Donkey Post Game thoughts

Crossbones

Crossbones

Sell the fucking team!
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Have at it...I'm sidck of looking at that game day thread. :mad:

We got issues.
 
Rupert said:
What I found absolutely silly was that the first half was creative and well-mixed. Then in the second half, we went back to what didn't work in previous games. No rhythm, no creativity, etc.

We got stuck in the rut of, we're up, it works, no need to change it. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Denver wasn't going to change. Suuuuuuuuuuuuuure.

It's funny. We can plan a good half of football (great considering our level of talent), but we can't anticipate the changes to our game before hand so we can have one or two adjustments coming out at the half. Ummmmmm, helllllooooooo. It's sooooooooo simple. Prepare reactions to likely defensive adjustments. In the first series, use the adjustments to the opponent's most likely adjustments. In the second series, your second set of adjustments. In the third series, you can probably go back to your original game plan and rotate your adjustments from there on out. At that point, it's a guessing game on the defensive coordinator's part. Stay one step ahead.

I can't believe how different those halves looked. Two different teams.
Click to expand...
Amen to all of that.

So who's that on?
 
Speaking of adjustments, I guess the only real knock against the defense was lack of adhustment to Denver eating us alive with the TE not only allowed points, but they allowed Denver to really chew up PT.

Still, you can't fault the D on the whole. This unit, along with Special Teams are absolutely doing Raider Nation proud.

Art has been a good friend to Walsh over the years. Walsh should show that he's a good friend as well and "Step down". I guess I'm late to the party, but Walsh does need to go IMO. Change for change's sake alone is better than staying with him. Not sure how much a different OC could change things at this point, but it would certainly generate some short term excitement. This Offense has nothing.

While we're at it, find a way to suspend Randy Moss. I'd bet he'd fail a Mary Jane test right about now, perhaps the league should "randomly" test him. His attitude is just for shit.

Walter should also take a seat for at least one game. At least. He's regressing IMO and seems a bit shell shocked. Let him hold a clipboard for a spell. Besides, I'd like to evaluate Brooks behind the same set of shitty circumstances. Maybe, just maybe the offense would be more productive? In fairness to Brooks, he only played about 4 qtrs of football. Walter has essentially played this entire season.
 
One would think the OC, DC, and head coach. Notice, the Rat didn't break out his offensive adjustments until late in the 3rd quarter. By then we'd gotten complacent, or stuck in our own defensive rut. Bam, we were walking backwards. Their defense took it up a notch, and we were going backwards offensively too.

If that was a demonstration of anything, it was that we just aren't on the same talent level, yet. Defensively, I think we can get there. Offensively, I think we need a couple linemen, and another year of experience under Walter's belt. I think our current RB's could get more done behind a better line (not that I'd turn down a franchise back in the draft).

As far as the OC goes. I don't know man. He's shown me enough creativity, but I just don't understand the lack of effective adjustments. If he can put together a 1st half like he did today, why the hell can't he put together a 2nd half?

The 1st half demonstrated he can adjust to a team he's already played. Great! Now demonstrate you can make adjustments to a team you're playing. Just one more thing pal, one more thing and you're there. of course he also has to demonstrate he can continue to grow the amount of the playbook we bring to a game. It already looks larger than when Walter first got under center, but it needs to get bigger, or there won't be anything in it for the 2nd half. Maybe that was today's problem.
 
This game really hasn't revealed anything we haven't really already seen in the first half of the season.

The Good...

- Defense... I was one of the most outspoken guys against Rob Ryan when he first came on board, but he has definitely proven me wrong. Bottom line, he's taken the worst defense in football and in 3 years turned it around into one of the premier defenses in the league. Looking towards next year, I say give him another 3 years as HC and see if he can turn around the worst organization in football. He's seen Belichick build a winner. Maybe he can do the same here.

- Special Teams... Best punter in the league. Don't see the coverage breakdowns like we've had in the past. SeaBass is inconsistent, but I'd still take him over 80% of the kickers in the league.

