Colts like I said to do last week, sorry; but what the fuck were you thinking? Who in their right mind takes serious the advice of an internet blogger when it comes to their money?
But if you must bet on this game then bet the under at 39.5. This thing could devolve into a low scoring pig fest with both offenses falling over themselves like bobble headed first graders in oversize helmets and pads.
Thanks for reading.
Jacksonville started a corp of receivers last weekend that had a total of seven catches in NFL games combined. To keep with the theme of the first paragraph, that's only seven more catches than you and I have made in the NFL. To further harp on the matter, Julian Edelman of the Patriots made seven catches by the third quarter on Thursday night against the Jets.
The Jacksonville coaching staff also seems to have kicked off their debut with a resounding fart banked off a wooden pew during an aggrieved moment of silence at a funeral. Blaine Gabbert, a guy whose career is about fifteen games from evaporating was given the nod for the starting job at quarterback despite having a busted-up thumb on his throwing hand. During the game he injured his hand further and now he's gone for X amount of weeks. Not that I care what happens to the Jags after this Sunday but it's worth mentioning as a possible microcosm of the ineptitude of the Jacksonville coaching staff. Or maybe it was a stroke of genius because they wanted to get rid of him as quickly as possible. I'm going with the Stupid angle.
The word "Should" will now infest the following few paragraphs to the point where it loses all meaning. It's like saying the word "soap" over and over again. After a while it just becomes a sound. So hang in there.
Defense
Maurice Jones Drew: much respect to the guy but he's 29 now; ancient for an NFL running back who's carried the ball as many times as he has in his career. So it stands to reason that Raider defensive coordinator, Jason Tarver, should be able to stack eight in the box to shut down Jacksonville's only legitimate threat. Meanwhile Chad Henne, the Jags starting quarterback and guy who's made a career in the NFL by hanging on to backup status by his fingernails will squirm around like an insect that's had its legs pulled off by an eight year old boy/future serial killer. That's what should happen.
But we've read this script before. Last season, Raider fans breathed a sigh of relief that Jacksonville, a team perceived as even more horrible than Oakland would show up, roll over, and give Dennis Allen an easy victory. Instead, the Jags came into Oakland and put up a quick14-0 lead. Gabbert looked all-pro and MJD was scraping his cleats on our defense. Then, within a ten minute span, both Gabbert and MJD were lost for the game due to injury, thereby allowing the Raiders to eventually shamble to a heroic last second win on the foot of Sebastian Janokowski. Please note that here I use the word "heroic" as in "The winner of the boxing match made a heroic comeback win after his opponent's arms fell off in the third round".
And don't forget this: Three seasons ago, when Henne was the starting quarterback for Miami, the dude came in and tore us a a new one. That was another game that should have been an easy win. In that game, Henne wasn't the starter or the second string quarterback, he was the third string quarterback. God, what a painful day that was. The Phins traveled almost three thousand miles, started a guy who'd make more money in the Arena League, and put up 33 points against the Raider defense.
That shouldn't happen this time. Shut down their running game and put the pressure on Henne to win it for Jacksonville. It doesn't get much simpler than that. The Raider defense should be able to dominate this limp-dick Jacksonville offense.
Offense: The Running Game
First, the Colts defense sucks. It sucked last year and they didn't upgrade it much during the offseason. But even then, they shut down our running game. Granted, the Raider O-line bears close resemblance to Frankenstein's monster, patched together from dug up parts that were rotting in the ground. That doesn't matter though. Roger Goodell isn't going to make the Jags spot the Raiders an extra rushing touchdown. You have to deal with what you have. Which leads us to...
Darren McFadden: We're still hoping for a return to the days when he ran like lightning shot through the crack of a wall. Don't bet on it. Look for something in the vicinity of 50 or so yards on the ground and another 20 in the air.
The rest of our backs, plus Marcel Reece will put up another 50. And if Pryor can duplicate half of last week's scrambling performance then we should be looking at something in the neighborhood of 150+ yards on the ground. That would be nice.
The Passing Game
Right now we're all hoping that after over a decade without a franchise quarterback that we now have one in Terrelle Pryor. The dude looked good last week, no doubt about it. This week we expect more of the same. Pryor should be able to lead the offense to enough points so that at the end of the game, we have more than Jacksonville.
There's always the yin to the yang though. The Colts had one real game film of Pryor's tendencies; a game that took place last year.There's some preseason footage but that's limited in its usefulness. Now there's a full, current game film on Pryor. It's probably not enough to dissect him just yet, but Jacksonville isn't going in blind against him like the Colts were. Don't be shocked if we see Pryor bottled up a lot come Sunday.
Back to the yang: if the Jags have to put too much effort into containing Pryor's running game, that should create a lot of openings in the secondary for our receivers. It should also soften up the middle for McFadden but we'll see how that goes.
At the corners, the Jags are starting a rookie 7th round draft pick and Will Blackmon, who didn't even go through training camp with the team. Yes, I know that the corners don't make up the entirety of the pass defense but given adequate time, Pryor should be able to find open targets down-field more often than not. I also understand that the offensive line giving Pryor adequate time is an enormous assumption but let's throw all good sense into the crapper and assume they'll be able to do it often enough for receivers to get open and Pryor to hit them.
As far as the receivers go, they're coming along just fine so far. A lot of fans have said we need trade Denarius Moore or are spouting other similar nonsense. At the very least, it's nonsense for now. The receivers and Terrelle Pryor are now into their second full week of taking snaps together. With the Jacksonville corner situation being what it is, Moore, Streater, and Criner should be able to pick up some nice yardage.
One thing to keep in mind about the Jags defense is that the Jags offense never got farther into Cheifs territory than the KC 36 yard line. What this means is that under similar conditions, any defense in the league would be vulnerable to giving up multiple touchdowns. It's not safe to think that after one game that Jacksonville's defense is as bad as the stats say.
Special Teams
The Jags blocked a punt for their only points of the game last week. There you go.
Overall
A single week isn't enough to be able to accurately evaluate a team. Some of the better teams look in midseason form but the rest, who knows? I wouldn't be surprised if the Raiders lay an egg and Jacksonville gets their first win this Sunday. They shouldn't though. Last week, for the first time in I can't remember when, the Raider coaching staff appeared to make effective adjustments as the game went on against a pretty damn good quarterback. The same thing applies to the offense. The Raiders didn't have a single three and out on offense. And at 14-0, Oakland didn't cave in and call it a season. The truth of the matter is that the Colts didn't win that game, the Raiders lost it. If Jano makes that field goal before halftime then a simple chipshot with time running out for a 23-21 wins that game. I'm definitely not saying the loss was on Janokowski, it was a team loss. The point is that the Raiders were right there in a tough road game that anyone with any common sense, including myself, thought we be a killing field.
