Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:10 am EDT
Do the Raiders ... not ... suck?
It's
hard to say for sure, because their opposition didn't provide the sternest of
tests, but ... could it be? Could it be that the Oakland Raiders managed to
impersonate a non-ridiculous football team for 60 minutes last night?
They competed. They were more physical than the Chargers. In the end, San Diego's offensive weapons proved to be just a bit too much, but for a good portion of the game, it looked like Oakland's physicality would rule the day. They had me very, very concerned that Tuesday would be a dark, dark day for me.
If you've been reading The Corner for any time at all, you know I don't want to be typing this. Mocking the Raiders is perhaps my favorite hobby. It brings me tremendous joy. I don't want to stop, but I might have to.
This is a legitimate defense. Up front, Tommy Kelly(notes) and Richard Seymour(notes) (not worth a 2011 first-rounder, but still) can make plays. Greg Ellis(notes) is a solid veteran. There is athleticism and talent at linebacker with Thomas Howard(notes) and Kirk Morrison(notes). Everyone knows about Nnamdi Asomugha(notes).
I don't want to go overboard here, because obviously, there are still some problems. I'm not predicting a winning record or anything, and JaMarcus Russell(notes) isn't making the Pro Bowl anytime soon.
That was not the performance of a joke of a team, though. If nothing else, they didn't have the constant mental errors and penalties that have consistently embarrassed the Raiders over the last few years. They played competent football. Maybe it wasn't great football, or even winning football, but it was competent. It was respectable. For the first time in a long time, the Raiders scared me, and it had nothing to do with the fact that some of those people in the stands might roam the streets freely.
At least until their next game, I'll be suspending all jokes about how the Raiders play football. They earned that last night.
Jokes about Raiders fans, though, remain on the table. I mean, come on.
Shutdown Corner
MJD
Shutdown Corner is an NFL blog edited by Matthew J. Darnell. Email him, and follow him on Twitter.
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321 Comments
1 - 23 of 321
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To say that this isn't winning football is ridiculous. You forget that the Raiders sport a young offense that is learning on the fly. They have what it takes to be at the very least a 7-9 team. It's not good enough for me, but it is however good enough not to be treated like the NFL's basement dwellers.
Stop acting like you're only guy who talks down to the raiders fans and organization. You're a pea in the pod. It's fashionable. I just don't know that it's worth this post. You still couldn't give them kudos on outplaying a supposed Championship contender. What is it going to take to make you eat your hat?
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Yeah you better keep your mouth shut. Right now after watching the RAIDERS man handle the dolts all game long I would say the AFC West is ripe for the RAIDERS to pick!!!
One Nation
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Joking about the play of the raiders is one thing, since again they have been highly disparaging. It however does not look bad at the present time and is on its way up rather than down. Joking about the raider fans though is a different thing. I rather have people who support the team I care about showing up an rooting for it however they want through the good and bad. Through the good and bad this is raider fans. Showing up in their exorbitant outfits and with the utmost intent to cheer their team to victory. I will take this any day over a fan of any of perennial losing teams like the Cleveland Browns or Cincinnati Bengals who when the going gets tough, will wear garbage bags on their heads in support of their team.
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RAIDER NATION
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I am really looking forward to watching the raiders this year. Who knows if the bolts can actually win a playoff game. As I am sure having LT on the sideline for the last two minutes was a subtle move of LT going bye bye.
GO RAIDERS
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The game should have at least gone to overtime where the Raiders would have had at least a 50/50 shot at winning, as Sebass has a superior kicking range. This was as bad as Hochuli;s bad call against the Chargers/Denver game last year... if we miss the playoffs by one game, the refs should be fired.
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As an early teen in the late seventies, I remember the Raiders on MNF kicking asses, including my Chargers. Air Coryell swung the pendulum in the early eighties, and there was no more entertaining team than SD then (Thank you,Don Coryell.) After the loss to Cincinnati in the Ice Bowl, my Chargers started sliding back into anonymity again. At least was there was a climax then, and again in '95 against the Niners in SB 29, before we entered another glacial period until 2001 (Bobby Ross, Thank you, too.) There's a lot of data to support the claim that most SB contenders who almost make it over the top become deflated the following season. I'm also a Sacramento Kings fan, and you remeber what happened to them after Game Six in the Western Conference Finals against the Lakers? They lost their winning identity, period.
Where's the grand anti-climax with the Chargers this time around? I say it was the departure of Marty at the hands of AJ Smith that ultimately will show the Chargers a hasty conclusion to their season hopes by week 9 this year.
It's not fair to pre-judge people, but I never liked the look or the past coaching of Norv Turner. SD LOVED Marty. AJ didn't, and it's dirty politics, not good front office business that drives yet another SD team to a mediocre fate.
The last two years were a sham. I love my Chargers till the day I die, but that's the honest truth. The Raiders deserve credit for exposing us, but if Al Davis' dysfunctional Raiders, albeit improved, can embarrass my team on the field like last night, how dysfunctional are we right now?
I hope I'm wrong, but I think this cycle has run its course, and San Diego's ill-deserved hype is gone for another five years.
Please let me be wrong.
John C, Charger Fan for Life
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Raiders did OK, but the Chargers really crapped the bed. 8-8 won't be good enough for the playoffs this year, and who the heck keeps putting them up as a contender every year?? Yeah they're exciting to watch, sometimes. I don't know if it's coaching or just their inconsistency (probably due to attitude) but someone wake me up when they actually win something.
I feel bad for LT, like Willie P, he's got no run blocking at all. Both are going to have their careers fizzle embarassingly, through no fault of their own.
1 - 23 of 321