The Bad...

- Coaching... Watching this team get outcoached in the 2nd half of every loss has been incredible. I'm still not sure what the hell Shell does on a week to week basis. He's had absolutely no impact on the offensive line. He's obviously got no gut instinct or feel for the game on the sidelines. Yet somehow the team is still playing for him. I still say he's got to go... as does everybody that came in with him including the bed and breakfast coordinator.


- Entire Offense... There's not a whole lot left to say about this unit. On one hand, I'm not sure Dan Marino or Barry Sanders could accomplish anything in this system... so I'm not about to throw the towel in on young guys like Walter... but salary cap killers like Moss, Jordan, and eventually Gallery need to hit the road. There are a lot of areas that need to be addressed, but top of the list is rebuilding this OLine.
 
I thought we could have adjusted on Defense a little better to that bootleg dump pass. They ran it like 15 times!Other than that the D was once again impressive. And i just got a Huff jersey for my birthday.
Tom Walsh once again, made me wanna pull my hair out. We cannot convert short yardage plays. STOP PASSING ON 3RD and SHORT, OR AT LEAST PLAYFAKE. It wouldnt matter anyway b/c his run plays are so stupid. They take way to long to develop. Lamont should never be outside the tackles unless he has no other choice. When he laid out Al Wilson i was wondering why he doesnt run like that more often. Screen pass anyone, Slant? Remember Tim Brown running slants all day? Can we implement one or two into a gameplan. Just to move the chains in between our heart stopping deep threat attack. The one thing the O did do well was get the ball to the Rb's. AW had a short option to throw to when he wasnt getting pummeled. Sorry im still pissed about the game, I dont know how many fumbles the QB / Center exchange can cause in a season, but we may break the record. I was looking forward to seeing Walter run the 2 minute drill. But snapping the ball was to much of a task to even start it.
 
I used to say when Gruden was coach that the biggest difference between a good coach and a great coach is the adjustments he's able to make on the fly on Sundays... I often critisized Gru for not adjusting to what wasn't working and to the weaknesses the defenses showed... Gruden was dynamite Monday thru Saturday and a little average on Sundays IMO... Right now 'average' would be about 25 levels up from where we're currently at...

Pains me to say it, but Shanahan did a great job at halftime going to things that made our aggressiveness work against us... Lots of misdirection and bootlegs and then isolating their secondary options against our LB's and safeties in the open field...


Aside from that Godawful tackling attempt by Schweig on the Javon Walker TD, I would be very pleased with the what I saw from the defense... They provided the offense with great field position once again.... Sooner or later, Denver is going to run the naked boot with the TE or FB waggle on you with success... Too bad our offense couldn't cash in on the turnovers and field position and put Plummer in chase mode where he tends to play his worst ball... A long clock eating drive or two a game wouldn't hurt either... As good as our defense has looked, I'd sure like to see them play from a couple of scores ahead and just be allowed to get after the QB for a change....


I liked a lot of the plays we saw Walsh call in the first half, though I still have a problem with the chosen personnel groupings and to some extent, the tempo... I would love to see us go into a hurry up offense once in awhile just to see if it helps get us grooved tempo wise... Walsh may as well hit the concession stands and the head during halftime for all the adjustments he's made...

Right now I can't point to a single thing that I like from our offense and that is just sad... Not a single player performing beyond an average level and Lord knows I am not impressed with the scheme...


Shane Lechler = God


Right now our defense is good enough to back a 10 win team, our offense the expansion creamsicle looking Tampa Bay Buccaneers...

If we're going to win another game this year, it damn well better be next week at KC in front of their snaggle toothed fans...
 
I might be a little late to the party, I havn't even bothered to open the game thread, but I had two basic thoughts.

1. Throwing the ball on 3rd and 1 from the 2 yard line in the first half. Just stupid. And the throw was to Whitted, not one of our big goal-line guys. Pretty much sums up the senseless playcalling that has gone on all year.

