Random Thoughts™ on the Raiders preseason game

kearly":n6nzvs5z said:

-Terrell Pryor finished with a passer rating of 9.9 and finished with fewer yards in the game (2 quarters) than Russell Wilson had in one pass. It was the best 9.9 passer rating performance I have ever seen, and will ever see most likely. Barring a huge regular season breakthrough by Quinton Patton, the 49ers WR corps are not far removed from being a disaster zone right now. Yet they don't even have the worst WR corps in the bay area.

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Music to my ears...my favorite Kearly quote of the season so far

I wouldn't be too concerned about the run game tonight; the Raiders were crashing their backers and safties into the run lanes, that's why the roll out to the TE was working so well.
In other news, I live in San Francisco and had to watch the Raider broadcast on TV. What a bunch of morons these guys are, I mean truly stupid human beings. During the broadcast they had their G.M. up for a visit...and he sounds like an idiot as well, night and day when compared to the Seahawk organization.

A perfect game for decision making. A few (Bradford, Kearse and Mayowa in particular) solidified roster spots. And several guaranteed themselves pink slips. But then there were several that complicated things. At 6pm I would have said Winston guy was finished, but he actually brought it in the game. Not sure he makes the team, but he did himself proud last night. Fells had me wanting to see more of him! Not sure why we haven't? The running game never got rolling last night but I just couldn't find a way to keep Ware or Coleman based on what I saw last night. I may need to watch it again though.

Sharkahawkolic":2msacqgc said:

I wouldn't be too concerned about the run game tonight; the Raiders were crashing their backers and safties into the run lanes, that's why the roll out to the TE was working so well.
In other news, I live in San Francisco and had to watch the Raider broadcast on TV. What a bunch of morons these guys are, I mean truly stupid human beings. During the broadcast they had their G.M. up for a visit...and he sounds like an idiot as well, night and day when compared to the Seahawk organization.

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Their commentators make me want to gouge my eyes out with a spoon. I endure them every year just to watch the Seahawks for the last game of preseason.

Aros":3rx5gqw1 said:

Good stuff as usual...My one question: Why the hell did Oakland's DL dominate so much?? Clearly they were focused on the run, but wow!

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You answered your own question.

It was obvious that Oakland decided they were going to stack 8-9 in the box and blitz the heck out of us to stop the run. Which is why Bevell started calling a ton of play action midway through the first quarter.

Kearly. All I can say is THANK YOU. I didn't get to watch the game. I did a HS football standby last night. Reading your stuff makes me feel like I saw it all.

kearly":2kqrj0tc said:

-Back to the Chargers game again. Holy crap our TE group looked awful back then, and the pre-preseason over-hyped Luke Willson was no exception. Since that time, Willson has taken small steps forward every week and, I'll be damned, he ended up the team leader in receptions by preseason's end. For a guy that had drop issues early on, his hands have looked very solid as of late and he's continuing his ability in college of being a pleasant surprise as a run blocker. Excuse me while I state the obvious: run blocking is kind of a big deal around these parts. So that's nothing to scoff at, especially for a joker TE with 4.51 speed. It's good to know that having him on the field won't telegraph intentions.

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The TE position is really the only position I'm worried about this year.

The DE's should start to gain health and get back onto the field by week 2-4 at the latest, that leaves the TE group the thinnest. If Miller goes down or is hobbled by his usual nagging injuries, that leave McGrath as the most experienced TE. Not good for a team that relies heavily on run blocking.

Call me crazy, but I want Fells on the roster. I appreciate McGrath's effort, who up until last night was my pick for the #3 TE, but with Willson showing some really solid development I feel a little safer about taking a risk with this guy. We can hide another TE on the PS.

Totally agree on the S. Williams catch. That was a TD if Wilson hits him in stride. One thing I'm seeing is that Williams is legitimately beating db's, not just winning jump balls at 6'5". On the replay, it looked like he ran a skinny post, released to the inside of the corner, then flared back a bit outside of the safety and just blew right by him. This surprised me as it seems like the Seahawks just keep telling Williams to go deep to see how many times it really will work. It's not a surprised to the opposition at tis point, and he's still getting open by a good margin.

Harper probably lost his roster spot, and I'm hoping he played bad enough to make it through waivers to the PS. He's a really big WR; people comapre him to Boldin but he's actually a LOT bigger. On both of his drops he was wide open; the guy gets separation, but he doesn't seem to know what to do with it. I think at KState he ran a ton of crossing routes, outs, etc. I forget the QBs name, but he didn't have an arm, and it doesn't look like Harper is used to just being able to outrun people. On his one catch, you can see what the coaching staff likes though....he got "lit up" by the Safety. I mean, that safety measured him up and went for the highlight reel, and yet Harper's head barely even snapped back. He's just that solid, and if he can learn our route trees well, and catch the damn ball, he' going to be murder to tackle by Nickle CBs.

I like me some Christine Michael, but I see why Turbin is ahead of him. Turbin has a year of experience in this offense and it shows; he knows what holes to hit, and when to dive into the line and call it a day. He's unspectacular, but incredibly solid. Michael has some Barry Sanders to him. He's explosive, but he dances too much and doesn't always trust his reads, or he's just not seeing them as quickly as Turbin is. Michael is a boom or bust guy; he's either going to lose you a few yards or bust a good one, but it seems to be up and down. I hope to hell we keep Lynch, Turbin and Michael active all 16 games, as I think Christine could be our secret weapon come playoff time.

