Post Game thoughts? -- The Morning after the Night Before

[Crossbones]

Sound off Raider Nation.

What's on your mind about the Denver game?

 

[donovan]

A number of things are on my mind, but I echo HB's sentiment that the most pressing, immediate thing at this moment is that we really should be trading some people.

 

[Turo]

Cut everyone that dropped a pass tonight, for starters. Jesus H.. is it really too much to ask? A little bit of effort? Do your job? You know.. the ONLY JOB YOU HAVE?

Sigh.

Moss was a total half-speed fuckoff tonight. I really hope we trade his ass, because I could give two shits about a primadona WR that won't fight for the ball. Fuck him.

 

[YodasBeast]

Trade Moss and Porter for day 1 picks or starters such as Davis of the Cards. As much as I like Sapp and what he's been doing for us and playing well this year, send him off to Indy if they're interested in him. He's on the downside of his career and it will allow us to get the young guys in there and see if we need to pick up any other positions in the offseason.

I didn't get to see the whole game since my nephew's 17th Bday party was over here and had to keep taking care of everybody, as well as some of the cooking and chasing my kids around, but from what I did see the Defense was respectable, but still needs a run plugger and a true SS that can dominate to allow Huff to play FS. Offense was looking better until Walker got injured. Slaughter couldn't keep it together to save his life. Walter looked good, Jordan looked average to below average and C Anderson was decent. Moss was half assed and Walsh needs to be relieved of play-calling duties as he ran on every 1st down and could adjust at all.

 

[007]

I'll post more tomorrow, but here goes the first round of thoughts:

1) We are a flat out bad team all across the board...No suprises here.

A couple bright spots other than the usual (Lechler)

a) Sands was great again today, and although he got the stupid personal foul, I loved that slam especially in a Raider vs. Bronco game, haha.

b) Routt was solid again tonight, and looks like he has a future on the outside with Fabs and Aso...

c) Although the stats say otherwise, I thought the LB's were poor tonight,with Rob Thomas being the best one overall (Howard was fast, but out of control, and Morrison was pretty mediocre). Sam had a nice lick on Bell, but that was it.

d) Moss had some nice catches, and if some coach out there could get a consistent 100% effort each game...He's the best.

e) Walter was good enough to win, and is better than Brooks. To be honest, I still like Brady Quinn a lot more, even though I know that we have too many holes to go QB first overall.

The bad:

Chad Slaughter (Blocking was actually good, but 4 FS?) Dumb ass.
Grove was bullied inside all night
Huff hasnt made 1 play this year, and Schweig is a back up on 30 other teams in the league...

I thought Boothe was solid, and Gallery was solid other than getting punked on the Chukwurah sack.

Our defense overall was very good stat wise, and is definitely good enough to compete week in and week out. The offense however...

 

[Turo]

The only time I remember seeing Routt tonight was when he was falling on his ass, untouched, after getting juked hard.

As for the rest of the game..

Despite the 8-9 false start penalties and 3-5 dropped passes, we were legitimately only 2-3 plays away from winning or tying the game tonight against what many consider to be a superbowl contender. If Moss isn't a total pussy on the endzone pass, and if Moss actually runs his route correctly on the 1yard line out pattern.. there's 10-14 points right there. Tack on the missed FG (and remove the resulting field position for the Broncos) and you've added three more, and probably removed four from their side.

 

[hawaiianboy]

A number of things are on my mind, but I echo HB's sentiment that the most pressing, immediate thing at this moment is that we really should be trading some people.

Yeah... An extra 2nd or 3rd for Moss and a couple of day 2 selections for Sapp and Porter would be helpful come draft day...

If we decide we that Jordan isn't a long term want, we could use an extra 3rd rounder to snag Michael Turner, providing San Diego doesn't put a 1st round tender on him.... Personally, I'd be surprised if they dedicated that much loot to the RB spot....




WR

I've about had my fill of the diva WR that has become the staple of the NFL the past few years... They've become the Paris Hilton of the NFL, attention whores that are useless unless you're scoring with them... As good as Calvin Johnson looks, I'd rather pick up a grinder type WR and use that 1st elsewhere... I'm a well known fan of Joe Jurivicious, but since he's not a FA, I'd settle for a FA like Drew Bennett... Move Madsen to WR fulltime, and between Bennett, Madsen, Curry and Morant we can make do... We need a blocking TE, and as Crow has mentioned, Daniel Graham would be ideal....


O-Line

Today just highlighted how bad we need a RT.... I'd like to see how McQuistan looks there... If McQ shows some promise, then we can look for a LG instead... A guy like Leonard Davis as a FA or a Justin Blaylock in the draft makes sense since either are capable of playing both RT and OG...


The one bright spot of the season so far is seeing which players show up every week... So far everyone one the defense is going hard... Despite his limitations, Tyler Brayton goes nonstop on every play... Too bad we're not able to use him as more of a base end where his lack of pass rush ability wouldn't be a liability....

