Sports Thread #1- How Do The Raiders Show Up On Sunday?
(by James Eddy)
Congratulations go out to the Oakland Raiders. They managed to make it through the whole game with the Denver Broncos yesterday. Unfortunately I was not able to do the same.
I succumbed to sleep mid way through the 4th quarter right as the Raiders scored the first of their two meaningless touchdowns of the night, though it seemed that most of the Raiders roster had joined me at that time.
That night that was heralded as the “coming out party” of the Oakland Raiders seemed full of promise, prompting ESPN to make the Denver Broncos vs. the Oakland Raiders the second game of their opening week Monday Night Football doubleheader. By halftime the most compelling story of the night was how Jay Cutler had triumphantly managed his diabetes and the coming out party of Broncos rookie Eddie Royal, who currently leads the league in receiving yards. It was truly one of the worse opening day performances ever seen from the Raiders.
The night hadn’t begun all that bad. The Broncos were first to receive and drove the ball straight threw the Raiders defense for a touchdown. This was a little of a surprise in that the defense of the silver and black was supposed to be much improved with key off-season acquisitions like corner DeAngelo Hall and safety Gibril Wilson. The Raiders seemed poised to answer the score, when the Broncos kick-off was returned all the way back to their 35 yard line. Oakland showed off their newly implemented zone running game and carried the ball for 18 yards, to get the ball down to the Broncos 17 yard line. On JaMarcus Russell’s second throw attempt of the season, the highly talented yet under experienced quarterback fumble the drive (and the game) away.
The fumble was the beginning of the end. The Raiders defense made the Broncos offense (minus their big play receiver Brandon Marshall) look like the second coming of the John Elway championship Broncos. Eddie Royal burned the self proclaimed best corner in the league Hall on a number of occasions. The Raiders often missed key open field tackles, and were in wrong coverages that the Broncos exploited all night long. The Raiders were such a debacle that announcers Mike Greenberg, Mike Golic, and Mike Ditka were saying “wow” and “oh no” to how awful some of the play was. There was a point during the game when Ditka said, “It can not get any worse than this”.
Where do the Raiders go from here? Oakland clearly looked like the worse team who played football this week (including college). Their defense is a mess, and have no clue what coverage to be in. Their offense,though very talented, is very young, and their offense line is still in shambles. What can they fix to give owner Al Davis the success he is dying to have? With there being turmoil in the Raiders organization with Al Davis wanting young coach Lane Kiffin to resign, and Kiffin wanting to fire his defensive coordinator (who Davis wants to keep), what can the Raiders salvage from this situation? Well it is only week 1 and the Raiders can show improvement next week against a youthful Kansas City team, but the Raiders have a series of long term issues that need to be addressed.
Denver Broncos wide receiver Darrell Jackson (82) celebrates with teammate Peyton Hillis (22) after Jackson's 48-yard reception against the Oakland Raiders during the third quarter of an NFL football game in Oakland, Calif., Monday, Sept. 8, 2008. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Congratulations go out to the Oakland Raiders. They managed to make it through the whole game with the Denver Broncos yesterday. Unfortunately I was not able to do the same.
I succumbed to sleep mid way through the 4th quarter right as the Raiders scored the first of their two meaningless touchdowns of the night, though it seemed that most of the Raiders roster had joined me at that time.
That night that was heralded as the “coming out party” of the Oakland Raiders seemed full of promise, prompting ESPN to make the Denver Broncos vs. the Oakland Raiders the second game of their opening week Monday Night Football doubleheader. By halftime the most compelling story of the night was how Jay Cutler had triumphantly managed his diabetes and the coming out party of Broncos rookie Eddie Royal, who currently leads the league in receiving yards. It was truly one of the worse opening day performances ever seen from the Raiders.
The night hadn’t begun all that bad. The Broncos were first to receive and drove the ball straight threw the Raiders defense for a touchdown. This was a little of a surprise in that the defense of the silver and black was supposed to be much improved with key off-season acquisitions like corner DeAngelo Hall and safety Gibril Wilson. The Raiders seemed poised to answer the score, when the Broncos kick-off was returned all the way back to their 35 yard line. Oakland showed off their newly implemented zone running game and carried the ball for 18 yards, to get the ball down to the Broncos 17 yard line. On JaMarcus Russell’s second throw attempt of the season, the highly talented yet under experienced quarterback fumble the drive (and the game) away.
The fumble was the beginning of the end. The Raiders defense made the Broncos offense (minus their big play receiver Brandon Marshall) look like the second coming of the John Elway championship Broncos. Eddie Royal burned the self proclaimed best corner in the league Hall on a number of occasions. The Raiders often missed key open field tackles, and were in wrong coverages that the Broncos exploited all night long. The Raiders were such a debacle that announcers Mike Greenberg, Mike Golic, and Mike Ditka were saying “wow” and “oh no” to how awful some of the play was. There was a point during the game when Ditka said, “It can not get any worse than this”.
Where do the Raiders go from here? Oakland clearly looked like the worse team who played football this week (including college). Their defense is a mess, and have no clue what coverage to be in. Their offense,though very talented, is very young, and their offense line is still in shambles. What can they fix to give owner Al Davis the success he is dying to have? With there being turmoil in the Raiders organization with Al Davis wanting young coach Lane Kiffin to resign, and Kiffin wanting to fire his defensive coordinator (who Davis wants to keep), what can the Raiders salvage from this situation? Well it is only week 1 and the Raiders can show improvement next week against a youthful Kansas City team, but the Raiders have a series of long term issues that need to be addressed.
Comments
The talent of this team is evident. but when you have a young coach that is stubborn and wants to be a taskmaster, and try to be like Jon Gruden when he can't, then obviously, then that just can't work unless the players are leaders themselves.
And frankly, with an inexperienced backfield like Russell and McFadden, well, that doesn't help matters either.
Ill job fam, you dropped heat on this.