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OAKLAND — Everybody’s favorite opponent was at it again Sunday.
The Raiders, even when they’re at McAfee Coliseum, are the NFL equivalent of a homecoming game. The Chicago Bears dragged their tired, poor huddled masses to Oakland and went home feeling good about themselves with a 17-6 win.
Chicago was affected by the post-Super Bowl stupor which seems to affect a number of teams that lose the big game on the grand stage.
The virus bypassed Seattle last season, which made it to the second round of the postseason, but severely weakened Philadelphia, Carolina and, of course, the Raiders in the three previous years.
All were conference champions who were also-rans by late November the following year. The Raiders, 17-56 since their Super Bowl meltdown against Tampa Bay, fell into their own personal Black Hole and never came out.
The Bears came in with a 3-5 record and little to brag about except the return prowess of Devin Hester. They couldn’t run the ball and had trouble defending the run. Their starting quarterback, Brian Griese, had a penchant for throwing interceptions into the end zone, yet was still preferable to the fan base over Rex Grossman, who is to Chicago fans what Josh McCown is to Raider Nation.
The Raiders actually made Hester look ordinary and closed off the Bears’ running game, giving up 78 yards in 34 carries with no gain of more than nine yards.
But Chicago had seen enough film to know the Raiders passing game poses no threat, and said as much through its defensive deployment.
The first time Tim Dwight went into the game, joining Ronald Curry and Jerry Porter, the Bears didn’t even bother with a third cornerback. They left veteran Charles Tillman on the field with rookie seventh-round draft pick Trumaine McBride and let unheralded safety Danieal Manning have increased coverage duties.
It was an invitation and a challenge.
Go ahead, try and pass. We dare you.
``They came out and did something that doesn’t happen very often in this league,’’ Raiders coach Lane Kiffin said. ``They didn’t play a nickel defense with three wides. They stayed in their base defense and let a safety cover our receiver.’’
Kiffin is the offensive mastermind who a year ago junked the running game in the second half of the Rose Bowl as USC passed Michigan into oblivion, but the Raiders’ passing game has no sense of rhythm or timing, and it hasn’t all season.
McCown ran 24 yards with a neatly executed option run on his first play and completed his first five passes. He finished 14 of 27 for 108 yards with no gain longer than 14 yards. His last, desperate exclamation point was a heave into the end zone which Manning intercepted as time ran out.
The Raiders starting wide receivers, Ronald Curry and Jerry Porter, combined for 5 receptions and 44 yards. Dwight, the third wideout, didn’t catch a pass. On a third-and-10 play from the Oakland 31 and 2:48 to play, McCown was flushed from the pocket, scrambled wildly and flung the ball incomplete to the other side of the field over the head of Dwight.
Rather than work back to the ball and try and get open, it was as if Raiders receivers were innocent bystanders rather than components of an effective passing game.
It hasn’t helped that the Raiders offense has gone from McCown to Daunte Culpepper and back to McCown, disrupting continuity. They could well be going back to Culpepper again, judging from the way McCown was getting around with a heavily wrapped right leg.
Or they could rush JaMarcus Russell into action in the deafening roar of the Metrodome next week, with Kiffin answering the sign in the north end zone which asked, ``Y Wait? Start Russell Now’’
Judging from the way the Raiders have played the first nine games, their problems in the passing game go far behind the quarterback. Oakland receivers either can’t get open or the coaches haven’t devised enough ways to get them open.
But it isn’t just the quarterbacks. It is a sense of chemistry and understanding that runs through the entire passing game. The Raiders may run the ball more effectively and block better, but there is no more precision in the passing game under Kiffin than there was under Tom Walsh.
The Bears, without starting corner Nathan Vashar, threw mediocre personnel at the Raiders, and the Raiders were helpless to do anything about it.
``We didn’t have much success throwing with those matchups with the rookie corner and safety on two of our three wides,’’ Kiffin said. ``We went back to who we are at halftime.’’
Which is to say two running plays _ and then let’s see if we can run again.
When presented with back-to-back possessions near midfield, the Raiders managed to get three points and a 6-3 lead on a 52-yard field goal by Sebastian Janikowski, the end result of an epic 19-yard, seven-play drive.
Compared to the Raiders, the Bears may as well have been Air Coryell. Once Griese left with a shoulder injury, Grossman came in and did what McCown and the Raiders could not.
He took aim at a perceived weakness, and got a touchdown out of it.
Bernard Berrian, Chicago’s best deep threat, froze Chris Carr for a fraction of a second with a hesitation move and and broke into the clear for a 59-yard touchdown.
Carr was in the game because starter Nnamdi Asomugha and nickel back Fabian Washington were out with injuries.
It was the flawless execution of a single passing play.
Which is one more than the Raiders could manage.