I hate to say this, but we actually have the personnel that may better fit a 34 now... We ran some today with success, and playing Terd at the point with Brayton and Kelly at the ends may be an option next year... Play Sam inside with Morrison and Burgess and Howard as rush ends...

We may also want to give thought of playing Bing as a John Lynch/Rodney Harrison in the box type of SS....

Of course, we should be working on extending Terdell Sands now.... At the end of the year we'll have competition... I'd hate to lose another guy we've actually developed into a player...


As it stands now, I'd throw my support to drafting Alan Branch... The way he's looked on a week to week basis since the middle of last year, he'll be a top 5 guy by the time the draft rolls around providing he declares... He reminds me of DRuss with a non stop motor and without the baggage.... I officially have a mancrush on him and he looks to be this years Marcus McNeil for me....


As for the Denver game, I'm happy with the effort the defense put forth... We lost contain on a couple of bootlegs that hurt us and missed a few tackles here and there that hurt, but I don't see any quit out there which is encouraging for the future...

Offensively, the breakdowns at RT were painful to watch... as was the blocking of both Crockett and Lamont... Boothe played another solid game...

This game was a summary of our season.... Defense plays well enough to win, not enough high percentage pass plays were called to help AW along and the guys who were supposed to be our rainmakers (Moss, Jordan) had subpar games... I do think we could be doing alot more with our playcalls to help AW succeed.... Some quickslants, some screens, more shortouts and WR smash screens on run downs... We're not exactly doing a great job of keeping the defense off balance there.... In the 4th quarter, we regressed into the same slow tempo from playcall to snap that we had seen in the first three games.... AW throws a nice ball and I like that his eyes are always focused down the field.... Champ totally baited him into that pick at the one by showing him an early inside zone look, but stuff like that is somewhat expected out of a first year starter...


I'm actually seeing alot of positives from our down the road young guys... If Art can build on that, get rid of the distractions on our roster and cut the penalties down as the year progresses, I'll feel good about the direction we're heading... Take a page from the Belichick rebuild blueprint and build a core group of young guys, install discipline and make smart draft and FA decisions...

IMO, the Raiders organization would be doing themselves a favor if they came out and stated that this was year 1 in a rebuild plan, a year dedicated to analyzing the roster and bringing back discipline....

 

[hawaiianboy]

Could someone who Tivo'd this do me a solid....

Following that Bailey pick, that sideline broad made it seem like Moss said "F*** Andrew" in an "F*** You Andrew" derogatory tone, my friend is saying it sounded more like "F*** Andrew" in a "Come on Andrew, you should have seen that" frustrated tone...

I didn't hear it at all personally...

 

[Turo]

2nd take is more accurate, IMO.

 

[jatfly]

O-Line

Today just highlighted how bad we need a RT.... HB post

WOW Walker is a complete bum.....I want to see them trade one of the crying WR's to anyone for a line man of any type.........these young guys we have aren't ready.

 

[Rupert]

Except for one glaring protection gaffe, Slaughter blocked pretty damned well. Of course, he false started 5 or 6 times. That's not something he was known for in the past, but I'd like to see him get the start next Sunday.

Routt played very well, but had 2 or 3 notable problems in the open field. And let's not forget the personal foul for trying to punch a WR in the face. If you're going to do the time, you might as well do the crime. Of course, if he'd have really done the crime, he'd have been ejected, right?

 

[Seraph24]

My thoughts.

Blast on walker all you please. But he was playing fairly decent before getting hurt. Slaughter was really bad. Yea he did ok a couple times. but he whiffed, missed assignments, and false started us to the grave. making a couple pass blocks can't offset that for me.


Moss? I understand some people's take on him. But I thought he ran all his routes fairly well and was the only guy(not even curry was catching easy stuff) that caught every catchable pass. He showed alot of heart tonight IMO and maybe that talk with howie got his head right. who knows for sure? But I can't be mad at Moss at all. He went in middle, out, and everywhere we told him. That Int was probally Walter's fault as I see he still has trouble with the timing routes. but on that play the ball sailed on him way too far for moss to catch it(lol@madden saying bailey ran the route, more like Walter threw it to him moere than randy).


Whitted and curry had spme costly drops and its become too annoying to see drops for me. My mood is buy a cheap possession WR vet (like jerevicius), then keep moss and curry. Of course I dont see how the cap ramifications are better if we throw Moss in with Porter, sounds like we are eating even more money. whatever the case I thought Moss stepped up as a leader last night. I thought sapp did not though.


our special teams coach and our OC both have nothing to offer us. They both should vanish back to where they came.

Now my last thing will be hard to figure out who to put it on, but i'm putting it on ryan for now. What on earth does it take to put the right guys on the field in the right spots? Asomugha matches up well with rod smith, so we put him on javon walker? Terdell sands is a pretty good nose tackle for us(looks alot like shaun rogers when hen he's at his best), yet tommy kelly gets his spot. just all the way around fustrating watching the assignments out there. If we don't play huff so close to the line of scrimmage and put standford routt on walker, we might not even give up a td to denver.

