Las Vegas Raiders Thread

Prefab Sprouter wrote: »

Was very happy on Sunday night and glad I stayed up to watch the game. Great effort from the Offense. The Running Game still needs improvement but the receiving corps really stepped up. Even fringe players like Holmes and Roberts made good contributions. Defence needs to be looked at. The complete lack of a pass rush is very disconcerting. Flacco had all day to throw, and wasnt sacked. Whatever about him, giving Manning or Rivers that amount of time will be disastrous. The secondary held up better than expected although I cant imagine that will be consistent. Cleveland next week is a good team for us to face. Inexperienced QB, mediocre WR corps, we have a chance to be competitive but the Defense needs to turn up next week.

That sums it up nicely, but without Suggs the Ravens pass rush was less fierce which helped Carr, even though he took a few solid hits.

ButcherOfNog wrote: »

Yup, hard to know why our front 7 is doing so poorly, I expected far more from them, they need to get some sort of pass rush working or our weak secondary will get picked apart as you say

So true, you can't give up 34pts in a game and expect to win too many.

Maybe they will consider moving Mack back to linebacker and moving him around like they did last year, and playing Mario Edwards Jr at DE instead. Edwards is strong against the run and setting Mack free might give him more opportunities to make plays.

The team are obviously looking around for answers, they waived safety Tevin McDonald today and claimed cb David Amerson via waivers from Washington. Amerson was a second round pick in the 2013 draft, but never developed as they had hoped at the Redskins, though hopefully with a change of scenery, a different scheme and new coaches to work with, he will add something to the defensive secondary, apart that is, from being yet another young cornerback. It is unusual to see a team cut a second round pick after just two years though, but he must have talent or he wouldn't have been taken in the second round in the first place. Its a pretty low risk move in any case.

Well lets not count our chickens......back to back road wins....... we'll see! I did enjoy the game, great to see a consistent offense take the field. The receiving corps is growing in confidence and Amari Cooper is looking more and more like the second coming of Tim Brown. He is still capable of glaring errors (Punt return?? really??) but his route running is superb and he is starting to get a good understanding with Derek Carr. Being a Raiders fan you are always looking for the errors to highlight and whilst the two wins have been great, we are doing it without a decent secondary and the other AFC west teams will exploit that to the max. Woodson is playing with essentially one good shoulder. Thats not a good sign. But the front seven really are starting to click. That Cleveland offensive line has two pro bowlers on it and we gave them a torrid time (I know, I know, we havent won the Superbowl but allow me a moment of boastfulness, its been pretty thin since 2002!). What I'm liking is that there seems to be a confidence building within the squad that they can at least compete. Considering the awful teams of the past 10 years we hqave fielded, it was really nice to watch your team and know that coming into the 4th quarter, they were in the game. We are going to lose games this season and some of the performances wont be pretty, but we are definitely a better team than last year and maybe, just maybe, we can actually begin to believe that we are starting to find a way back to being competitive!

ButcherOfNog wrote: »

I think you meant 3-1, but I completely understand how you got confused there, I'm normally over the moon with a 1-3 start

Interesting times at last, very impressed with Carr the last two weeks, Cooper looks as good as everyone says he is, and Murray played very well last night too.

Looking at our schedule, we need to win against the Bears and then start to get some wins against better teams, I think if we're 4-4 after 8 games, that's best case scenario. If Roethlisberger is out for our game, then maybe 5-3.

I don't like the look of the last 5 games we have this season, I expect we'll beat the Chargers in Oakland, but the other 4?

From what I have seen it is expected that Roethlisberger will be missing that game so certainly helps the Raiders cause in that one. The big thing is to take advantage of the Bears struggles and get the win next week. The game is very winnable but lets face it its hard to put too much belief in the Raiders yet even in what looks like a very winnable game next week in Chicago.

Prefab Sprouter wrote: »

I agree eire4, still very much early days yet. I've enjoyed the last two games but not expecting anything more than the ability to compete. EVen if we lose, once we are competitive, I'll take that.