I think Irvin is going to be damned good at where he's at. He's showing good instincts, and ability to diagnose plays, but his biggest problem still seems to be getting caught up in the wash. That's actually an instinct in itself, and also one of the tougher things to do as a LBer...diagnosing and following the play, while running through the wash of the line without taking your eyes off the ball carrier and still managing to shed blocks. Coverage was so much easier for me. But, I think this is the first time Bruce has actually ever played the position, and he's showing very well for that kind of inexperience. I won't try to call his sack totals, or claim he won't get 8 ever again, but he's going to make some impact plays from that LB spot. This might be the player I'm most excited to see develop this year.

Michael needs to sit on the sidelines this year ; to grow patience and understanding of the schemes. He's an AMAZING talent, but he will lose yardage in the regular season on the occasional play, and that's just not acceptable at this point. No Seahawks RB should lose yardage, at minimum it should always be no gain.

Give Michael a little more time and understanding, and he'll be quite the weapon. In the interim, give him 2-4 touches a game on read-options, shovel sweeps, bubbles, etc. Minimize his naivety to the Seahawks running schemes.

It was hard to assess the run game with the Raiders stacking the box on every play.

Good right up Kearly.

My observation

Sillga looks like a big run stuffing body. Can push the pocket effectively as well. May stay
Turbin. Yes he looked decent on 3rd down , but his stats from last season in short yardage were not good. I am not sold he stays number 2 all season. Our rookie has to drop some of the jukes and take what the defense gives.
OL Person was disappointing and Rishaw did not have a great game. Both I am unsure of at this point.
J Johnson made some bad decisions if he gets into a game he has to keep edge containment and twice was out of position. Guy had his best preseason game

Smelly McUgly":eecw7es2 said:

It was hard to assess the run game with the Raiders stacking the box on every play.

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I agree and one of the reasons I hope Carp can stay healthy.

MysterMatt":p12qw6ub said:

Call me crazy, but I want Fells on the roster. I appreciate McGrath's effort, who up until last night was my pick for the #3 TE, but with Willson showing some really solid development I feel a little safer about taking a risk with this guy. We can hide another TE on the PS.

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Yeah, I'd be ok with Fells. I love McGrath, but Fells seems like he's got some untapped potential since he's still learning the game.

As far a Wilson goes, I'm not shocked by his preseason play. He has been working with a lot of new and different WR's and TE's this preseason and at this point he's just playing catch with these guys and getting used to their route running and speed. His four MAIN GUYS (Rice, Miller, Baldwin, Tate) haven't played much this preseason and they all should be ready to roll week one. It'll be fun to watch Williams, Wilson (TE) and Kearse get in tune with Wilson over the season, oh and then there's Harvin.

The starting O-line should be good if they all can stay healthy. The backups have talent and some encouraging youth, but I'm a little concerned if anyone but McQuistan has to play much. Lets hope Carpenter can finally play most of the season without any major injuries. I just wonder if the team isn't watching other teams cuts for a veteran G/C backup (I'm not a huge fan of Jeanpierre as the backup center).

I agree 100% with Kearly, our TE's looked average or worse without Miller or McCoy to start the preseason, but these guys got better as camp and preseason wore on. I like all three guys (Wilson, Helfet and McGrath) and it should be interesting to see witch two will be kept with Miller.

It's to bad Irvin will miss the first four weeks. He's looking like he put in the time to be a real force this offseason. His pass rushing and just play making all over the field will be missed the first four weeks. Oh well, this defense is looking like a monster this year with or without some key guys being able to play. Lots of good young depth, cuts are going to be tough.

One last thing I'm interested in is how the RB/FB mess plays out. I think the team only keeps 5 WR's, so 6 RB/FB could be the magic number. I see Lynch, Turbin, Michael, Robinson, Ware (to much upside, no chance he makes it to the PS). At this point it's all about special teams or O-line depth. It's either (FB) Coleman, an extra TE, (WR) Harper or one more O-lineman, who knows.

MysterMatt":2bdgawoc said:

Call me crazy, but I want Fells on the roster. I appreciate McGrath's effort, who up until last night was my pick for the #3 TE, but with Willson showing some really solid development I feel a little safer about taking a risk with this guy. We can hide another TE on the PS.

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I wonder if Fells can grow a beard like McGrath. If he can, I say we go with Fells.

Mayowa made a couple mistakes in this game but overall I think he showed enough to make it to the 53, I'd take and develop Brooks, Mayowa, and maybe even Powell or Lotulelei over the likes of Ware, Guy, and Harper, or some other reserve we have carried for a couple seasons.

I wasn't able to watch the game , Anybody know if my boy Dwayne Cherrington played well?

Smelly McUgly":uj6tnxgc said:

It was hard to assess the run game with the Raiders stacking the box on every play.

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We had virtually no "Push" on the OL! The Raiders were in our backfield almost as fast as the ball! It must have been 3-4 times that our RB's were hit the instant they got the ball from the QB!

Bigpumpkin":3j90mtvl said:

Smelly McUgly":3j90mtvl said:

It was hard to assess the run game with the Raiders stacking the box on every play.

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We had virtually no "Push" on the OL! The Raiders were in our backfield almost as fast as the ball! It must have been 3-4 times that our RB's were hit the instant they got the ball from the QB!

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Right, cause they were stacking the box to stop the run. Which is why our play action worked so well all night.