Happy Anniversary!

Actually, my anniversary is tomorrow. Yes, the Day that will Live in Infamy, not because it gave Bill Parcells a chance to use describe a trick play his coaches installed (of course, with no disrespect to "orientals" intended), but because it was the day that the Professor made an honest man of me.

That's right, seven years ago tomorrow, I got hitched. And we started celebrating today with some oysters, champagne, and a huge Raiders win over the Steelers--which AFC West Blogger seems to have missed completely while covering the Donkeys' huge victory at KC (as of 13:45 PST).

Gradkowki's line, in front of his hometown crowd: 20-33 , 308 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions.

Unbelievable. I can't remember the last time a Raiders quarterback put up numbers like that.

Also, I don't think it's a coincidence that Louis Murphy and Johnnie Lee Higgins had big games at the receiver position while DHB sat out the game with a hurt foot. I know we gave JaMarcus a couple of years before applying the bust label, but DHB fucking sucks. When your receivers suddenly have a breakout game as a group on the day you don't play, that means you should probably take your obscene signing bonus, make sure your will is correctly filled out and signed, and then jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. Seriously, look at the receiving stats from the box score:

	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LG	TGTS
L. Murphy	4	128	32.0	2	75	6
J. Higgins	4	63	15.8	0	22	7
C. Schilens	3	45	15.0	1	23	6
Z. Miller	4	43	10.8	0	16	6
J. Fargas	2	13	6.5	0	10	3
T. Watkins	1	12	12.0	0	12	2
T. Stewart	2	4	2.0	0	3	2
D. McFadden	0	0	0.0	0	0	2

I'm the sure the NFL would give some kind of cap relief for a suicided player. Take JaFatass with you. He's never come close to a 121.8 quarterback rating. (While we're here, it's not like McFadden is lighting it up, either.)

Anyway, enough hating. Great win. Go Raiders.

One more thing: I rocked my Kirk Morrison #52 replica today. Coincidence? Not sure. I know I said I wasn't going rock any more Raiders gear this year, but for some reason I woke up this morning and was feeling it. So now I'm going to rock it until they lose. Probably next week at home, blacked out against Washington, who gave the Saints all they could handle today.

Camp

Training camp is on, so I'm feeling way overdue for a post. There's all the big questions - Bronco Bill pointed out the obvious ones in his Camp Confidential (though Johnny rightly complains that the QB controversy is overblown. Since when is putting a little competitive pressure on someone a bad thing? "He needs to feel relaxed..." Huh?). But a few smaller ones are cropping up as well.

What is going on at linebacker? Last year's strongside starter Ricky Brown remains the second team middle linebacker after signing a healthy contract in the offseason. And he's apparently playing with the ones on the goal line. Jon Alston, meanwhile, seems to be the guy at SLB. Is Alston that much improved? Is this a little competitive pressure for Morrison in the middle? Might there be actual personnel changes in addition to all of this "better teaching" in order to stop the run in 2009?

What goes on in Javon Walker's head? Apparently he had experimental surgery and cannot even divulge where it took place. Either he will continue getting crazier and will find a way to sit out the entire year collecting his guaranteed money, or maybe we'll have a gift of a good receiver on our hands.

Is Tommy Kelly aiming for perfect snap anticipation? He jumps offsides every play. If he hones this skill by week one he'll be an incredibly disruptive second year away from ACL surgery force on that defensive line. If not? Well, he has a lot of money.

Captain Kirk

via Bill Williamson. From now, I will be referring to Kirk as "Hollywood" Morrison.

In other news, Phil Barber breaks down ESPN's ultimate fan ranking, which has the Raiders at #116. They call Al the "ultimate dinosaur."

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.

Keep Kiffin?

Jason Jones has a link on his page to keepkiffin.com, where you can sign a petition urging Al Davis to keep Lane Kiffin as the head coach.

I like the idea of the fans ensuring their voices are heard, and I'm not even necessarily opposed to boycotts to force Al to stop being an idiot. I'm just not sure that keeping Lance Kiffin is a cause worth fighting for.

I know he said the other day that he doesn't want to be here. But do you really think if Al called him into the office, put a 5-year, $15 Million contract extension in front of him with hiring/firing power and every thing he says he wants, that he'd sign it?

