Ohh... the Humanities!!

I’ll admit, Sunday was depressing. I left the stadium with a feeling of hopelessness. Monday morning was equally depressing, upon learning Sunday wasn’t just a bad dream. But by Monday afternoon, after forcing myself to relive 62 offensive plays and 64 defensive plays, I actually felt better.

And let me just say for the record…until you look at football in slow motion…you’re just guessing!

Here then, are MY observations:

There were a couple of bright spots. I thought the effort of Free Agent Fullback Mike Cox (42) was notable. He stuck with his assignments and was paying attention throughout the entire game. I also thought there were moments when Tyler Thigpen actually showed promise. And, I don’t think the score reflects the 3 ½ quarters of effort put out by the defense. This was a one score ballgame into the second half, against a team that only had to travel half the field to be within Janikowski range. So, let’s just blame the 5 plays of blown defense to inexperience and talk about offense. (Maybe 4 bad plays and 1 bad call…but still!)

I believe Damion McIntosh had a bad day, or a bad match-up. Either way, he was too slow to get any leverage or control on almost every play. The right side just seemed to cave all day. And many times it seemed as though Rudy Niswanger was caught in space with no one to block or progress to. This allows more defenders than could be accounted for in the backfield or gaps. Several times a Raider Linebacker was standing in a gap with no visual or physical impairment whatsoever, and able to pursue LJ from our side of the line of scrimmage.

And at the end of the game when the Chiefs were forced to pass, the linebacker was able to easily see Thigpen fake the handoff. Thus allowing him to pursue the QB full speed.

I also don’t think Larry Johnson is exploding the way he used to. I know others disagree, but that is what I feel. A plays timing or depth can be adjusted to account for this by analyzing what went wrong. But regardless, LJ has to make better reads. There were holes to run through Sunday. He just didn’t get to them in time, make the right read, or he bent the run and led the linebacker straight to the opening. It’s all in the hips!

In one play he starts to cut it back, then completely turns his back to the line preparing to get hit and push with his legs. In my opinion, he could have powered completely through it, had he made up his mind to do so. (Easy for me to say!)

That is the bad. Here is the good.

There were many plays that were just shy of working. Niswanger gets to his double with Jones one half second quicker; Johnson gets to the hole one half second quicker, or makes a better read, or cleaner cut; Thigpen hides the fake a little longer (also something Johnson needs to work on)…and bam! Three to five yards. Open receivers. First down here. Conversion there.

Honestly, people that know me…aren’t going to describe me with the word optimist. I’m just saying, I feel better after watching the film. And football is too complex to judge by the performance in any one game or one game’s statistics alone. Just as the Raiders defense is obviously not as bad as they looked on Monday Night Football.