2. I was thinking about this for a while, and I've come to the following conclusion: Andrew Walter is the worse starting quarterback in the league. I don't even think this is an arguable point. He's even a step down from Kerry Collins. Very sad. If Tuiasasopo doesn't get a start in the very near future, someone needs to check Al Davis for a pulse.
 
Jerry McDonald's blog

Walter confirms your suspicions

Posted by Jerry McDonald - NFL Writer on Sunday at 8:22 pm

OAKLAND _ It appears you guys know a little about football.

At least that’s the way it sounded when Andrew Walter took the podium after the Raiders lost 17-13 to the Denver Broncos Sunday.

Speaking in his usual monotone, Walter took the podium and was brutally honest about the offensive system which has seen him accumulate 44 sacks and get off to a staggering start to what he hopes is a successful career as an NFL quarterback.

Before getting to Walter, a few points should be made:

1) The game was there for the taking. Walter had a few chances to hit passes which could have put the game away and he didn’t do it. He acknowledged this.

2) Walter fumbled the ball away the last two times Oakland had the ball. He took the blame for that as well.

Things actually went well in the first half. Walter completed 12 of 20 passes for 135 yards, and Oakland had a 13-7 lead that could have been 17-7 had he put a little loft under a pass toward Alvis Whitted in the end zone on third-and-1 from the 2-yard line late in the half.

He completed passes to nine different receivers and had 10 intended targets.

Walter threw a 21-yard screen pass to LaMont Jordan. Colleagues in the press box tell me there have been one or two others this season, although not executed that well. I can’t remember them.

There was a 21-yard swing pass to Justin Fargas, a play which also helped put the onrushing Broncos on their heels and a seldom seen pass.

The Raiders lined up tight end John Madsen as a fullback, then sent him into the deep flat for a 25-yard gain, a bit creativity that was stunning considering what we’ve seen so far this year.

Running backs (including Madsen on his play) caught 5 passes for 76 yards in the first half after not catching more than four passes in a single game in the first half of the season.

Then it all came apart. The Raiders were shut out in the second half, Jake Plummer made a few plays, and the Broncos did enough to win even though Oakland’s defense again deserved better.

How could this suddenly contemporary looking offense fall so flat? Walter had his theories, and wasn’t afraid to share them. They are the same things much of the media, as well as fans and many of you posters below, have been saying since the day Tom Walsh was hired by Art Shell as offensive coordiantor.

Some of the highlights:

– Why the Raiders struggle in the fourth quarter: “One of the reasons is we don’t have a lot of depth as far as our playbook goes.'’

– On what happened in the second half: “When you go through and exhaust all your plays like those quick hitters, you call them all and the second time around they make their adjustments. Obviously, that’s the way it’s been a lot this year.'’

– On the lack of a “bread and butter'’ reliable play to go to: “Earlier in the season, it was sort of our running game. I think we’ve gotten away from that the last couple of games a little bit. But bread and butter? I can’t say that we do.'’

– The lack of use of wide receiver Ronald Curry: “He only comes in when we use three wide receivers. Any time we can get him on the field, I think he’s a playmaker and we can utilize him. I certainly like the way he runs routes, the way he sees things. I like to get the ball to him, and if we can get him out there more, I think it would be helpful for us.'’

The inability to audibilize to a good play: “We have our chance to work on it during the week, but it’s hard to audible to a play you haven’t run or that we don’t have in the game plan. You kind of keep with what you have. You can’t audible to a particular play you might have run back in camp, or that you don’t have in. You have your plays and you have your audibles, and you really can’t audible to one of your plays because there’s not enough time at the line of scrimmage and you basically end up verbalizing what you’re going to do at the line of scrimmage anyway.'’