Have to agree. An 8-8 type season would be a massive step forward for the Raiders. There has now been 2 good drafts in a row with quality players coming in there is cap room so if managed properly there is the possibility to build up a good Raiders team over the next couple of seasons. The keys are I think to continue on focusing on building with youth and from the draft and not get caught up with spending big money on big name veterans in free agency just because the Raiders have some cap space.

Walford!! Yes, werent they expecting big things from him??? Good call, heyjude, forgot about him. To be honest, I think squad depth could be an issue as the season goes on. Like you heyjude I'm a long time fan (1983) and the years following 2002 were really demoralising, to the point where I dont get hyped anymore by what the media write. Too many false dawns. But there is a confidence about the team at the moment that's a reminder of how we used to be, even if it is only for a few weeks!!!!

Happy birthday to Charles Woodson, who is 39 today.

Woodson's interception against Chicago last Sunday was the 62nd of his career taking him to 9th place on the all time list and he is first among active NFL players.

The top ten all time list is


+ Hall of Fame member

1. Paul Krause+ 81 1964-1979
2. Emlen Tunnell+ 79 1948-1961
3. Rod Woodson+ 71 1987-2003
4. Night Train Lane+ 68 1952-1965
5. Ken Riley 65 1969-1983
6. Ed Reed 64 2002-2013
7. Ronnie Lott+ 63 1981-1994
Darren Sharper 63 1997-2010

9. Charles Woodson 62 1998-2015 2TM
Dick LeBeau+ 62 1959-1972
Dave Brown 62 1975-1989

So if Woodson can manage another 3 interceptions in the remaining 12 games, he would move up to a tie for fifth overall. An improvement in the pass rush would no doubt help achieve this.

ButcherOfNog wrote: »

Well, 2-2 is OK, will be interesting to see if we can compete with Denver this weekend.

Pity the team (Murray) made so many mistakes against the Bears, we really should have won that.

Yeah, I agree mate. It was annoying to see us snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Having said that, isnt it great to still be in with a shout by the time the game reaches the 4th quarter??? This weekend will tell us how far off the pace we are, if at all.

3-3 and looking good, big test next week at home to the Jets, if we get a win in that game ........

Hayden was outstanding yesterday

heyjude wrote: »

Which means its blacked out on NFL Gamepass :mad:

I took out a Raiders NFL Gamepass sub and expected to see all 16 regular season games live, as with the Raiders not expected to contend, none of their games were expected to feature on Sky(so no blackouts). Paying for 16 live games and getting 15 or less stinks. The blacked out games aren't listed when you start your sub and with all Raider home games starting at the less busy later time slot due to their West Coast location, if they stay in contention, who knows 2-3 of their remaining games could be on Sky!, in which case you're paying for 16 live games and maybe getting 12-13 and the right to look at a re-run a day or two later(when you already know the final score :mad:)

I think the NFL should have to refund all UK and Ireland Gamepass subscribers for blacklisted games that the subscriber was not notified of in advance, when they commenced their subscription(and a blanket warning that an unspecified number of games might be blacklisted isn't enough). At the very least its misleading to boast that you can watch all sixteen of your teams' games live. If they want to cash in on showing a game on Sky, they shouldn't also be able to charge NFL Gamepass subscribers the full rate for the same game and then only allow them access 24 hours later. The charge for watching any sporting event 24 hours later, is always lower, except with NFL Gamepass.

I hope NFL Gamepass has an end of season questionaire for its subscribers.....

They do, it's called a renewal. You should say no. It's a blatant rip off.

Wow that was a real statement performance there by the Raiders and by Derek Carr. The Jets have one of the best secondaries in the league and he just tore them up. We will see how things look after the next 2 games against Pittsburg away next week and then the Vikings at home but I said before the Jets game that these 3 games would tell the tale on where this Raiders revival is at and that is one very good perfromance to start these 3 games.

Congrats lads.. some good drafting at long last is starting to pay dividends for yee. Meanwhile the arse has fallen out of our franchise, praying for the owners to sell and the whole coaching staff to be fired. The Raiders are now the best team in CA how mad is that.