Now let's drive

Ok Raiders, that was a nice gift. Great recognition by Houston to put on some pressure. Now we need a real drive. The Broncos are stacking the box and it should open up some things down field. I like this first play to DHB, let's keep it going...

Ha - couldn't even get it posted before DMC ripped off a beauty. How was that not a TD?

Dan Roundup

My lazy summertime blogging frequency continues. I would blame it on the severe foot injury I suffered at Johnny's birthday barbecue, but if anything, that has kept me off my feet and even more apt to sit in front of a computer. At least I'm using my crutches less, but I still have a blister the size of a golf ball on the bottom of my foot. Kristy says no to pictures on the CLOAK. Too disgusting.

Just watched the few minutes of Greg Papa's interview with Al Davis that were shown on tonight's Chronicle Live. Al is looking more and more like the emperor from Star Wars, but his memory remains solid, telling stories about Brooklyn and how Mike Tyson called him one tough SOB for having grown up playing in Lincoln Terrace Park. No real football content, though.

The other day it was AFC West day on NFL Live on ESPN, and when they went to Bronco Bill for some insight via his lousy telephone, he actually declared Zach Miller his breakout player for the upcoming season. I can get behind that one, although it also says a little something about expectations for the vertical game.

One thing I never got around to doing was following up on my three points from minicamp.

1. So far Huff's only chance appears to be getting the Derrick Gibson treatment from on high. Given that Al called him Art Shell's pick, I don't see it happening. I sure do miss Eddie Anderson.
2. DHB was so-so. I didn't notice any gasps from the media as he ran down the field, but most focus was on his hands or his hamstring. He's a rookie WR, so doubtful he'll do a lot anyway. But Schilens seems to be on track to continue emerging, much to Unk's delight. And speaking of McFadden...that's my breakout pick for 2009.
3. The accuracy of JaMarcus. Not so good. At least he showed improvement. But what's with this story that he skipped the last OTA after showing such "leadership" calling for extra practice with his receivers? Did he disappear into the Twilight Zone with all the regular Raider bloggers? (See #2 under Things I Heard...)

No wonder I never followed up.

Finally, I could not help but notice that Ron Artest is heading to the Lakers. I haven't watched a full NBA game since November 19, 2004, when Ron and his buddies climbed into the stands and started beating up fans. Truth be told, it hasn't been that difficult given that I find the NBA game to be reasonably boring and I've drifted from the Lakers to the Rockets to nobody with the Hornets (Charlotte) thrown in there at some point as favorite teams. Sure, I bet a lot of those fans were assholes, but the sight of these guys climbing up there and pounding on people who paid to come to the game was just too much.

Dan Bait

Bill Williamson argues that the Raiders should be more like Dallas and install the "wildcat" offense--called the Razorback by the Cowboys after Felix Jones' alma mater--and run it with their own Razorback, Darren McFadden. If I remember correctly, the Raiders did run it last year, with Greg Papa calling "the Wild Hog" formation. Every time, it made Dan say the F-word, because he really hates it. I may not remember totally correctly, though, because I drink a lot when I'm watching the games with Dan.

Just for fun, here's an old video of Green Day playing "One for the Razorbacks" off of Kerplunk!

Regarding McFadden

Darren McFadden took a lot of heat from the NFL Network announcers earlier in the night for not reaching up and behind himself to catch a poorly thrown Andrew Walter ball on 4th and 2 and defy both gravity and momentum while doing so. But I think if we check the stats we may find that he's had the most tackles tonight. He hunts down San Diego interceptors and explodes into them like Eddie Anderson in his prime. He even put a hit on a defensive back early in the game on a downfield block that drew an unfortunate unnecessary roughness penalty and took the Raiders out of FG position.

Maybe he should start playing both ways? I thought I saw Michael Huff at CB earlier, so we are - as always - in need of a free safety.

HOTW: Baldy

Yes, chiming in with a Hater of the Week award, even when it seems everyone's a hater this year. One must really distinguish oneself in these times, and Brian Baldinger has done so with this gem:

"The quarterback can't play. He's a bust. Darren McFadden is a bust. He won't stay healthy in this league. He's had only one good game. They have drafted poorly. They are easily scouted. The defense plays schemes that don't make sense. They play the ends out wide, and play the safeties too deep. Al Davis always believes that you have a deep safety, but Atlanta exploited that with Michael Turner. And to just see how bad Russell is, you have to look at what Matt Ryan did in that game. Russell just doesn't know what he is doing."

