October 1st
Hello everyone!! Welcome to the first installment of my Oakland Raiders blog. In the following weeks, I’m going to discuss everything imaginable in Raider land.
Yesterday’s victory over the Miami Dolphins is causing a ton of excitement. It marks the most important victory that this club has had since defeating the Tennessee Titans in the 2002 AFC Championship game. The losing aura around the team finally seems be evaporating under new head coach, Lane Kiffin.
So let’s dive right in and take a look at the game:
Oakland Raiders 35 Miami Dolphins 17
· Daunte Culpepper- There is no question that Culpepper was the most intriguing story going into the game. After being cast aside in Miami, in favor of Trent Green, Culpepper set out to prove that his former team made a mistake. More importantly, he needed to show the rest of the league that he could still play after tearing his ACL, MCL, and PCL in the 2005 season. I have to admit, I was excited to see how he’d perform in his first start with the Raiders. Culpepper ended the day 5-12 passing for 75 yards and 2 touchdowns. He added 28 yards on the ground and 3 more touchdowns!!!
The Homers Say: Daunte should be resigned to a multi-year deal and should be the starting quarterback of the Oakland Raiders, despite the acquisition of #1 overall draft pick JaMarcus Russell.
The Critics Say: The Miami Dolphins are not a formidable opponent and Culpepper will crumble against better teams. Plus, he was an unimpressive 5-12 throwing.
Raider Mike Says: The great thing is that we won. I thought Culpepper played GREAT. He had a couple of completions taken away from him on drops. It’s too early to worry about his completion percentage because he’s completed over 60 percent of his passes every season of his career (including his abysmal season with the Fins last year). The one thing that cannot be understated is HE DID NOT TURN THE BALL OVER AT ALL. I realize he won’t have 5 touchdowns every week, but taking care of the ball is the true key to being a successful quarterback in the NFL. Will he be that good for the rest of the year? I don’t know. Nobody does. And to be honest, it doesn’t matter right now. He’s earned a start against San Diego when the team comes back from its bye week and he can be further evaluated then. However, resigning him to a multi-year contract is out of the question. I’ll further examine that later in the week.
· Huggy Bear to the Rescue: The Raiders’ ground game has been surprising, to say the least. LaMont Jordan is finally playing up to the massive contract he was signed to. In fact, his 424 rushing yards are second only to Travis Henry of the team I shall not speak of on this season’s NFL leader board. To say the least, it was scary seeing him on the back of a cart driving into the locker room seconds before the half. But, backup, Justin Fargas came in and rushed for 179 yards in the second half!!! Fargas, the son of the actor that played Huggy Bear in the 1970’s show Starsky and Hutch, has never EVER come close to that kind of individual performance before. The team finished with 299 yards rushing, which is the highest total since Bo Jackson helped the Raiders to 357 in 1987!!!
The Homers Say: The Raiders have the best running game in the league!!!
The Critics Say: NOTHING!!! 299 yards on the ground goes a long way towards silencing the critics!!!
Raider Mike Says: Wow, our offensive line is doing a great job of run blocking this year. LaMont Jordan over performing is one thing, but when Justin Fargas has 100 yards in one quarter, something is up. New line coach, Tom Cable, has come in and done a spectacular job of installing his zone blocking scheme. Robert Gallery and Cooper Carlisle have been spectacular at guard. Both Jake Grove and Jeremy Newberry have also done a nice job at center. The tackle positions will need to be addressed in the off-season, but left tackle, Barry Sims, did a great job containing Jason Taylor on Sunday (last time he faced him he was burned for 3 sacks). I’m beginning to see that any running back would be successful with the blocking they are receiving up front. Make no mistake about it; Justin Fargas is not a good running back. For those of you fantasy football players that are watching Jordan’s injury situation, listen carefully. DO NOT pick up Justin Fargas. If LJ isn’t ready in time to face the Chargers, the guy you want is Dominic Rhodes. Rhodes will be returning from his 4-game suspension and would most likely be the featured back in Jordan’s absence.
· D-FENCE- The defense had its second solid game in a row. Ronnie Brown had a nice game running the ball, but the unit, as a whole, shut the Dolphins’ passing attack down for the most part. Thomas Howard recorded his 3rd interception of the year while Stanford Routt got number 2. Gerard Warren and Tommie Kelly continued to play with excellence. They each recorded a sack. I could post an entire entry on my thoughts on the defense….and, in fact, I will. So this is all I’ll say about them for now. Check back…
Be sure to check out NFL writer Jerry McDonald’s blog. He does a great job over at Insidethebayare.com.
NFL.com puts all of the video highlights of every game up…So, if you’re interested, check out the highlights to yesterday’s win.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to e-mail me at mluchene@yahoo.com.
5 comments:
I can't agree with most of what you say.
We've played better defensively from opening week 'till now, but we haven't put together a solid defensive effort for 60 mins.
Run defense is especially inconsistant.
Have no idea why you think "our [Offensive] Tackles need to be addressed in the off-season. Green is a relative newbie as a starter, is conitinually showing improvement, and frankly is playing well. As for Sims- he's the best of a very good bunch and his play exemplifies that fact.
Thank you for reading. The defense was very good in the game against the Browns, with the exception of the final 2 drives. I blame most of that on playcalling. They made alot of big plays last Sunday, as well. I'm going to go further into this topic in a post later this week. As for the tackles, I don't agree that they are "are avery good bunch." Play calling has been great. Passing plays have been designed to get the QB out of the pocket or have him make quick throws. Sims will always be a favorite of mine, but he IS old and HAS NEVER BEEN a good left tackle. Cornell Green has done okay thus far, but I can't be satisfied with an 8 year journeyman that has never been good enough to start before. I look for Mario Henderson to replace him after this season.
The Raiders are having a great year so far but I wouldn't jump to any conclusions just yet. They beat an 0-4 Dolphins team thats coached by Cam Cameron who can't get out of his own way. They also barely beat the Browns, who despite a 2-2 record are not very good.
I still say that their run defense is not that good. It will be interesting to see what they can do against LT although old coach Norv Turner will probably throw the ball 35 times.
I will give the Raiders credit and with how terrible the AFC West looks so far, they actually might have a shot at a division title
i'd leave you some positive feedback like you did on my blog, but i'm a dolphins fan. reading this gave me horrible horrible flashbacks to sunday. thanks a lot.
seriously though, well done.
Dominic Rhodes vs. Lamont Jordan. Who out plays who?
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