I don't. This well is poisoned. It's a tribute to Kiffin's personality that so many of these young players (I'm thinking specifically of Nmamdi and JaMarcus--as much as I love Kirk Morrison, he's the Baghdad Bob of the Raiders defense) have bought into his system, and played through the distractions last week. I know the Chiefs are garbage, but this team had every reason and excuse to show up and get blown out. The Norv Turner Raiders of 2005 might have. The Art Shell Raiders of 2006 definitely would have. These guys didn't. Still, after all of the ridiculousness of this past week, there's no way Lance can remain the coach of this team. At some point, the players will be forced to choose, and they will choose the side that signs their paychecks.

It Never Comes Easy

I have heartburn and haven't even gotten the plate of nachos into the microwave. After 3 quarters I thought perhaps Raider fans just deserved a nice blowout win. Now the Chefs are driving and within one score.

And there it is! Kirk with the INT!

An observation: Kalimba Edwards looked good rushing the passer today. A lot of hurries, maybe even a half sack there on the last drive. What's Chris Clemons up to these days?

Another good sign: late in the first half I started asking myself, "Who started at LT?" It was only when Gannon praised him that I knew for sure it was Super Mario. Well done.

Now hold onto that ball, Michael...

Essence Readers are Not Haters

Essence Magazine has an online poll called the Do Right Men. Week 4 features both Nmamdi Asomugha and Kirk Morrison.

They are Dominating. As of this posting, Captain Kirk leads all Candidates with 26.1% of the votes, followed closely by Asomugha who has 22.5%. This is out of 12 dudes. The next closest percentage is some dude named Angelo Mitchell. He has only 14.7% and is the only guy besides our defensive leaders in double figures.

(hat tip to Jason Jones)

For the record, I voted for Morrison. But it was a tough call. I figured that since Nmamdi was already my Man Crush of the week, I could give my vote to Morrison.

Little Howie

Tonight during dinner I had a chance to watch my first Giants game of the season. Sometime around the 7th inning stretch, baseball's best announcing team - Kruk and Kuip - went to perhaps baseball's worst roving reporter for an interview with Raider middle linebacker Kirk Morrison.

He was attending the game with Chris Long.

The open ended questions were answered predictably: Morrison hopes he drops to #4 so the Raiders can draft him, while Long will be happy to play anywhere and was impressed by the Raiders he's met. Unfortunately, the reporter kept talking and eventually asked Chris if he might just be a Giants fan given all the years his father played in the Bay Area. Oops.

I am in favor of using pick #4 on a defensive lineman, but I doubt Chris Long drops that far.

Meanwhile, the Giants managed to win the ballgame with a walk-off double with 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth. The score? 1-0, of course. And that's with Jonathan Sanchez pitching. My favorite headline of the year was the Chronicle's after an opening day 5-0 blanking at the hands of the Dodgers: "Giants Meet Expectations."

The earlier McCovey Cove entertainment, San Francisco's torch shell game, was terrific drama. I was glued to the screen during an extended lunch. Would they circumvent the Third Street Bridge via boat? What would the Free Tibet gang do as a follow-up to the Golden Gate banner stunt? Why is the lead vehicle in the procession one of those amphibious Duck buses?

Best of all, as the torch turned off of Bay and North onto Laguna, there was Little Howie herself: my wife. While trying to avoid the Embarcadero route she had stumbled onto the revised route and had a front-row seat for a torch hand-off. And she looked great on the Chopper cam.

Great day. And another hysterical quote from a San Francisco Supervisor was just icing on the cake.

Halftime: 3-3; Devin Hester is Overrated

That's right. His last two returns went for NEGATIVE yards. Turns out he's not like Steve Smith, where if you trash talk him he destroys you.

Stuart Dorsett Gibson Schweigert has so far had only one horribly missed tackle, so that's good. McCown's not being booed mercilessly, and Carr and Routt are doing pretty good on the corners for Nmamdi and Fabian.

Kirk Morrison is now officially my favorite player. If the Professor happens to read this, I would love to get a number 52 Jersey for Xmas...