With that in mind, I tepidly predict a Raiders win.
Raiders 20
Jags 16
The Spread
The Raiders are favored by 5.5 points. My recommendation is to not bet the spread in this game. And if you bet the house on the Colts like I said to do last week, sorry; but what the fuck were you thinking? Who in their right mind takes serious the advice of an internet blogger when it comes to their money?
But if you must bet on this game then bet the under at 39.5. This thing could devolve into a low scoring pig fest with both offenses falling over themselves like bobble headed first graders in oversize helmets and pads.
Thanks for reading.
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Raiders vs. Colts Post-game Review
With 5:20 on the clock in the 4th quarter, the Raiders took the ball at their own 20 yard line after giving up the go ahead touchdown to the Colts. The score was 21-17. They needed a touchdown to clinch a victory that seemed so unlikely that atheists everywhere would have been forced to reconsider the whole God thing. As if a documentable miracle was unfolding on national television, Terrelle Pryor marched the Raider offense down the field. On a third and one he completed a pass to his tight end, Jeron Mastrud for 41 yards. On 4th and 9, with the game hanging in the balance, the Raider offensive line staved off Indi defenders, allowing Pryor to complete a throw to Denarius Moore that took the team to a first and goal at the nine.
Just as the Abrahamic God was about to burst through the clouds to announce His undeniability to a cynical planet, Pryor took a sack: a big one all the way back to the 24 yard line. And with 30 seconds left he threw an interception inside the Colts ten yard line to end the game. God said, "Maybe some other time" and as predicted the Raiders fell to the colts. Still, It Was Good.
Pryor, despite his mistakes, was the primary reason the Raiders managed to be in the game until the closing seconds. He had runs of 26 and 29 yards on the way to rushing for 113 total yards on the day. Throughout the game, he was poised, accurate, and showed precisely why the coaches chose him to start over Matt Flynn. His ability to buy time, scramble, and create something from nothing kept the offense on the field and the Colts offense on the bench.
If you're a Raider fan and a fan of the game in general, you should have known that Pryor would make some mistakes; and he did. Taking that last sack, throwing two picks, missing some wide open throws; particularly one to Marcel Reece that may very well have gotten the Raiders a touchdown. If you care to play the hypothetical What If game, that's three scores that might have been. And if you do the math, that's anywhere from 6 to 10 points left on the field due to Pryor's errors of inexperience. Add it up and it's a big road win.
But that's okay. For the most part he took what the Colts defense gave him and made good decisions.
Here's a telling stat: the Raider offense got at least one first down on every single possession. They dominated time of possession and scared the hell out of Indi and Colt fans; and they did it on the road.
And good on the offensive coaching staff and Dennis Allen for putting together a game plan that made the most use of Pryor's skills and for showing a lot of creativity in that plan. The play-calling was also excellent. We didn't try to bang McFadden into the line all game long, hoping to minimize the use of Pryor. Instead, they made him go out and play the part of an NFL quarterback and he exceeded expectations.
The offensive line played much better in pass protection than anyone, including myself, gave them a chance in hell to do. A lot of that might have to do with having a quarterback who can escape almost every type of pressure that's thrown at him, but when they needed to pass protect the most, they got the job done.
That said, they were terrible at run blocking. McFadden ran into walls all game long and was never able to get anything decent going. Speaking of Darren McFadden...
I'm afraid it's now safe to say that he isn't the back he used to be. One play in particular that highlights his decline was when he was tackled in the open field by a linebacker on a 3rd down play that forced a punt. Two years ago, Darren McFadden in a one on one against any defender in the NFL would have juked the guy out of shoes or just straight ran his ass over en route to a 20+ yard gain.
In almost all cases it's unfair to say that a player isn't trying. In McFadden's case that goes double. The guy works his ass off. But I'm afraid that come the 2014 offseason Reggie McKenzie will be shopping for running backs while McFadden will end up trying to resurrect his former self somewhere else.
Defense
The Colts first two drives looked exactly like the script that had been written for this game by every sports writer and fan in the United States (again, I include myself in that number). Luck went 11/11 and threw two TD passes. It was shaping up to be the expected walkover. But then, of all things, our defensive coaching staff made effective adjustments to the Colts offense. Yes, they adjusted; a thing that was utterly absent on defense last year.
After the initial storm, the Colts only scored one more time. Granted, it was the winning score for them but the Raiders patched together defense of nobodies harassed Andrew Luck and the rest of the Colt offense for most of the game, sacking him four times and keeping Indi's rushing game under control.
Good on Jason Tarver and the rest of the Raider defensive staff for mixing things up, coming up with timely and effective blitzes, and keeping the Colts off balance.
Special Teams
I only include this to point out that Jano missed a field goal that was a bigtime contributor to this loss. Ouch. I don't know how much the new holder affects him but it shouldn't be that much. Whatever. He's still a great placekicker and the vast majority of the time you can count on an automatic 3 from him from 55 yards in.
I should probably throw in a compliment to the coverage teams too. They did their job.
Overall
Great game from the Raiders. They went on the road against a solid opponent that went 11-5 last season and gave them all they could handle. With the dearth of talent on this team that's all any Raider fan could have realistically asked for. It was so nice to see fear slowly spread across the faces of the fans in the stadium. And it wasn't only Colt fans who felt the pucker; Colt players and coaches had to check their pants by the end of the game to make sure they were still dry.
A win would have been great. Damn. But what I've harped on continuously is that all Raider fans can fairly expect this year is for the team to be competitive and put a scare into the better teams once in a while. And that's exactly what happened today.
No one knows what'll happen next week against Jacksonville, but based off today one would have to predict a win. The Jags look as horrible as ever. On the other hand, one of the phenomena of the first few weeks of the early NFL season is that even the bad teams play the good teams close. They don't know how bad they suck until around game four or five. Then the discouragement kicks in and they're exposed for how horrible they are. Maybe that's what happened today, but for the time being it was nice to see a Raider game go down to the wire; especially when it was thought that the game would look like a PETA slaughterhouse expose'.
Oh, and yes, I was very wrong about this game. I'm really happy about that.
Thanks for reading.
Just as the Abrahamic God was about to burst through the clouds to announce His undeniability to a cynical planet, Pryor took a sack: a big one all the way back to the 24 yard line. And with 30 seconds left he threw an interception inside the Colts ten yard line to end the game. God said, "Maybe some other time" and as predicted the Raiders fell to the colts. Still, It Was Good.