Staff writer Jerry McDonald can be reached by e-mail at jmcdonald@bayareanewsgroup.com
http://www.insidebayarea.com/sports/ci_7430255
The Raiders, even when they’re at McAfee Coliseum, are the NFL equivalent of a homecoming game. The Chicago Bears dragged their tired, poor huddled masses to Oakland and went home feeling good about themselves with a 17-6 win.
Chicago was affected by the post-Super Bowl stupor which seems to affect a number of teams that lose the big game on the grand stage.
The virus bypassed Seattle last season, which made it to the second round of the postseason, but severely weakened Philadelphia, Carolina and, of course, the Raiders in the three previous years.
All were conference champions who were also-rans by late November the following year. The Raiders, 17-56 since their Super Bowl meltdown against Tampa Bay, fell into their own personal Black Hole and never came out.
The Bears came in with a 3-5 record and little to brag about except the return prowess of Devin Hester. They couldn’t run the ball and had trouble defending the run. Their starting quarterback, Brian Griese, had a penchant for throwing interceptions into the end zone, yet was still preferable to the fan base over Rex Grossman, who is to Chicago fans what Josh McCown is to Raider Nation.
The Raiders actually made Hester look ordinary and closed off the Bears’ running game, giving up 78 yards in 34 carries with no gain of more than nine yards.
But Chicago had seen enough film to know the Raiders passing game poses no threat, and said as much through its defensive deployment.
The first time Tim Dwight went into the game, joining Ronald Curry and Jerry Porter, the Bears didn’t even bother with a third cornerback. They left veteran Charles Tillman on the field with rookie seventh-round draft pick Trumaine McBride and let unheralded safety Danieal Manning have increased coverage duties.
It was an invitation and a challenge.
Go ahead, try and pass. We dare you.
``They came out and did something that doesn’t happen very often in this league,’’ Raiders coach Lane Kiffin said. ``They didn’t play a nickel defense with three wides. They stayed in their base defense and let a safety cover our receiver.’’
Kiffin is the offensive mastermind who a year ago junked the running game in the second half of the Rose Bowl as USC passed Michigan into oblivion, but the Raiders’ passing game has no sense of rhythm or timing, and it hasn’t all season.
McCown ran 24 yards with a neatly executed option run on his first play and completed his first five passes. He finished 14 of 27 for 108 yards with no gain longer than 14 yards. His last, desperate exclamation point was a heave into the end zone which Manning intercepted as time ran out.
The Raiders starting wide receivers, Ronald Curry and Jerry Porter, combined for 5 receptions and 44 yards. Dwight, the third wideout, didn’t catch a pass. On a third-and-10 play from the Oakland 31 and 2:48 to play, McCown was flushed from the pocket, scrambled wildly and flung the ball incomplete to the other side of the field over the head of Dwight.
Rather than work back to the ball and try and get open, it was as if Raiders receivers were innocent bystanders rather than components of an effective passing game.
It hasn’t helped that the Raiders offense has gone from McCown to Daunte Culpepper and back to McCown, disrupting continuity. They could well be going back to Culpepper again, judging from the way McCown was getting around with a heavily wrapped right leg.
Or they could rush JaMarcus Russell into action in the deafening roar of the Metrodome next week, with Kiffin answering the sign in the north end zone which asked, ``Y Wait? Start Russell Now’’
Judging from the way the Raiders have played the first nine games, their problems in the passing game go far behind the quarterback. Oakland receivers either can’t get open or the coaches haven’t devised enough ways to get them open.
But it isn’t just the quarterbacks. It is a sense of chemistry and understanding that runs through the entire passing game. The Raiders may run the ball more effectively and block better, but there is no more precision in the passing game under Kiffin than there was under Tom Walsh.
The Bears, without starting corner Nathan Vashar, threw mediocre personnel at the Raiders, and the Raiders were helpless to do anything about it.
``We didn’t have much success throwing with those matchups with the rookie corner and safety on two of our three wides,’’ Kiffin said. ``We went back to who we are at halftime.’’
Which is to say two running plays _ and then let’s see if we can run again.
When presented with back-to-back possessions near midfield, the Raiders managed to get three points and a 6-3 lead on a 52-yard field goal by Sebastian Janikowski, the end result of an epic 19-yard, seven-play drive.
Compared to the Raiders, the Bears may as well have been Air Coryell. Once Griese left with a shoulder injury, Grossman came in and did what McCown and the Raiders could not.
He took aim at a perceived weakness, and got a touchdown out of it.
Bernard Berrian, Chicago’s best deep threat, froze Chris Carr for a fraction of a second with a hesitation move and and broke into the clear for a 59-yard touchdown.
Carr was in the game because starter Nnamdi Asomugha and nickel back Fabian Washington were out with injuries.
It was the flawless execution of a single passing play.
Which is one more than the Raiders could manage.
Staff writer Jerry McDonald can be reached by e-mail at jmcdonald@bayareanewsgroup.com
http://www.insidebayarea.com/sports/ci_7430255