Texas Size Picks

This week and next I'll be picking from Austin, home of two-game Raider MVP Michael Huff's alma mater and of my brother. Yee haw.

Mikey's dining room, where I'm sitting as I write this, is painted a deep teal. I am thus inspired to pick the Dolphins over the Chargers, 27-19 in this clash of softer blue tones.

Tennessee at the Jets. This is another easy one to pick based purely upon my location. The Titans deserted Texas. Mikey loves the Jets (and, presumably, loves Mark Sanchez, too). Jets 17-7.

49er madness has driven me out of the Bay Area and had already eclipsed Cal madness prior to today's Duck drubbing. The 9ers will bring their fans back to reality just a bit with their 24-12 loss against Minnesota and the quarterback who was previously one of my favorite players of all time.

I like the way Sllaacs broke down the Raiders game at the point where he picked the Raiders to somehow get the victory. This is a heavy "pick with your heart" choice: Raiders 23-11. But the Raiders are decent if they can put a few things together, and at some stage (hopefully this week) the Broncos will prove themselves not nearly as good as 2-0.

Manning to Colston - TOUCHDOWN!!

So yeah, in my Fantasy League I have Eli Manning as my QB and Marques Colston as my #1 receiver, so in fantasy terms aren't I technically correct in pretending that Eli tosses those fantasy passes to Colston in the weekly matchup? No...? Well, it's my first year.

So the picks:

San Franciso @ Minnesota
The Vikings got the run stopping Williams Wall, and the Niners will pound it, pound it, pound it. Have to go with the Vikes at home though, with Brett Favre the Game Manager continuing to victimize the 49ers, as he has done over most of his career. Vikings 23-13 over the Niners.

Denver @ Oakland
Pretty easy here: Denver looks decent, Oakland looks lucky to be 1 and 1. JaMarcus looks worse that Alex Smith ever did, whil Denver messed off a franchise QB in Jay Cutler during the offseason, and still got a decent QB in return (Kyle Orton). The Raiders cut a decent QB in Jeff Garcia and have no options other than JaMarcus who is most kindly described these days as "raw". Denver should roll by 2 TD's at least. With that in mind, I choose Oakland to somehow get the victory. There is some attractiveness in that scrappy defense and the young QB who looks horrible for most of a game but can make big throws at the end. Raiders over the Broncos 18-17.

Tennessee @ New York Jets
I like Sanchez. The Jet fans probably love him. Tennessee is bad - NYJ is bad, but at least the Jets have Sanchez. Jets over Titans 28-16.

Miami @ San Diego
Go Wildcat, it's your birthday... Miami is also stuffing the run this year, besides thier Wildcat hi jinks. LaDainian is hobbled and Merriman is hurting, but they will probably be out here for this home loss to the Dolphins. Miami Dolphins over San Diego Padres... er, Chargers, 24-9.

Sllaacs' Ballers are 2-0. Sousa's lame-ass squad is 1-1. What's lame-er, is that our teams don't play each other during the regular fantasy season. You'll have to make the playoffs to get rolled by the Ballers, Sousa - I'd say good luck, though you won't need it with this weeks opponent.

Sllaacs

Herrera is embarrassing the fact that Rich Gannon doesn't know how to call a game.

Well, maybe it's not quite that bad.

But it's pretty bad. Per David White, here is what John Herrera said in "banning" Rich Gannon from Saturday's walk-through:

"Rich Gannon is not welcome here," Raiders executive John Herrera said Friday when asked about the ban. "We told CBS we did not want him in our building, we did not want him to be part of our production meeting, and that's where it sits."

Oh, and there's more. My personal favorite? After quoting Gannon as saying that the Raiders should "just blow up the building and start over," Herrera goes all Giuliani on his ass:

"We think in a post 9/11 world, that's not a very proper thing to say," Herrera said. "It's uncalled for. He seems to be a guy who can't get over the fact that he played the worst Super Bowl game in the history of the game and he wants to blame everybody but himself.

"I guess it's our fault he threw five interceptions."

Wow. Jerry McDonald says he is "speechless at the notion that if Gannon did say these things, that they were taken literally."

