QB: Jamarcus Russell looked average at best until the 4th, when the Broncos D started to relent. He had a very poor sense of timing, not knowing how long he had in the pocket and not knowing when to get rid of it. Its a typical rookie mistake, but if not addressed, could make him a Warner/Leftwich/Carr type QB that can't be counted on. He did however make some nice passes that were dropped or just mishandled. So the potential is there.
RB: The one position we can truly be happy about. Justin Fargas is showing his experience by really pounding the ball and getting yardage. McFadden and Bush only need to prove they are ready to take over by week 4 or 5, and we may get a nice trade return on Fargas. If not, we should expect to see a lot of 1st Q running by the Raiders, and only a little 2nd half running. Unless our defense suddenly shows up.
FB: Griffith is a G and I to this day wonder why he signed here. A great fullback and passcatcher. Zero complaints.
WR: Ronald Curry looked abysmal... terrible. This is supposed to be the safety valve for Russell, and he didnt make any plays for him. No one in the WR corps did anything to help out Russell. Our next offseason goal is to get him a WR to play with. Anquan Boldin should be our first call - if we could somehow get Boldin for DeAngelo Hall, I would backflip. Chaz Schilens looks pretty decent. Lelie's always had the speed, and this situation might prove to be great for him.
TE: Zach Miller might be our best receiver. He's definitely a sub-average blocker for the line, but he has some good hands, and thats all we really need him for - safety valve / red zone work. It would be nice to add a blocking TE to further enhance the running game, though. Madsen can't block either.
OL: Performed pretty well in my opinion. They seem to understand the zone blocking scheme better, as they opened up several holes for McFadden/Fargas, and protected pretty well for JaMarcus (despite the sack total). A lot of times they had trouble picking up blitzes which caused some confusion.. but this was one of our strong points.
DL: Average game. You can't expect them to generate a ton of pressure by themselves, but they should have done more than they did. Cutler had all day to throw and no one ever even rasied their hands to bat the pass down. Rushing-wise, they did much better, as Richardson and Kelly were really instrumental in shutting down the Broncos running game.
LB: Morrison and Howard were excellent against the rush, and average against the pass. Scheffler burned Morrison one time (horrible matchup for us, by the way), but other than that, the LBs did what they could.
CB: Asomugha played great football, and Royal barely burned him. DeAngelo Hall got absolutely roasted. He was a step behind Royal all night, and bit every fake. Nickelback Routt did a lot better than the past few seasons. Two decent performances wasted by Hall getting torched.
S: Huff and Wilson were very disappointing. Huff missed some easy tackles and Wilson was just very inconsistent, often letting people get behind him or closing late.
Defensive Coordinator: Rob Ryan looked abysmal out there, and I'm not going to even cast the blame to Al Davis. This was Ryan's call, ultimately, and the complete lack of blitzing and the idea that DeAngelo Hall is a shutdown corner killed us. We generated little pass rush due to not blitzing, and Cutler had all day to throw. On the plus side, our ground defense looked better than it has in years. But DEN's ground game likely wouldnt kill us. A very poor decision from a DC who does NOT want to be here. Repeating that - if Ryan had his way, he'd be w/the Jets.
Head Coach: Ultimately, the result on the field comes back to this guy. I'd love to tab him the hard luck loser, in between a DC that doesn't care and an owner who's a complete idiot stuck in the 70's, but the truth is that our offensive gameplan wasn't good either. Our WR corps has to be rivaling CHI/MIA for worst in the league, Russell looked skittish and nervous anytime his # was called (not a good sign for a former #1 overall), and we were so cautious with our new #1 that we didnt even give him a chance to change the game. So although Al is setting him up to fail, Kiffin is obliging him.
Owner: This part will always be directed to Al Davis. For signing DeAngelo Hall, Tommy Kelly, Javon Walker, Gibril Wilson, and all the other useless, big names you have signed the past years,
you. For forcing Kiffin to keep a DC who doesnt give a damn about the Raiders beyond this season, you. For hiring a DC that's afraid of the blitz and still drafting based only on 40 run times, you.Hopefully by this time next week, I can be singing the praises of the 1-1 Raiders.