While John will protest, I can almost let the Russell comments go. JaMarcus is the quarterback, was the #1 pick, is in his second year, and hasn't looked good lately. But declaring McFadden a bust? That's just crazy. It is something a blowhard throws out there off the top of his head when he's hosting an online chat session.

Turf toe is a bad injury to have in the NFL. It's one of those that tends to ruin an entire season, but allows the player to limp (literally) through most of the games. I'm no doctor, but it doesn't seem to be a chronic injury or something from which you can't fully recover. To declare McFadden a bust after he's had the bad luck to have two turf toe injuries is dumb.

The "easily scouted," "schemes that don't make sense," "ends out wide," and "safeties too deep" comments are intriguing. Would be nice to see it broken down intelligently with Sterling Sharpe, though.

Bill Williamson Talks Raiders on ESPN

Following up on Dan's excellent post from yesterday, the only thing I can really say is that at least people are talking about the Raiders again. I still don't think the weirdness of the Kiffin firing can ever be topped, but if what Williamson is saying is true, and Javon Walker, Tommy Kelly, Kwame Harris, Gibril Wilson, and Gerard Warren are all cut during the off season at the latest, then it's clear that perhaps the denial that Alameda's been mired in for the last 5 years may finally be fading.

We can only hope. It's come at a great cost: 2nd and 5th round picks for Hall. Plus all that Salary Cap money in the guarantees to Walker. Especially after Al could have just let Javon retire and it would have cost him NOTHING.

But sometimes lessons are expensive. There is a good core of players here. I'm not trying to sound like Tom Cable, but I think there really is a foundation to build on here. JaMarcus, Nmamdi, the Linebackers, Run DMC. And didn't Super Mario play pretty well in Buffalo?

So the weirdest thing of all may just be Al Davis looking himself in the mirror and understanding that he's made some atrocious moves in the last couple of years, and taking action, no matter how embarrassing or drastic, to finally, actually remedy things.

We Have a Player: 13-0.

On a drive that started with a Keystone Cops sequence on the punt, McFadden dominated that drive.

They made it exciting, though, with fumbles by both McFadden and Bush.

But hey, the way he switched the ball from his right to his left hand on the 19 yard TD run was pretty tight.

Nancy Gay is Right.

Normally, I would write a post joking that this is the kind of column that made her the "Hater of the Week" namesake.

But I was at the game the other night with Dan. And at some point, when the score was 27-0 (maybe it was just before then), Dan turned to me and said, "You know, we're just going to have to wait it out until Al dies."

And I hate feeling like this. Every year--and I have the email archive to prove it--Dan and I and a couple of other Raiders fans we know get ourselves all worked up into an optimistic lather. And every year we're disappointed. You'd think we'd learn.

But we love this team. That's why we spend $81.20 for nosebleed seats, where the most exciting action in the game was the fight in section 324, causing the Professor to coin a new term, "Silver-on-Black Crime." It's why we spend hundreds of dollars at the Raider Image, leading Mike Ditka to say, "These have got to be the greatest fans in the world, putting up with this."

What we have to put up with is a defense that can't cover anyone, but makes up for it by not being able to tackle. An offensive that can't block, and receivers that can't catch. JaMarcus Russell, I'm convinced, could be an all time great. He has all the tools. But I'm terrified that Kiffin will be fired, replaced by someone else who will the change the system and lose 13 games, to be replaced by someone else, etc., etc, until JaMarcus and Darren McFadden are considered busts because they never got to play in the same system with the same coaches for longer than a season and half.

It's bullshit.

Meaningless Observations

For some reason I watched the majority of last night's game. Maybe it was the drama of a few guys battling to make the team. Maybe it was the comedy value of guys fresh off the streets trying to slow down Mike Holmgren's backup offense. Maybe I needed something to look at while having a beer on the couch.

There was a lot of bad, starting with the HD Channel 2 production. Wow. Everything from audio to replays to sideline/booth communications was off. They couldn't even figure out how to cut to commercials. The play of the defense was mostly worse. Jon Alston and Chris Johnson might even make the team. Michael Waddell and Marviel Underwood were comically bad. And I'm afraid Fresno State's Sam Williams is going to lose his scholarship. He often turned up in the right place, but his tackling was atrocious, particularly for a guy who was in the conversation for a starting spot when camp began.

On offense, Super Mario continues to struggle, being burned in highly visible fashion to allow a sack and lost fumble on poor old Andrew Walter. And you had to feel sorry for Arman Shields, a fourth rounder this year who has missed most of training camp while on the trainer's table, endured Kiffin's public complaints and doubts, and then stepped into this game and dropped passes and ran the wrong routes. A classic preseason moment was James Lofton and Greg Knapp taking turns ripping Shields on the sideline after a blown route. Poor guy. At least he had one fairly spectacular sideline catch. His celebration let out a lot of pent up frustration.