So, the Raiders are either literally the dumbest team in America, or Rich Gannon is a terrorist.

To think, this guy was the league MVP. Playing for us.Now I'm really bummed that the game is blacked out, because I want to hear what Gannon has to say.

Because not even the CLOAK can defend this.

Kawakami Hearts JaMarcus

JaMarcus is taking a beating, and probably deservedly so. As Dan and I were watching the game, in separate living rooms, communicating via G-chat, we had this exchange:

11:55 AM Dan: wow

John: just got my first "fuck russell" text from Kristy

Dan: ha - me too

not good

how did the lite shotgun go?

11:56 AM i need to get me a beer - am just getting through bloody mary phase

12:00 PM John: it went well. i've drank four regular style since

As you can see from this exchange, JaMarcus was driving us to drink, well before noon.

Tim Kawakami has a blog post and a column up discussing JaMarcus today, and he comes to his defense. And not in a back-handed way, either:

The talent is there. He’s trying to be more of a leader. He will never be willowy, but he looks in reasonable shape. He also has Bruce Gradkowski behind him, so it’s not like Russell’s getting yanked any time soon.

Maybe this week will be the breakthrough: In his two games against the Denver Broncos last year, Russell completed 73 percent of his passes for 332 yards and three touchdowns, registering a 127.3 passer rating.

What he doesn't mention, and what I've noticed, is JaMarcus bring some intangibles. He doesn't get rattled. While it may be frustrating to watch, as he slings incompletion after incompletion, he he seems to forget about it almost immediately. Even if we don't. In fact, on that last drive, the winning Touchdown drive against the Chiefs last week, Dan and I had this exchange:

12:55 PM John: i was just talking with ashley

12:56 PM that this is where JaMarcus' "laid back-ness" comes in handy.

he doesn't panic

12:57 PM Dan: ha - i was thinking the very same thing as he came into the huddle - this is a situation where jamarcus can build his reputation

calm leader

If JaMarcus can start making some plays earlier in the game, I'll remain his biggest apologist. Right now, being Joe Cool is biggest asset, bigger than his cannon arm. But he needs to start putting it together.

More proof for the Conspiracy Theorists among us

Thanks to dobolina in the comments section from my post of the other day, we get this little gem from Mike Florio:

It figures that, after we spilled plenty of e-ink in defending the Week One decision to take away from the Oakland Raiders a second-quarter touchdown after receiver Louis Murphy, despite having possession and two feet down, lost the ball when hitting the ground, officials blew two similar calls in the next Sunday of action.

In both cases, the calls on the field were upheld via replay review, even though it appears to us that the touchdowns should have been wiped off the board, just like Murphy's was.

Not that we Raiders fans need anyone's permission to get riled up, or even livid. But come on. This makes me sick, and for me it proves two things:

1. The official in our game last week, "Hot" Carl Cheffers, when he reviewed Murphy's reception, was wrong. Even if interpreted a rule correctly, there was not sufficient visual evidence to overturn a call made on the field.

2. Replay has got to go. It's one thing to get fucked by a bad call in the heat of the game. But to then stop a game, as has happened to us time and time again, and go back wipe a play out, is an atrocity.



Especially when the Patriots get away with it on the same night.

Have a nice week.

Halftime Adjustments

The Raiders have been notoriously bad in this department over the years, often losing leads when their opponents out-adjust them at halftime. Even last week, the Chargers figured out how to shut down the run in the second half.

Some adjustments I'd like to see:

• Commit to the run. Thus far the Raiders seem more interested in letting JaMarcus throw his way into a rhythm than leaning on their offensive strength.
• Increase the pressure on Cassel. The defense isn't doing too badly, but Cassel has way too much time and the Chiefs have been slowly eating their way through the Raider D.
• Figure out how to shut down the run. Ha - that would be something...
• Stop getting dumb, untimely penalties. Ok, I might as well ask them to shift to a zone D while I'm at it.

Here we go, second half is on and the Chiefs are moving the ball. Let's see what kind of coach Cable is in a situation that hasn't looked great for the Raiders thus far.

Dan Bait: Mike Florio on "Murphy's Law"

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