Pryor, despite his mistakes, was the primary reason the Raiders managed to be in the game until the closing seconds. He had runs of 26 and 29 yards on the way to rushing for 113 total yards on the day. Throughout the game, he was poised, accurate, and showed precisely why the coaches chose him to start over Matt Flynn. His ability to buy time, scramble, and create something from nothing kept the offense on the field and the Colts offense on the bench.
If you're a Raider fan and a fan of the game in general, you should have known that Pryor would make some mistakes; and he did. Taking that last sack, throwing two picks, missing some wide open throws; particularly one to Marcel Reece that may very well have gotten the Raiders a touchdown. If you care to play the hypothetical What If game, that's three scores that might have been. And if you do the math, that's anywhere from 6 to 10 points left on the field due to Pryor's errors of inexperience. Add it up and it's a big road win.
But that's okay. For the most part he took what the Colts defense gave him and made good decisions.
Here's a telling stat: the Raider offense got at least one first down on every single possession. They dominated time of possession and scared the hell out of Indi and Colt fans; and they did it on the road.
And good on the offensive coaching staff and Dennis Allen for putting together a game plan that made the most use of Pryor's skills and for showing a lot of creativity in that plan. The play-calling was also excellent. We didn't try to bang McFadden into the line all game long, hoping to minimize the use of Pryor. Instead, they made him go out and play the part of an NFL quarterback and he exceeded expectations.
The offensive line played much better in pass protection than anyone, including myself, gave them a chance in hell to do. A lot of that might have to do with having a quarterback who can escape almost every type of pressure that's thrown at him, but when they needed to pass protect the most, they got the job done.
That said, they were terrible at run blocking. McFadden ran into walls all game long and was never able to get anything decent going. Speaking of Darren McFadden...
I'm afraid it's now safe to say that he isn't the back he used to be. One play in particular that highlights his decline was when he was tackled in the open field by a linebacker on a 3rd down play that forced a punt. Two years ago, Darren McFadden in a one on one against any defender in the NFL would have juked the guy out of shoes or just straight ran his ass over en route to a 20+ yard gain.
In almost all cases it's unfair to say that a player isn't trying. In McFadden's case that goes double. The guy works his ass off. But I'm afraid that come the 2014 offseason Reggie McKenzie will be shopping for running backs while McFadden will end up trying to resurrect his former self somewhere else.
Defense
The Colts first two drives looked exactly like the script that had been written for this game by every sports writer and fan in the United States (again, I include myself in that number). Luck went 11/11 and threw two TD passes. It was shaping up to be the expected walkover. But then, of all things, our defensive coaching staff made effective adjustments to the Colts offense. Yes, they adjusted; a thing that was utterly absent on defense last year.
After the initial storm, the Colts only scored one more time. Granted, it was the winning score for them but the Raiders patched together defense of nobodies harassed Andrew Luck and the rest of the Colt offense for most of the game, sacking him four times and keeping Indi's rushing game under control.
Good on Jason Tarver and the rest of the Raider defensive staff for mixing things up, coming up with timely and effective blitzes, and keeping the Colts off balance.
Special Teams
I only include this to point out that Jano missed a field goal that was a bigtime contributor to this loss. Ouch. I don't know how much the new holder affects him but it shouldn't be that much. Whatever. He's still a great placekicker and the vast majority of the time you can count on an automatic 3 from him from 55 yards in.
I should probably throw in a compliment to the coverage teams too. They did their job.
Overall
Great game from the Raiders. They went on the road against a solid opponent that went 11-5 last season and gave them all they could handle. With the dearth of talent on this team that's all any Raider fan could have realistically asked for. It was so nice to see fear slowly spread across the faces of the fans in the stadium. And it wasn't only Colt fans who felt the pucker; Colt players and coaches had to check their pants by the end of the game to make sure they were still dry.
A win would have been great. Damn. But what I've harped on continuously is that all Raider fans can fairly expect this year is for the team to be competitive and put a scare into the better teams once in a while. And that's exactly what happened today.
No one knows what'll happen next week against Jacksonville, but based off today one would have to predict a win. The Jags look as horrible as ever. On the other hand, one of the phenomena of the first few weeks of the early NFL season is that even the bad teams play the good teams close. They don't know how bad they suck until around game four or five. Then the discouragement kicks in and they're exposed for how horrible they are. Maybe that's what happened today, but for the time being it was nice to see a Raider game go down to the wire; especially when it was thought that the game would look like a PETA slaughterhouse expose'.
Oh, and yes, I was very wrong about this game. I'm really happy about that.
Thanks for reading.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Raiders vs. Colts Preview
The 2013 regular season begins for the Raiders on the road against last year's biggest surprise team, the Indianapolis Colts. According to what appears to be the majority opinion on Colt fansites (which, BTW, are far more reliable than professional publications) Indi looks to be in the thick of the playoff race this season. But what both fans and paid prognosticators seem to either ignore or minimize is the loss of Bruce Arians, their offensive coordinator who led them to a 9-3 record when head coach Tom Pagano was lost for most of the season due to leukemia. Under Pagano, the Colts were 2-2. That could have been because of his illness or maybe he would have led them to the same record as Arians. It's impossible to say. But what is certain is that in terms of coaching it was Arians who led the Colts last season.
Another thing to take into account is that the Colts won a lot of games by the skin of their teeth last year. Without a few lucky bounces and some last minute heroics by Andrew Luck, Indi could have ended up 5-11. But they didn't and that's what matters. They pulled together when they needed to and by the end of their games put up more points than their opponents did in eleven out of sixteen tries.
Now, it seems that while the Colts D hasn't been dramatically improved it should be somewhat better than last year's 26th overall ranking. But the big talk is centered around Andrew Luck and the Colt's offense. Luck had a helluva rookie season, took the team to the playoffs, and earned himself a spot in the Pro Bowl.
If you want to see his stats they're all over every sports site in the U.S. Suffice it to say he had an excellent year.
What all this means for the Raiders
One of the depressing things about being a fan of a team with meager talent and coaching skills is that what you hope to see rarely comes to pass and the things you want to see least pour out of your TV screen like a gigantic lesion weeping pus onto your living room floor.
In short, we'll be lucky if this one isn't over before the half. The Colts are hoping to implement a physical ground attack, a shorter, more rhythmic passing game, and even a pistol formation here and there to keep heat off of Luck. And against the Raiders, its all gonna work. This is a two edged sword for Indi because they're going to think that all the things they worked on in camp have paid off. Unfortunately for them, they won't really begin to find that out until they play other teams. On the Raiders end of things, here's what's up.