–On how Walter’s ideas are received in meetings with Walsh about his preferences: “Some acceptance, some rejection. I would like there to be, I say it quite often, more quick stuff, more swing routes, flat routes, short stuff. You can’t keep taking five steps and seven steps. We didn’t do a lot of seven-step (today), but you can’t keep doing that. We have to move the pocket. We did a little bit and had success with it and we should have more of that stuff. Again, I have to play better, but there are certain things I like to see as well.'’

When asked directly if the offense was too predictable, Walter said, “I think that would be a true statement. Absolutely.'’

Additonal observations from Sunday’s loss:

– By the letter of the law, Chris Carr conceded he probably deserved the “unsportsmanlike conduct'’ penalty for not returning to the field immediately following a Shane Lechler punt.’

Stuart Schweigert had recovered a Kevin Kircus fumble at the 20, with Kirk Morrison forcing the fumble. It came back because Carr, forced out of bounds by Curome Cox and Dominique Foxworth, didn’t get back on the field fast enough, although he did return to the field.

It was a huge call. Instead of Oakland ball at the 20, Denver took over at the 40 after Lechler punted again and drove 60 yards for a score. The Raiders were envisioning a 20-7 lead at best or 16-7 at worst and then they were down 14-13.

I agree with Jarrod Cooper’s assessment of it being a “very, very, very ticky-tack call.'’

– Randy Moss . . . one catch, eight yards. He dropped another one, although it was a low pass and it wasn’t a big deal because it wasn’t going anywhere. Moss was the target of just five passes. Walter threw eight times to Randal Williams and seven times to Alvis Whitted.

Williams had five catches for 61 yards after never catching more than three balls in a single game in his six-year career.

Jerry Porter was a non-factor. Couldn’t have been on the field for more than four plays and had zero passes thrown his way.

– Warren Sapp, who had two more sacks, looks as if he’s getting younger every week. He has six sacks, his most since since 2002.

– Have no idea what Shell was thinking when he challenged a play in which Fabian Washington appeared to have intercepted a Plummer pass only to have it ruled incomplete on a third-and-7 play from the Oakland 45.

The Broncos were punting anyway. The Raiders weren’t getting great field position even if the call was reversed. Officials upheld the call, and the Raiders lost their last time out with 4:10 to play.

– P Shane Lechler placed a pair of punts at the Denver 2-yard line and had a third which barely touched the goal line for a touchback.

– Ever heard of the “hot back'’ theory?'’ Zack Crockett was the ony runner to get anything done, rushing for 37 yards on five carries in the first half, and he carried only twice in the second half for 3 yards.

LaMont Jordan had 12 yards on 10 carries. Justin Fargas lost 6 yards on 8 tries. That’s 6 yards net yards on 18 carries from your feature backs.

– You wonder why the Raiders didn’t close the game out in the shotgun they’ve been using the last two weeks. Perhaps it was because Adam Treu was in the game after Jake Grove injured an elbow, and Grove has been making those short snaps. Treu is Oakland’s long-snapper.

Whatever the reason, a Treu-Walter exchange wound up on the ground and was lost.

– Somebody give the CBS broadcast team a clue. There was 9:49 left in the first half by the time play-by-play man Ian Eagle noticed Adam Meadows was starting at right tackle in place of George Foster. If Meadows hadn’t been called for a false start on a third-and-6 play, they might have never known.

It’s not all Eagle’s fault. Someone is supposed to be talking in his earpiece.


http://www.ibabuzz.com/raidersblog/
 
One thing I've noticed is that the offense plays alot better at home...

Relativley speaking of course :(
 
Here are some interesting one - liners from some of the other guys (I'd post a link, but they are from several different articles)...

Art Shell
"I don't know if we're close to finding an answer or not," Raiders coach Art Shell said. "I don't know what the problem is." :rolleyes:


Referee Bill Levy
"You have to make a 'good faith' attempt to make every effort to come back 'immediately,' " Levy said. "He did not."


Carr
"It's difficult to work your way back in when they never give you a chance," Carr said. "If they said I was out of bounds too long, maybe I was. But we had other opportunities to win the game."


