Oakland Raiders linebacker Kamerion Wimbley single-handedly sacked the Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler four times in Saturday night's win. Wimbley who was acquired in a trade with the Cleveland Browns this past offseason, has severely underperformed in his four-year career with the exception of his rookie season when he registered 11 sacks for the Browns. In 2009, when Browns Head Coach Eric Mangini took over, it was believed by both NFL experts and Browns fans that Mangini would be the coach to fully unlock Wimbley's potential as a pass rushing outside linebacker. After the 2009 season ended, Wimbley had only ...
The Oakland Raiders completed their second preseason game of the 2010 season with an impressive 32-17 victory Saturday night against the Chicago Bears and former rival, quarterback Jay Cutler.
The Raiders bordered on dominance in the first half. The Bears really only had two noteworthy offensive plays in the first half. One was an 89-yard scamper by running back Matt Forte. The other was a touchdown pass where Cutler avoided heavy pressure to buy time while Johnny Knox lost rookie Jeremy Ware in the back of the end zone.
If not for these two plays, the Raiders would have easily ...
The Raiders have done it again. This time, they didn't wait until the fourth quarter to start scoring. Jason Campbell had a QB sneak for a touchdown to go with his 10 of 20 passing for 170 yards and interception.
Michael Bush and Zach Miller, the most important pieces of the offense with Jason Campbell, showed the ability to move piles and break tackles.
On defense, Kamerion Wimbley had a game he should have saved for the regular season as he made four sacks in 30 minutes. Tommy Kelly, who has drawn criticism since signing for his $18 million guaranteed in 2007, had ...
Let's have a little fun. Let's just say that a doctor measures the heartbeat of a team.
The doctor notices a large swing from high to low in the pattern of the win chart for the San Francisco 49ers. In this playful analogy, the doctor concludes that the 49rs are more prone to failure or a "football heart attack."
The width of the interval that bounds the fluctuations of the Oakland Raiders is smaller than that of the 49ers.
Believe it or not, the doctor concludes that according to this measure the Oakland Raiders are a "healthier" team than the 49ers.
Again, there are patterns ...
When Albert Haynesworth shunned the Redskins' voluntary offseason program, the Redskins’ old-school hard-knuckled coach Mike Shanahan took offense.
In return, Shanahan devised a plan for payback which included a nonsensical timed conditioning test that he knew was nearly impossible to complete within the allotted time.
Next, Shanahan demoted Haynesworth to a backup role.
On Saturday night against the Baltimore Ravens, Haynesworth entered the game in the third quarter with the backups. The disgruntled defensive lineman responded, "Third quarter. I'm a ninth-year pro. I don't think I should have been out there in the third quarter. But, for having 'headaches' ...
Some say that preseason games don't count, but you bet they celebrated when the Oakland Raiders defeated the Chicago Bears. In some ways, then, the victories do count during preseason.
Evidence of good coaching from Tom Cable, Hue Jackson, and others is what made the difference. Also, the intelligence, integrity, intensity, and stamina of the team certainly distinguished the Oakland Raiders on August 21.
Moving on and moving up
Well, let's move on and prepare to befuddle the next opponent, the San Francisco 49ers.
Here is the data of total wins per regular season:
Oakland
49ers
Year
9
2
1978
9
2
1979
11
6
1980
7
13
1981
8
3
1982
12
10
1983
11
15
1984
12
10
1985
8
10
1986
5
13
1987
7
10
1988
8
14
1989
12
14
1990
9
10
1991
7
14
1992
10
10
1993
9
13
1994
8
11
1995
7
12
1996
4
13
1997
8
12
1998
8
4
1999
12
6
2000
10
12
2001
11
10
2002
4
7
2003
5
2
2004
4
4
2005
2
7
2006
4
5
2007
5
7
2008
5
8
2009
Observations
1. The San Francisco 49ers have more severe drops in performance ...
For the Raiders, it has been a long seven-year stretch.
Dealing with issues ranging from defensive failures to quarterback nightmares, the Raiders are hoping that the latest formula of passing, young strength on defense and hard running can lead to good results. For the Raiders, it has lead to a 32-17 win on the road, and a 2-0 record in the pre-season.
For the Bears, last season didn't turn out exactly as they had hoped, but this preseason will be about seeing how the offseason changes improve a club hoping for better defense.
Early on, the Raiders seemed set to roll into the regular ...
On the first offensive possession, Jason Campbell completed all five of his attempts for 89 yards and capped off the drive with a one yard running touchdown.
That equates to a 118.8 quarterback rating.
Campbell finished the first quarter going seven-of-11 for 141 yards, one rushing touchdown, but ended the first quarter with an interception.
On the defensive side of the ball, Tommy Kelly and Kamerion Wimbley took turns sacking Bears quarterback Jay Cutler.
Regardless, the Raiders scored 10 points in the first quarter but the defense gave up a 89 yards run for a touchdown by Matt Forte with 22 seconds remaining in the ...
When I look at the Oakland Raiders quarterback situation, I can't help to think that the Raiders are in serious trouble. All the pressure of "saving" the Oakland Raiders has been placed on ONE player's back for yet another season. This idea leads me to the question, what happens if that player fails?
Jason Campbell will have less than two full games to build a rapport with his receivers before opening day. Just like last year, the quarterback's supposed No. 1 target is still injured and not up to speed. In fact, most of his major weapons have been playing sparingly ...
Rumors have come out of the Oakland Raiders front office about the Raiders acquiring a veteran wide receiver to their receiving corps, specifically because of the nagging foot injury to Chaz Schilens and the slow progress of Darrius Heyward-Bey.
Coach Tom Cable is frustrated with the constant dropped passes in practice.
"I still feel that there are too many on the ground," Cable commented. "We fight that constantly. We're certainly improved in that area, but we've got to keep cleaning it up and cleaning it up. There's days where you feel you're making improvement on that and there's days you feel like, 'OK, we still have ...