The Running Game
Supposedly McFadden is healthy. The coaching staff held him out of preseason due to a couple minor injuries that are really nothing; they've been saving him for the regular season. Supposedly. But if he is healthy then this would be a good chance for him to show that the Lis-Franc injury suffered two seasons ago didn't effectively end his career. If he still looks like he did last season, then come 2014 we're going to be doing some heavy RB shopping.
Behind McFadden are Rashad Jennings and Jeremy Stewart. To be honest, both looked better than McFadden in preseason.
But really, the big question mark as it pertains to the Raider running game is the offensive line. It won't matter who's carrying the ball if the running backs are slamming into 600 pounds of opposing fat on every down before they can even reach the line of scrimmage. For the sake of form I'll say that they need to open rushing lanes for the running backs to get through. Of course that's obvious but the O-line hasn't managed to a very good job of it in this preseason. It's not totally hopeless though. Until Indi can prove their defense isn't as bad as it was last year, the Raiders should (should) be able to get some yards on the ground, thereby hanging on to the ball and keeping the Colts offense off the field.
The Passing Game
As of right now, word has it that Terrelle Pryor will be the starting quarterback for the Raiders come Sunday. The big question for him is if he's actually ready to start in the NFL. The answer is: Probably Not.
No one can say if Pryor is actually a better quarterback than Matt Flynn. Against second stringers Pryor has looked like a god at times, making something from nothing. Against the starting D of the Seahawks he had a passer rating of under 10, considerably worse than Matt Flynn.
The good thing about Pryor though is that he can move. The guy will absolutely make some bad mistakes due to his inexperience and the offensive line should have apology cards already written out to him before the game ever starts. I'll even begin the first line of the written apology for them: "Dear Terrelle, I'm sorry I almost got you killed today..."
But Pryor should be able survive all four quarters. Matt Flynn would be a grey stain on the turf of Lucas Oil Stadium by the half, which in turn would hand the starting job to Pryor anyway. So apparently the coaching staff has decided to cut out the middleman give the kid his shot.
For whatever else I might say about Dennis Allen and his staff, they got this one right. There is no other quarterback on this team that gives the Raiders a chance to do jackshit except for Pryor. Maybe when the O-line as a group is good enough to stop one five year old girl from running into the mall parking lot we can find out if Flynn is worth anything, but until then the guy with the most mobility has to start. Enough of that.
There are some decent receivers on this team. Moore and Streater aren't exactly Rice and Taylor but they can perform. Rookie Brice Butler really tore it up in the preseason. And you know that Jacoby Ford is gonna burn the Colts defensive backfield a few times. It's just that Pryor needs to be able to recognize and take advantage when it happens. We have some guys at tight end. That really does sum up the position. Again, how well the receivers do will depend largely on how the O-line does. Are you beginning to see a pattern here?
Defense
If I was Catholic I'd be spending a lot of time at the local parish this week imploring St. Jude to implore God for help. Even if you aren't Catholic, pray to St. Jude anyway. He's the patron saint of hopeless causes. Outside of desperate prayer, the only thing Raider fans can hope for is that the worst case of the sophomore jinx to ever strike a player down happens to Andrew Luck on Sunday. The problem is though, Al Davis made a deal with Satan at some point in his life or he pissed off the pantheon of Hindu gods.
Whatever. Somewhere along the way, Al must have left a flaming bag of dogshit on some god's doorstep because ever since Superbowl XVIII we've had this sickening, reoccurring phenomenon of former players and coaches coming back to kick our ass over and over again. Think about it: Mike Shannahan, Marcus Allen, Jon Gruden. etc. Hopefully since Al is gone the curse has been lifted, but if Darrius Heyward Bey sets the receiving record for touchdowns in one game this Sunday we'll know that Mark Davis needs to call an exorcist.
The only hope the defense has is that the Colts fumble-dick their way through the game and hand them turnovers.
Special Teams
Jano will get us some points. King is the new punter, long live the King. Hopefully Jacoby Ford is fully back. If he is maybe he can get us a TD or at least close to the Colts endzone. That's if he doesn't shatter his pelvis getting off the bus in Indianapolis. I know nothing about the Colts special teams and I don't care. This game won't be close enough for that aspect of the game to matter anyway.
Coaching
Last season Dennis Allen was inept beyond any excuse. Like the victim of a disturbing violent crime, I don't care to rehash it. But it must be said that this preseason looked bad. Really bad. And until he shows the ability to get the most out of the players he has, rather than the non-existent ones he's consistently bitching about not having, it has to be assumed that he'll get out-coached in every phase of the game come Sunday.
Pretty much the same goes for the coordinators. Show us something. Anything.
Lack of talent doesn't mean you can't put a scare into the opposition. Last week, Norm Chow's Rainbow Warriors gave the USC Trojans all they could handle until SC's talent simply overwhelmed Hawaii. Give that boob Lane Kiffin Hawaii's talent and the Trojans would manage to be 0-14 while playing a 13 game schedule. But Chow knows what he has in his players and how to get the most out of them. That's what good coaches do.
We don't have good coaches.
The Point Spread
The Colts are favored by 10 points. I can't bring myself to bet against the Raiders. It just seems so wrong. But there's easy money there for you if you can stomach it (or if you're not a Raider fan).
Score Prediction
This is lame but I've managed to nail it once or twice in my life.
Colts 34
Raiders 13
Finally
This is our first step on the road to getting the number one pick in the 2014 NFL draft. I could be convinced that the first step was actually when Dennis Allen was hired but I've harped on that enough. Next year will bring better days: a new coaching staff, promising draft picks, and a chance to grab some good and maybe even great players in free agency.
So endure. Gut it out. Better times are ahead; just not this season. We all hope that the team looks respectable yet we all realize it probably won't... There's no such thing as a fair-weather Oakland Raider fan. Those of us still here in Raider Nation deserve better than what we've had to put up with. If we're still reading and writing about the team, posting on websites, listening to the radio, and watching TV for any news of the team then we must be some thickheaded but dedicated football fans. And we deserve better than what this season is going to give us. Again though, next year we can expect better and should expect better.
Another thing to take into account is that the Colts won a lot of games by the skin of their teeth last year. Without a few lucky bounces and some last minute heroics by Andrew Luck, Indi could have ended up 5-11. But they didn't and that's what matters. They pulled together when they needed to and by the end of their games put up more points than their opponents did in eleven out of sixteen tries.