Nnamdi
"It's real hard, you can't even lie about it," Asomugha said about all that defense going for nothing. "It's tough to make plays and three plays later you're out there again. It's tough. You're human."


Sapp
"We put ourselves in position all day long to get some points," defensive tackle Warren Sapp said after a two-sack day. "Seventeen (points allowed) should be enough. Shoot ... we didn't even get an offensive play off."
 
That is pretty strong stuff from Walter, without going over the top. Is it enough to get Brooks back under center?

Like everybody else I was pleased with what I saw in the first half. The second half was just back to square one.
 
Limee said:
That is pretty strong stuff from Walter, without going over the top. Is it enough to get Brooks back under center?

Like everybody else I was pleased with what I saw in the first half. The second half was just back to square one.
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I'm thinking it is

I was just as excited about our new toy as anyone here, but lets face it..Andrew Walter is a below averaqge QB (right now)

That dude missed wide open WR's and RB's

Yes, me, the great Nippled One coulda hit a couple of those dump offs...and thats with a beer in my hand..

Some of those throws were just awful

I'ts become quite clear to me that Andrew Walter is a big reason why this offense struggles

1) He has a very bad short easy throw...really now.. how do fuck those up?..It was'nt one or two.. there were alot

2) His deep ball is average.. at times very bad

3) He doe'snt know when to get rid of the ball

This team took a big hit when Brooks went down

I b elieve we could have at least won one of these Broncos games and a couple more with him in there

Sit Walter... he's not ready... maybe in a couple of years

Go with Brooks for 2 more years and draft a badass RB and move Gallery back to RT

Anyone think this OL looked pretty good?

I did, enough to win the game

Walter had alot of time to make plays and came up short
 
Hard to point the finger at anyone otherthan the coaching staff here. Every week, we see more and more proof that we actually managed to bring in a worse group than than what we had a year ago. I never would have dreamed it possible.
 
Really not a lot more to say other than the fact that this was probably the best effort by the OL this season. Wholesale changes are painfully evident. I thought Corey Hulsey had a decent game and for the most part so did Chad Slaughter.

I really questioned the play calling on the 3rd and 1 on the Denver 2. You have two shots to get a first and most likely a TD and you let your erratic qb throw the ball then give the Broncos time to come back and attempt a FG. We score a TD there and win the game. We have to capitalize on our limited amount of scoring opportunities with this offense. I think Walter's comments pretty much nailed it as we had nothing in the second half.

Another solid job by the defense save for the one td grab by Javon Walker. We totally shut down their potent running game and if our offense would have been up to the task, we win this one.
 
Madturk said:
this was probably the best effort by the OL this season.
Click to expand...
I thought so especially the pass blocking. We even managed to pick up a blitz or 2 and make them pay for it.

I really don't know what to think of Walter at this stage. I like the fact that he is prepared to stand in there and to try to make the play. There were times when he could have got the ball out quicker and throws he should have made ,but didn't. There were some drops, but less than there have been in recent weeks. The line blocking was better this week, but there was no running game to help him out. I guess the grade is still incomplete at this stage.
 
Limee said:
I really don't know what to think of Walter at this stage. I like the fact that he is prepared to stand in there and to try to make the play. There were times when he could have got the ball out quicker and throws he should have made ,but didn't. There were some drops, but less than there have been in recent weeks. The line blocking was better this week, but there was no running game to help him out. I guess the grade is still incomplete at this stage.
Click to expand...

At times he looks like a poised veteran making clutch throws on third and long but he seems to have a problem with the soft touch pass and some bad decision making at times which I attribute to his inexperience. In his defense, he doesn't have a lot of options to work with. Our running attack has been anemic to say the least, and our TE play is inconsistent at best. I really think we should pull the trigger on Adrian Peterson or Marshawn Lynch to fill the feature back void and look to a veteran FA TE like Eric Johnson to handle the pass catching duties.
 
BTW, Al Wilson got jacked by LJ, wonder if he makes the highlight reel tonight.
 
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