But there was good, and it has to start with McFadden who averaged a healthy 12.5 yards per carry on 4 runs, two of which have me fired up to watch him against the Broncos' sorry run defense. The new fullback Lawton looked impressive catching balls out of the backfield. I recall reading some comment on the Lawton acquisition complaining that the Raiders are giving up on the passing game entirely. Obviously the commentator doesn't know the Raiders or Lawton very well.

What else? Chaz Schilens looked pretty good as a receiver. Todd Watkins was good and bad - he was getting open, at least. Michael Bush looked solid, and even Johnnie Lee Higgins busted a good kickoff return.

So the takeaway from the game is that the Raiders aren't deep, but we do have some bright spots. I had to laugh when Mark Ibanez came on and said if everyone has a little Raider in them, then everyone should be very concerned after this game. But besides depth, how does sitting all 22 starters have anything to do with what we'll see in the regular season?

I guess everyone has a right to project 3 wins after what we've seen the last 5 seasons. The good news is we get to start watching real games next week.

Bill Williamson Hearts Lane Kiffin

Bill Williamson has a couple of nice pieces on espn.com: a Raiders camp overview that says nothing but good things about Kiffin and his young players, and blog item that shows both McFadden (#9) and JaMarcus (#24) in the top 25 of NFL Jersey sales.

Mikey is sure to add to his Straight Cash Homey Jets collection, with a Favre jersey to go with that Santana Moss jersey he rocks.

Insight from Jerry

It's no secret we love Jerry McDonald's blog. Another reason to love? His weekly live chat.

Thus far, very little seems to have been written about on-the-field-at-camp McFadden. Maybe it's just me, but I was starting to get nervous that our newest superstar was just bumbling along trying to catch passes with "incorrect hand placement." Two very encouraging comments in Jerry's chat:

"McFadden is a stunningly fast runner when he reaches the corner or finds a crack. One of the fastest I've ever seen carrying a football in person, the others being Deion Sanders, Randy Moss and Napoleon Kaufman."

Ok, that one was predictable, but this is even better:

"McFadden seems to be absorbing everything they give him in terms of scheme and complexity. I think you'll see him catch 40 passes minimum and the number will go up each year to what the Raiders hope is a Marshall Faulk level."

Jerry also brings up the "strange case" of Johnnie Lee Higgins, my least favorite Raider of 2007:

"Looks great one catch, lost the next. His ticket is if he is chosen to return punts. Kiffin clearly wants Higgins to win the job, but it's not clear he is up to it."

Unfortunately, we seem to have no full time backup plan at punt returner. Higgins was truly dreadful last year, and now he's in position to knock a promising WR prospect off the roster.

But in keeping with yesterday's optimistic tone, Jerry notes the drastic improvement in the passing game, among other improvements. Are the Raiders better than last year at this time?

"Overall, it's a pretty good upgrade."

Joy of Anticipation

I mean look at the picture heading this article.

I know vets always bitch about training camp. But this looks fun.

And I can't help it, but I'm getting excited.

McFadden Signs!

About six weeks ago I called out King Kaufman from salon.com for implying that JaMarcus Russell is going to be a bust because he missed all of training camp last year. Kaufman, clearly slumming, posted a comment on that post defending himself against the charges that he's from the Nancy Gay school of "The Raiders are Assholes" sports journalism.

And to be fair, he made a good point, because nobody was more irritated than I was when JaMarcus didn't sign until the 2nd week of the season.

The Raiders seem to have figured this stuff out, though. McFadden signed late last night for $26 Million guaranteed.

I have the same conversation with Dan every summer. It goes something like:

"Dude, I'm trying not to get too excited, but looking at the roster I feel like
some good things are going to happen this year. We got Warren Sapp!"

"I mean, I hate Randy Moss, but when I close my eyes, all I see is Touchdowns. You telling me Norv can't draw up some routes? Kerry Collins does have that gun."

"I'm talking myself into Art Shell. You know, he got a raw deal, and Al always said the only mistake he ever made was firing Art."

"Yeah, and Aaron Brooks is athletic. He got a bad rap in New Orleans, plus with the hurricane.."

But maybe, just maybe, this year is different.

Back-to-Back SEC Offensive Players of the Year in back-to-back drafts. A good, young coach. There are so many reasons to be excited.

We'll just have to wait for Nancy to tell us why we shouldn't be.