Now, it seems that while the Colts D hasn't been dramatically improved it should be somewhat better than last year's 26th overall ranking. But the big talk is centered around Andrew Luck and the Colt's offense. Luck had a helluva rookie season, took the team to the playoffs, and earned himself a spot in the Pro Bowl.
If you want to see his stats they're all over every sports site in the U.S. Suffice it to say he had an excellent year.
What all this means for the Raiders
One of the depressing things about being a fan of a team with meager talent and coaching skills is that what you hope to see rarely comes to pass and the things you want to see least pour out of your TV screen like a gigantic lesion weeping pus onto your living room floor.
In short, we'll be lucky if this one isn't over before the half. The Colts are hoping to implement a physical ground attack, a shorter, more rhythmic passing game, and even a pistol formation here and there to keep heat off of Luck. And against the Raiders, its all gonna work. This is a two edged sword for Indi because they're going to think that all the things they worked on in camp have paid off. Unfortunately for them, they won't really begin to find that out until they play other teams. On the Raiders end of things, here's what's up.
The Running Game
Supposedly McFadden is healthy. The coaching staff held him out of preseason due to a couple minor injuries that are really nothing; they've been saving him for the regular season. Supposedly. But if he is healthy then this would be a good chance for him to show that the Lis-Franc injury suffered two seasons ago didn't effectively end his career. If he still looks like he did last season, then come 2014 we're going to be doing some heavy RB shopping.
Behind McFadden are Rashad Jennings and Jeremy Stewart. To be honest, both looked better than McFadden in preseason.
But really, the big question mark as it pertains to the Raider running game is the offensive line. It won't matter who's carrying the ball if the running backs are slamming into 600 pounds of opposing fat on every down before they can even reach the line of scrimmage. For the sake of form I'll say that they need to open rushing lanes for the running backs to get through. Of course that's obvious but the O-line hasn't managed to a very good job of it in this preseason. It's not totally hopeless though. Until Indi can prove their defense isn't as bad as it was last year, the Raiders should (should) be able to get some yards on the ground, thereby hanging on to the ball and keeping the Colts offense off the field.
The Passing Game
As of right now, word has it that Terrelle Pryor will be the starting quarterback for the Raiders come Sunday. The big question for him is if he's actually ready to start in the NFL. The answer is: Probably Not.
No one can say if Pryor is actually a better quarterback than Matt Flynn. Against second stringers Pryor has looked like a god at times, making something from nothing. Against the starting D of the Seahawks he had a passer rating of under 10, considerably worse than Matt Flynn.
The good thing about Pryor though is that he can move. The guy will absolutely make some bad mistakes due to his inexperience and the offensive line should have apology cards already written out to him before the game ever starts. I'll even begin the first line of the written apology for them: "Dear Terrelle, I'm sorry I almost got you killed today..."
But Pryor should be able survive all four quarters. Matt Flynn would be a grey stain on the turf of Lucas Oil Stadium by the half, which in turn would hand the starting job to Pryor anyway. So apparently the coaching staff has decided to cut out the middleman give the kid his shot.
For whatever else I might say about Dennis Allen and his staff, they got this one right. There is no other quarterback on this team that gives the Raiders a chance to do jackshit except for Pryor. Maybe when the O-line as a group is good enough to stop one five year old girl from running into the mall parking lot we can find out if Flynn is worth anything, but until then the guy with the most mobility has to start. Enough of that.
There are some decent receivers on this team. Moore and Streater aren't exactly Rice and Taylor but they can perform. Rookie Brice Butler really tore it up in the preseason. And you know that Jacoby Ford is gonna burn the Colts defensive backfield a few times. It's just that Pryor needs to be able to recognize and take advantage when it happens. We have some guys at tight end. That really does sum up the position. Again, how well the receivers do will depend largely on how the O-line does. Are you beginning to see a pattern here?
Defense
If I was Catholic I'd be spending a lot of time at the local parish this week imploring St. Jude to implore God for help. Even if you aren't Catholic, pray to St. Jude anyway. He's the patron saint of hopeless causes. Outside of desperate prayer, the only thing Raider fans can hope for is that the worst case of the sophomore jinx to ever strike a player down happens to Andrew Luck on Sunday. The problem is though, Al Davis made a deal with Satan at some point in his life or he pissed off the pantheon of Hindu gods.
Whatever. Somewhere along the way, Al must have left a flaming bag of dogshit on some god's doorstep because ever since Superbowl XVIII we've had this sickening, reoccurring phenomenon of former players and coaches coming back to kick our ass over and over again. Think about it: Mike Shannahan, Marcus Allen, Jon Gruden. etc. Hopefully since Al is gone the curse has been lifted, but if Darrius Heyward Bey sets the receiving record for touchdowns in one game this Sunday we'll know that Mark Davis needs to call an exorcist.
The only hope the defense has is that the Colts fumble-dick their way through the game and hand them turnovers.
Special Teams
Jano will get us some points. King is the new punter, long live the King. Hopefully Jacoby Ford is fully back. If he is maybe he can get us a TD or at least close to the Colts endzone. That's if he doesn't shatter his pelvis getting off the bus in Indianapolis. I know nothing about the Colts special teams and I don't care. This game won't be close enough for that aspect of the game to matter anyway.
Coaching
Last season Dennis Allen was inept beyond any excuse. Like the victim of a disturbing violent crime, I don't care to rehash it. But it must be said that this preseason looked bad. Really bad. And until he shows the ability to get the most out of the players he has, rather than the non-existent ones he's consistently bitching about not having, it has to be assumed that he'll get out-coached in every phase of the game come Sunday.
Pretty much the same goes for the coordinators. Show us something. Anything.
Lack of talent doesn't mean you can't put a scare into the opposition. Last week, Norm Chow's Rainbow Warriors gave the USC Trojans all they could handle until SC's talent simply overwhelmed Hawaii. Give that boob Lane Kiffin Hawaii's talent and the Trojans would manage to be 0-14 while playing a 13 game schedule. But Chow knows what he has in his players and how to get the most out of them. That's what good coaches do.
We don't have good coaches.
The Point Spread
The Colts are favored by 10 points. I can't bring myself to bet against the Raiders. It just seems so wrong. But there's easy money there for you if you can stomach it (or if you're not a Raider fan).
Score Prediction
This is lame but I've managed to nail it once or twice in my life.
Colts 34
Raiders 13
Finally
This is our first step on the road to getting the number one pick in the 2014 NFL draft. I could be convinced that the first step was actually when Dennis Allen was hired but I've harped on that enough. Next year will bring better days: a new coaching staff, promising draft picks, and a chance to grab some good and maybe even great players in free agency.
