Championship teams are rarely caught by surprise. They turn up on time and ready. Opening plays show how prepared a team is for a game, opening games show how ready a team is for the season. When championship teams are caught off guard, they find ways to adapt, hang in there and then come back strong.
A positivity has been radiating from Oakland this summer—a new team with new coaches and a new philosophy.
After eight long years in the wilderness, the Raiders were again ready to compete, according to the vibe in Oak Town. The owner was ready, the coaches were ready, the ...
Wow! I sure didn't see that one coming. Maybe, as a Raider, fan I see things as being better than they really are.
Maybe all the improvements of the off-season were not as dramatic as they seemed. Maybe this is still a bad football team.
Or this might just be the case of young team going on the road and laying an egg against a quality opponent. Maybe this game has no bearing on what happens the rest of the season.
You've probably heard the old adage that no team is bad or as good as they looked in the previous week. I ...
I am busy at 1:46 am CT, researching and thinking about the situation with the Oakland Raiders following their blowout loss to the Tennessee Titans.
The patterns of the past must be perturbed, shaken and disturbed. They must change.
Here is a little data to support my viewpoint.
Oakland Raiders, First and Second Game of Regular Season: Win-Loss Record for the Decade
LW 2009
LW 2008
LL 2007
LL 2006
LL 2005
LW 2004
LW 2003
WW 2002
WL 2001
WW 2000
St. Louis Rams, First and Second Game of Regular Season: Win-Loss Record for the Decade
LL 2009
LL 2008
LL 2007
WL 2006
LW 2005
WL 2004
LW 2003
LL 2002
WW 2001
WW 2000
Historical Observations
1. The St. Louis Rams and the Oakland Raiders seem to be mirror ...
I know your hopes were high. Then, you may have had a tumble, down from the sky to "down here on the ground."
The game between the Tennessee Titans and the Oakland Raiders was painful to watch. The only thing that can be said is that the pain experienced by witnessing the loss by 25 points is hopefully the "labor pains" before a new birth and new life emerges for the Oakland Raiders in 2010.
A survey of the point-difference between competitors on Sept 12 yields the following results. The victors are in bold.
PtDiff
MIA 15 BUF 10 5
DET 14 CHI 19 5
CIN ...
Many of the Raider Nation know me as a Chargers fan. I've had many debates during the offseason with Raider fans about how well their offseason went, and I believe it went good. I did mention to not expect too much on the run defense being fixed, but many refuted my findings. It is rather interesting after all the "hooplah" that was made during the offseason in Oakland, the same question that haunted the Raiders last season seem to have arise from the ashes. That question is whether the run defense have improved.
The Raiders did some serious searching for ...
Trying to put a loss in perspective is really hard when you get blown out the way the Raiders were today. Some optimists will just simple shrug this loss off with things like, "We still have 15 more games to play", "This is the first real game that our new look team has played so they need time to gel", or "Our rookie center needs more snaps with Campbell." All of these things have truth to them however, as a fan who went to the game and sat there among a sea of ...
No team west of the New Meadowlands Stadium received as much as hype as the Oakland Raiders did during the off season.The Raiders were followed very closely by San Francisco, their Bay Area counterparts when it came to preseason hype.The San Francisco 49ers have been the choice of nearly every media pundit in the country to win the NFC West this season, as they seemed to be the only choice in the league's "worst" division.The Raiders rid themselves of quarterback JaMarcus Russell, perhaps the biggest draft bust in NFL history, opting instead for Jason Campbell.The Raiders went 3-1 during the ...
I am sure that many Raider fans feel like garbage after watching the Raiders get mauled by Vince Young, CJ2K, and the Titans. I know I did.
But there are a few reasons to remain optimistic that the Raiders season isn't as good as dead.
One reason, the Titans are a good team. After winning eight of their last 10 games in 2009, the Titans are a very good team with a very good offense led by Chris Johnson—the NFL's best rusher—and the mobile Vince Young. Young also has a good arm—see his long toucdown pass over Stanford Routt.
Number two, there are ...
This exactly what the Oakland didn't need. A lopsided loss to the Tennessee Titans to start the 2010 season.With so much optimism in the Raider Nation about the end of the bad times, this loss really has the potential to take the heart out of this team and ruin the season.Bu what can we really learn from the performance against the Titans?Well actually quite a lot.And it isn't all bad.Begin Slideshow
This is ridiculous. Same old safety being out of position long touchdown runs? How much can we take?
Mitchell is always in position. Did the coaches not see the goal line stop and the two run plays he blew up?
Don't listen to the false rumor that someone posted to the Internet about coaches wanting to release him.
He can be a Hall of Famer if you give him a chance. I am not kidding. I watched every play from last year and he is the real deal.
We cannot afford to wait any longer. Safety is the last line of defense for these ...