We are a better team than the final score and i'm not too pleased with the little failures that kept stopping us from winning this. False starts, holding, drops, int's, fumbles, and pitiful pass blocking all coming at the worst possible times.

 

[Seraph24]

Except for one glaring protection gaffe, Slaughter blocked pretty damned well. Of course, he false started 5 or 6 times. That's not something he was known for in the past, but I'd like to see him get the start next Sunday.

well we are in disagreement. He missed assignments a few times and got caved when we were at the 16 leading to two sacks that pushed us back to the 30.

But i'll look at the dvr and double check my opinion of his performance. right now though i am not pleased.

 

[Rupert]

I'll await your recheck.

 

[Seraph24]

I'll await your recheck.

so far its like i've said, good a couple times (better on the run), then bad on others, he did have some good moments. but his bad ones really hurt us. his inside blocking was good.. he was average overall (if you dont count the false starts). but so was walker with much less false starts.. i'll rescind my anger on his blocking but not on his false starts. mcknugget was worse than anyone..


other thing, that pass was walter's fault. he threw it too early and far on that out route. otherwise moss was the only WR worth a damn last night. when announcers say things, it tends to get into peoples heads. but even madden in spite of his bad comment about bailey running the route better said that it was a bad pass and decision by walter.


boothe is truly the shiznit though. we need more like him.

 

[Madturk]

WR

I've about had my fill of the diva WR that has become the staple of the NFL the past few years... They've become the Paris Hilton of the NFL, attention whores that are useless unless you're scoring with them... As good as Calvin Johnson looks, I'd rather pick up a grinder type WR and use that 1st elsewhere... I'm a well known fan of Joe Jurivicious, but since he's not a FA, I'd settle for a FA like Drew Bennett... Move Madsen to WR fulltime, and between Bennett, Madsen, Curry and Morant we can make do... We need a blocking TE, and as Crow has mentioned, Daniel Graham would be ideal....

Couldn't agree with you more HB. Until Al realizes that track stars and athletes at the skill positions don't necessarily equate to success the better our chances are of moving ahead. I'd be all for bringing in a Drew Bennett. Solid reliable receiver and he won't break the bank. I love the Smarjia kid from ND. Built in the same mold as Jurevicius and Bennett. Big and tall with great hands. Unfortunately it looks like he's more interested in baseball at this time.

In addition to a blocking TE, we really need a blocking FB. Crockett just plain blows. I saw at least several whiffs last night where he was just standing there with his finger up his arse.

All in all, I thought our defense played fairly solid. Aside from the one big play to Javon Walker, the rest of the evening was fairly uneventful. Saw Schweig whiff on several tackles once again. The guy should not be a starting FS in this league. I'd be inclined to give Jarrod Cooper the SS job for now and move Huff to FS where he can make some plays.

If this team is comitting to the re-building process, then Shell must let Walter finish out the rest of the season. Let him take his lumps. I don't see any reason to start Brooks at this point.

 

[jatfly]

Well my beef with Moss is the simple fact that he seems to be dogging it!
The pass in the end zone that he was covered and it went incomplete. HE COULD HAVE CAUGHT. Watch that play it looks like he was more worried about the HIT then catching it.....He didn't fully extend his arms.....
Also then the pick in the corner. It seemed like he saw it was a little overthrown and instead of trying to fight for it or at least play some defence on the play.

 

[Turo]

edit: holy simultaneous post, Jatfly!

other thing, that pass was walter's fault.

Totally disagree. Moss rounded off that route and half-assed it out of the break. If he runs the route at full speed with actual intensity and effort, he's right there in FRONT of Bailey for the catch. That is, after all, the entire purpose of the deep out. Push the CB back, cut in front of them and wall them off for the catch. But, Moss was caught dogging it (he probably wasn't the primary on that particular play) and that was that. Remember, Walter has to read the play before Moss even makes his cut. He may have even assumed our #1 WR would be where he was suppoesd to be (right at the sideline, where the pass was thrown).

And in the endzone earlier in the game, all he had to do was put his goddamned hands up and catch the ball from over the top of Lynch who wasn't barreling down on Moss at all, just jumping next to him. I mean, what the fuck? Moss is supposed to be the best deep-ball WR in the nfl? He looked like a total pansy last night.. and what the FUCK was all the running backwards shit about?

Don't even get me started on the interception where Moss just sat there like a god damned mouthbreathing retard instead of.. oh, I don't know.. JUMPING and contesting it?

 

[Chris_77]

The one thing that stuck out to me is that Walsh seems intent on running plays against players’ strengths. Moss has never been known for his route running ability yet Walsh has him running a precision pattern against Champ Bailey. You can't tell me that Curry wouldn't have made a much better target on that type of route. Or how about the freakin' sweeps with Jordan? Memo to Tom... dude is S-L-O-W. Sheesh.

 

[Turo]

I know it's in chic to hammer on LJ.. but I really don't think he's that slow or incabable of running a toss/sweep. I DO think we lack the talented blockers to pull it off successfully on a regular basis, however.