So endure. Gut it out. Better times are ahead; just not this season. We all hope that the team looks respectable yet we all realize it probably won't... There's no such thing as a fair-weather Oakland Raider fan. Those of us still here in Raider Nation deserve better than what we've had to put up with. If we're still reading and writing about the team, posting on websites, listening to the radio, and watching TV for any news of the team then we must be some thickheaded but dedicated football fans. And we deserve better than what this season is going to give us. Again though, next year we can expect better and should expect better.
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Why Tyler Wilson Isn't and Is a Bad Mistake
When the organization drafted quarterback Tyler Wilson in the 4th round out of Arkansas the reaction was fairly tepid; maybe on the warm side. The first three rounds are the ones we tend to talk about the most, with the rest being conversation pieces for dreary low points during the ungodly long NFL offseason.
Much of the early talk about Wilson in Raider Fan Land was that he would be an example of how Reggie McKenzie develops talent, finds diamonds in the rough. Surely, the pick of Tyler Wilson was the move of a sage and we couldn't wait to see this kid wrest the 2nd string job from Terrelle Pryor. Hell, with Reggie's knowledge, Wilson might even be starting on opening day in Indianapolis. This kid's got it man, I can feel it!
Soon though, Wilson got beat out by undrafted free agent, Matt McGloin. Wilson was cut and subsequently cleared waivers, meaning no one else wanted him either. Today he was brought back and put on the practice squad. Next year, instead of starting out in a basic tie for the 2nd string spot, his main job will be catching the ball and flipping it to the starting quarterback so that said starting quarterback can get warmed up before practice.
This Isn't That Bad
First, maybe we just happened to have stumbled on a good but unrecognized player in McGloin. Maybe if it weren't for the money paid to Matt Flynn he would be the second string quarterback. It wouldn't be the first that Flynn came in as the firmly entrenched starter only to lose the job to someone else before the season began. This year he might have fallen another peg.
It's also quite possible that Wilson stunk up the joint. I get almost as many reps behind center as most 4th string training camp quarterbacks and if McGloin, during the few real chances he had was the best guy for the Holy Shit, Our Season Is Doomed quarterback spot, then he deserves it. Al always had his scholarship players and there's no way in hell this would have happened under him, so in a strict sense, this is a good thing. The coaching staff went with who they though was best. No matter how inept I consider Dennis Allen to be, I know he didn't decide to elevate McGloin because he didn't like Tyler Wilson's face.
Also, this has happened before. A few years back we cut a defensive player that we'd drafted in the 3rd round. The event is now so insignificant that I don't feel the least bit of guilt in not bothering to look up the player and the year. It's happened on other teams too. Sometimes a guy comes in who so unready or lazy or not NFL material in general that you have to let him go regardless of where you picked him.
So relax and feel good that although our quarterback situation might be the worst in the league, we do have the three least crappy ones on the roster.
This Is Really Bad
Consider this: McKenzie is going into his second year and the best quarterback on the team is a guy that Al picked up in the supplemental draft three years ago. Not only that, it seems like Reggie Mckenzie's eye for rookie talent is limited to guys who aren't in the draft: Criner and Streeter are good examples. And on the free agent market the only significant pickup has been offensive guard, Mike Brisiel. Like a sasquatch siting, the last time Brisiel was spotted he was playing with the Hopeless stringers in the last few series of the 4th quarter against the Seahawks.
It would be North Korea-crazy to not consider that although McKenzie's opportunities to acquire talent have been really limited both by number of draft picks and the salary cap, that the opportunities he has had have been botched.
Like anyone with an ounce of sense, I know it's lame to evaluate drafts so soon after they happen. But what's happened amounts to not ever having that 4th round selection at all. With so little depth on our offensive and defensive lines, how in the hell do you miss so badly on a quarterback? It's not unfair for fans to have gotten the idea that Wilson must have something going for him. After all, look at the shape the rest of the team is in; and we just signed Matt Flynn. To neglect all the other problems on the team must mean that you're bone-deep sure about this Wilson kid.
And now he's on the practice squad. It doesn't bode well for future personnel decisions. You can say that at least it wasn't as bad as the Jamarcus Russel pick or that Al made a lot of horrible decisions but that makes about as much sense as Dennis Allen hiring Greg Knapp. The past bad decisions of Al Davis don't make the current bad decisions of Reggie McKenzie any better.
There's also the specter of Dennis Allen and company not being up to the job of helping players realize their potential. I have no doubt that that's in play here. Like the Cincinnati Bengals of the mid and late 90's, Oakland is an elephant graveyard for potential talent that might have been, but ended up dying due to neglect and incompetence in the coaching ranks. It's impossible to pick that many bad players. Did that happen here with Tyler Wilson? Maybe, maybe not. But it's in the equation somewhere.
Whatever
That's the best way to look at it: Whatever. It's likely a combination of things, as all things are. McKenzie made a bad pick, the coaching staff failed to some degree, and Tyler Wilson must have sucked some stupendous size livestock anatomy in order to lose what should have been a sure thing. Whatever the case may be, NFL historians will never look back on this moment in Raider history: ever. That's how much it really means.
Thanks for reading
Much of the early talk about Wilson in Raider Fan Land was that he would be an example of how Reggie McKenzie develops talent, finds diamonds in the rough. Surely, the pick of Tyler Wilson was the move of a sage and we couldn't wait to see this kid wrest the 2nd string job from Terrelle Pryor. Hell, with Reggie's knowledge, Wilson might even be starting on opening day in Indianapolis. This kid's got it man, I can feel it!
Soon though, Wilson got beat out by undrafted free agent, Matt McGloin. Wilson was cut and subsequently cleared waivers, meaning no one else wanted him either. Today he was brought back and put on the practice squad. Next year, instead of starting out in a basic tie for the 2nd string spot, his main job will be catching the ball and flipping it to the starting quarterback so that said starting quarterback can get warmed up before practice.
This Isn't That Bad
First, maybe we just happened to have stumbled on a good but unrecognized player in McGloin. Maybe if it weren't for the money paid to Matt Flynn he would be the second string quarterback. It wouldn't be the first that Flynn came in as the firmly entrenched starter only to lose the job to someone else before the season began. This year he might have fallen another peg.
It's also quite possible that Wilson stunk up the joint. I get almost as many reps behind center as most 4th string training camp quarterbacks and if McGloin, during the few real chances he had was the best guy for the Holy Shit, Our Season Is Doomed quarterback spot, then he deserves it. Al always had his scholarship players and there's no way in hell this would have happened under him, so in a strict sense, this is a good thing. The coaching staff went with who they though was best. No matter how inept I consider Dennis Allen to be, I know he didn't decide to elevate McGloin because he didn't like Tyler Wilson's face.
