Monday, Fox Sports MLB writer Ken Rosenthal wrote a piece that described the Oakland Athletics as a “revolving door of misfits.” He also used a couple other not so inviting words to describe A's general manager Billy Beane’s highly-performing team. From Rosenthal: If the “Moneyball” A’s were, in the words of author Michael Lewis, baseball’s answer to the island of misfit toys, what the heck is this bunch? An archipelago of All-American rejects, plus one Cuban defector? Misfit toys? Rejects? Cuban Defector? Come on!Way to take an inspiring team that has defied expectations and rip it to shreds. This was ...
If the name Travis Tripucka sounds vaguely familiar to NFL football fans, it should.Tripucka is the son of former NBA all-star Kelly Tripucka and grandson of former AFL all-star quarterback Frank Tripuka.This afternoon Tripucka tweeted that he will be trying to make a name of his own as the contingency plan for the Oakland Raiders if long snapper Jon Condo is out this week.Just a few months ago, Tripucka was spending an afternoon teaching the art of long-snapping to the Queen of Peace high school football team as a favor to head coach Steve Romano. As Tripucka spent that afternoon in ...
As I hopped into my car Tuesday morning and turned on sports radio, I was anxiously awaiting the same thing as always following my favorite team's game: analysis.In this case, less than 12 hours after the Raiders had lost to the Chargers on Monday night, I was eager to here what the talk radio host had to say about the game.And then, I was stunned.The sad part is that it was the same stunned feeling I got reading tweets, message boards and comments during and immediately following the game.I was stunned was because the same Oakland Raider fan base that ...
Head coach Dennis Allen announced that Jacoby Ford is having surgery on his injured foot and will miss a significant period of time (via Jerry McDonald on Twitter). It's a significant blow to an Oakland Raiders offense that had trouble stretching the field vertically without Ford and Denarius Moore against the Chargers last night. If you were holding out hope that "significant" meant only a few games, guess again. Greg Papa, the voice of the Raiders, said that Ford could be out for the year (via 95.7 The Game).Rookie receiver Rod Streater will earn the majority of the snaps in Ford's slot ...
Monday Night's hard-to-watch performance by the Oakland Raiders will not sit well with the Raider Nation.The Raiders opened the 2012 season with a thud, losing the season opener 22-14.The silver and black's only touchdown came with 54 seconds left in the game on a two-yard pass from Carson Palmer to rookie Rod Streater. Streater also helped Palmer convert the two-point conversion to bring the Raiders to within eight. The Raiders' ensuing onside kick failed and the Chargers ran out the clock and ended the game in victory formation.The Raiders' defense hung tough, forcing five field goals by Chargers place kicker ...
The new era of Oakland Raiders football has officially started, but "excellence" is not a word many would attach to an eight-point loss to the visiting San Diego Chargers. Oakland’s offense could only manage 14 points with Carson Palmer and Darren McFadden playing together in a regular season game for the first time. The special teams unit struggled much like it did during the preseason, and the difficulties were only magnified when long snapper Jon Condo was forced to leave the game with a head injury. Perhaps the positive that came out of the game was the play of Oakland’s ...
Opening week is always the time where you get most knee-jerk reactions. If I told you the Raiders would out gain their opponent by 63 yards, allow zero second half touchdowns, shut down the run and only have six penalties and one turnover, you'd think they would be victorious, right?Well, the Raiders lost 22-14 in a game that was not as close as the score indicated. And although it's never good to start the season with a loss, there were positives to take away from Monday night's game.First and foremost, the Raiders run defense was outstanding. The Chargers gained 32 ...
With a 22-14 victory over the Oakland Raiders on Monday night, the San Diego Chargers took an early-season driver's seat in the race for the 2012 AFC West division crown.Led by a voracious defensive performance and some timely throws from Philip Rivers, the team looked far different from the one that went 8-8 in 2011—for both the better and worse.Oakland also saw some promising signs on Monday night, especially from Darren McFadden, who looked explosive throughout the contest. However, it was some of the same mistakes from last season that ultimately led to the Raiders' downfall.Overall, it was a mixed ...
Minor league strikeout leader Dan Straily (190 strikeouts in 152 innings) will return to the majors on Tuesday night, starting in place of the recently injured Brandon McCarthy. In his start against the Angels on Sept. 5, McCarthy was struck in the head by a line drive off the bat of Erick Aybar. He was taken to the hospital for tests and underwent surgery later that night to remove an epidural hematoma near his brain. The right-hander continues to make progress just days after the operation, as he was able to walk down the hallway and climb four steps at ...
The Oakland Raiders put on a lousy performance Monday night in a 22-14 loss to the San Diego Chargers in which the Silver and Black never really went on the attack. It took Carson Palmer 59 minutes to score the team's first touchdown, and Travis Goethel took ten years off of everybody's life with those horrible snaps.There was little good but a whole heap of bad and ugly for Raiders fans to sift through for the rest of the week. It's time to roll up our sleeves and get down to business.Begin Slideshow