Also, this has happened before. A few years back we cut a defensive player that we'd drafted in the 3rd round. The event is now so insignificant that I don't feel the least bit of guilt in not bothering to look up the player and the year. It's happened on other teams too. Sometimes a guy comes in who so unready or lazy or not NFL material in general that you have to let him go regardless of where you picked him.
So relax and feel good that although our quarterback situation might be the worst in the league, we do have the three least crappy ones on the roster.
This Is Really Bad
Consider this: McKenzie is going into his second year and the best quarterback on the team is a guy that Al picked up in the supplemental draft three years ago. Not only that, it seems like Reggie Mckenzie's eye for rookie talent is limited to guys who aren't in the draft: Criner and Streeter are good examples. And on the free agent market the only significant pickup has been offensive guard, Mike Brisiel. Like a sasquatch siting, the last time Brisiel was spotted he was playing with the Hopeless stringers in the last few series of the 4th quarter against the Seahawks.
It would be North Korea-crazy to not consider that although McKenzie's opportunities to acquire talent have been really limited both by number of draft picks and the salary cap, that the opportunities he has had have been botched.
Like anyone with an ounce of sense, I know it's lame to evaluate drafts so soon after they happen. But what's happened amounts to not ever having that 4th round selection at all. With so little depth on our offensive and defensive lines, how in the hell do you miss so badly on a quarterback? It's not unfair for fans to have gotten the idea that Wilson must have something going for him. After all, look at the shape the rest of the team is in; and we just signed Matt Flynn. To neglect all the other problems on the team must mean that you're bone-deep sure about this Wilson kid.
And now he's on the practice squad. It doesn't bode well for future personnel decisions. You can say that at least it wasn't as bad as the Jamarcus Russel pick or that Al made a lot of horrible decisions but that makes about as much sense as Dennis Allen hiring Greg Knapp. The past bad decisions of Al Davis don't make the current bad decisions of Reggie McKenzie any better.
There's also the specter of Dennis Allen and company not being up to the job of helping players realize their potential. I have no doubt that that's in play here. Like the Cincinnati Bengals of the mid and late 90's, Oakland is an elephant graveyard for potential talent that might have been, but ended up dying due to neglect and incompetence in the coaching ranks. It's impossible to pick that many bad players. Did that happen here with Tyler Wilson? Maybe, maybe not. But it's in the equation somewhere.
Whatever
That's the best way to look at it: Whatever. It's likely a combination of things, as all things are. McKenzie made a bad pick, the coaching staff failed to some degree, and Tyler Wilson must have sucked some stupendous size livestock anatomy in order to lose what should have been a sure thing. Whatever the case may be, NFL historians will never look back on this moment in Raider history: ever. That's how much it really means.
Thanks for reading
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Why "We" Works
A few days ago on one of the several forums I haunt on a daily basis I came across a thread someone had started about NFL predictions. This particular forum isn't dedicated to sports, it's definitely more of a gathering site for intellectuals, which brings along with it a severe over-representation of angry and physically uncoordinated people who wouldn't have survived the stone age and made the jump into the early neolithic.
At any rate, several people posted their predictions, most of whom used the word "we" when referring to their favorite team, as in, "If the Falcons can shore up the D and find a solid replacement for Tony Gonzalez, I think we can win a lot of games."
The thread was then overran by guys whose most vigorous acts of reproduction are accompanied only by the Lieutenant Uhura poster tacked to the ceiling above their beds.
By some sort of list here are their complaints about sports fans and sports in general. This obviously isn't limited to the people on the forum I referred to; you've run across them many times in your life.
1. "You're not on the team, you have no vested interest, and you probably never played professional sports in your life. It's stupid that you say "we."
True enough: I'm not on the team, I have no money invested, and I never played pro sports. But here's the deal: I started rooting for the Oakland Raiders some three and a half decades ago. Back then, John Madden was the coach, Kenny Stabler was the quarterback. John Madden is now a sportscaster and Kenny Stabler's liver filed an irreconcilable differences petition against him several years after he left Oakland. The point is that neither are with the team anymore. But you know who's still here? Me. Me and millions of other fans who watch no matter how dismal the chances are and how disgraced we are among our rival NFL fans. To call them peers only adds to the weirdness of sports-fandom and frankly the idea that I have anything in common with Kansas City Chiefs fans only reinforces my confidence in a black oblivion once my heart stops beating.
Fans buy tickets, buy merchandise, fill the stadiums. We watch the games on TV and enough of us buy the shit that the sponsors are hawking during the 5,000 fucking commercials that happen during each game so that the owners of the teams can pay players to show up and destroy their bodies every Sunday. The NFL and other sports leagues around the world survive because of TV revenues. If somehow the world's sports fans got together and decided to not buy a single thing on any TV commercial shown during any sports broadcast, professional athletics would cease to exist as we know them.
Players, coaches, and even owners come and go. The fans never leave. Without us sports doesn't exist. It would be stupid if we didn't say "we."
2. It's pathetic that you're watching a bunch of overpaid, thick headed jocks getting paid millions to play a stupid game.
This is where the bitterness about being an uncoordinated spazz begins to really show itself. But for the moment I'll take the high road. My college major was English. I've seen and read enough Shakespeare to truly hate him. Wanna know why Shakespeare's plays are boring and no one cares about them? It's because we know how they end. For hundreds of years we've known it. And if you pick any other classical theatrical work, any movie, any book you know that the ending is predetermined. It's already been written. You can turn to the last page or fast forward to the end if you want. That said, I love books, I love reading and I love the great works of literature. But the first time I read Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath (The Greatest Book Ever Written) I could have turned to the last few pages to find out everything that happens to the Joad family. That's not the case with sports.
Sports is the greatest theater in human existence because no one knows how it's going to end. Often before a game between a horrible team and one that's great, it's a safe bet that the great team will win easily. But last season the Arizona Cardinals beat the Patriots in New England. The Patriots had never lost an opening game in Gillette stadium and I counted on that fact so much that I got my ass booted from my betting pool in Week 2 of the 2012 NFL season. You have to watch from the beginning and go through the ups and downs. Watching sports is a very exciting, in the moment experience. Or maybe you could watch Oedipus Rex already knowing well in advance that Oedipus is nailing his mom (sorry about the spoiler but I'm pretty sure none of you is about to run out to investigate the works of Sophocles).
As for NFL, MLB, NBA, etc. players all being millionaires, that's a myth. The vast majority of players last 2-4 years, make a few hundred grand a year and then disappear from the pro sports scene forever. And almost all of them, regardless of status work their asses off to stay employed as athletes. It fails to work out for most of them.
3. Sports is a waste of time. How does the world benefit from it?
Or how about this: why not just admit that when you were a kid you sucked at sports and probably got picked on by someone more athletic than you? You resented the popularity that came with being a good athlete and girls didn't like you.
I probably sound like the smart-ass douchebag who lettered in two sports and dated a hot cheerleader. Nah. I was good at sports when I was a kid but when high school came I got this crazy idea that girls liked rebellious musicians; so I went that route. Really bad decision...
Anyway, at some point you have to accept that you can't be good at everything. Hell, many of are lucky if we're especially good at any one thing. The point is that you shouldn't hate sports because some jocks had a better adolescence than you or that you got picked on by them. Everyone gets picked on. I had an asshole older brother who made every waking hour at home an exercise in taking shit from someone you couldn't do anything about. Do I still hate him because he picked on me? Of course not. I hate him for many other reasons, none that have to do with him pinning me to the floor and slowly dropping a stink-breath loogy on my cheek when I was eight.
How does sports benefit the world? Well, my first thought is, who cares? I could come up with some psychological horse crap about how sports allows people to vent blood lust and be part of a tribe. But it's more simple than that: it's fun. There you go. Having fun benefits the human condition and therefore the world.
So if you don't rain nerd downers on my sports threads, I won't kick sand in the face of your Star Trek or comic book threads.
Thanks for reading.
At any rate, several people posted their predictions, most of whom used the word "we" when referring to their favorite team, as in, "If the Falcons can shore up the D and find a solid replacement for Tony Gonzalez, I think we can win a lot of games."
The thread was then overran by guys whose most vigorous acts of reproduction are accompanied only by the Lieutenant Uhura poster tacked to the ceiling above their beds.
By some sort of list here are their complaints about sports fans and sports in general. This obviously isn't limited to the people on the forum I referred to; you've run across them many times in your life.
1. "You're not on the team, you have no vested interest, and you probably never played professional sports in your life. It's stupid that you say "we."
True enough: I'm not on the team, I have no money invested, and I never played pro sports. But here's the deal: I started rooting for the Oakland Raiders some three and a half decades ago. Back then, John Madden was the coach, Kenny Stabler was the quarterback. John Madden is now a sportscaster and Kenny Stabler's liver filed an irreconcilable differences petition against him several years after he left Oakland. The point is that neither are with the team anymore. But you know who's still here? Me. Me and millions of other fans who watch no matter how dismal the chances are and how disgraced we are among our rival NFL fans. To call them peers only adds to the weirdness of sports-fandom and frankly the idea that I have anything in common with Kansas City Chiefs fans only reinforces my confidence in a black oblivion once my heart stops beating.
Fans buy tickets, buy merchandise, fill the stadiums. We watch the games on TV and enough of us buy the shit that the sponsors are hawking during the 5,000 fucking commercials that happen during each game so that the owners of the teams can pay players to show up and destroy their bodies every Sunday. The NFL and other sports leagues around the world survive because of TV revenues. If somehow the world's sports fans got together and decided to not buy a single thing on any TV commercial shown during any sports broadcast, professional athletics would cease to exist as we know them.
Players, coaches, and even owners come and go. The fans never leave. Without us sports doesn't exist. It would be stupid if we didn't say "we."
2. It's pathetic that you're watching a bunch of overpaid, thick headed jocks getting paid millions to play a stupid game.
This is where the bitterness about being an uncoordinated spazz begins to really show itself. But for the moment I'll take the high road. My college major was English. I've seen and read enough Shakespeare to truly hate him. Wanna know why Shakespeare's plays are boring and no one cares about them? It's because we know how they end. For hundreds of years we've known it. And if you pick any other classical theatrical work, any movie, any book you know that the ending is predetermined. It's already been written. You can turn to the last page or fast forward to the end if you want. That said, I love books, I love reading and I love the great works of literature. But the first time I read Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath (The Greatest Book Ever Written) I could have turned to the last few pages to find out everything that happens to the Joad family. That's not the case with sports.
Sports is the greatest theater in human existence because no one knows how it's going to end. Often before a game between a horrible team and one that's great, it's a safe bet that the great team will win easily. But last season the Arizona Cardinals beat the Patriots in New England. The Patriots had never lost an opening game in Gillette stadium and I counted on that fact so much that I got my ass booted from my betting pool in Week 2 of the 2012 NFL season. You have to watch from the beginning and go through the ups and downs. Watching sports is a very exciting, in the moment experience. Or maybe you could watch Oedipus Rex already knowing well in advance that Oedipus is nailing his mom (sorry about the spoiler but I'm pretty sure none of you is about to run out to investigate the works of Sophocles).
As for NFL, MLB, NBA, etc. players all being millionaires, that's a myth. The vast majority of players last 2-4 years, make a few hundred grand a year and then disappear from the pro sports scene forever. And almost all of them, regardless of status work their asses off to stay employed as athletes. It fails to work out for most of them.
3. Sports is a waste of time. How does the world benefit from it?
Or how about this: why not just admit that when you were a kid you sucked at sports and probably got picked on by someone more athletic than you? You resented the popularity that came with being a good athlete and girls didn't like you.
I probably sound like the smart-ass douchebag who lettered in two sports and dated a hot cheerleader. Nah. I was good at sports when I was a kid but when high school came I got this crazy idea that girls liked rebellious musicians; so I went that route. Really bad decision...
Anyway, at some point you have to accept that you can't be good at everything. Hell, many of are lucky if we're especially good at any one thing. The point is that you shouldn't hate sports because some jocks had a better adolescence than you or that you got picked on by them. Everyone gets picked on. I had an asshole older brother who made every waking hour at home an exercise in taking shit from someone you couldn't do anything about. Do I still hate him because he picked on me? Of course not. I hate him for many other reasons, none that have to do with him pinning me to the floor and slowly dropping a stink-breath loogy on my cheek when I was eight.
How does sports benefit the world? Well, my first thought is, who cares? I could come up with some psychological horse crap about how sports allows people to vent blood lust and be part of a tribe. But it's more simple than that: it's fun. There you go. Having fun benefits the human condition and therefore the world.
So if you don't rain nerd downers on my sports threads, I won't kick sand in the face of your Star Trek or comic book threads.
Thanks for reading.
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