Q & A With Silver and Black Pride:

In all honesty, he has NEVER come off as someone I’d sit around discussing Plato’s Academy with, but his footb all acumen iis definitely there.

His reads have been great this season, it is just that his accuracy hasn’t been there.

His favorite targets, Johnnie Lee Higgins and Chaz Schilens, weren’t available last week and he has been trying to get on the same page with a couple of rookies. That would be tough for anyone!

I have noticed that the offense has been VERY simple, especially when you compare it to the Colts or Saints with all of the confusion created by multiple looks and checks on the line. Some will say that it is dummied up, and I can’t argue with that, especially after the terrible play calling last week.

If it’s mental as in “Read the defense and go through progressions” then he is definitely coming along. way ahead of where he was last year.

If it’s mental as in “I’ve got to get my mind right and be a leader” then again, he’s way ahead of where he was last year.

Obviously there’s room for continued improvement in both cases, but there has been improvement.

But if you mean mental as in “Calm down, cowboy and do things right” then I haven’t seen as much improvement as I’d like. His footwork is still off. He still doesn’t look off the safety.

Mainly, I think his problem is that he throws EVERY SINGLE BALL like a laser. He needs to learn touch. He needs to learn to take a deep breath, control the adrenaline and just play.

McFadden does seem to go down on his own a lot! It is as if he his feet are moving faster than his body. He is best used in space, with Michael Bush being the man up the middle, but for some reason, Tom Cable sent McFadden up tyhe middle about 10 times last week before he finally sent him off left tackle for a TD.

I would use a bunch of screens and challenge the safeties deep.

I’d also go right at the Nose Tackle to start the game then move the rushing game outside. I would also have a few QB scrambles and RB draws to keep the linebackers honest.

He’s the single most underrated offensive lineman in the AFC, if not all of football.

I was worried because Chris Morris actually beat out Samson Satele for the starting center position even though Satele was specifically traded for to be the starter. But, when Gallery has gone out twice now (once briefly with back spasms in Week 1 and then after breaking his leg on Sunday) Satele has come in, Morris has shifted to guard and things kept going pretty well. Fortunately, Satele’s problem was not physical talent, but difficulty in learning to become a ZBS center, which as you probably know is the QB of the offensive line.

McFadden doesn’t fight nearly as much as I’d like to see, although if you listen to some people you’d think he goes down the first time a defensive player gets within 10 feet of him. He’s all about explosiveness. Running him up the gut drives me batty because he doesn’t have room to work. Get him in space and watch him make defenses look silly. We have Bush for the tough running. Why Cable can’t grasp that, I have no idea. He’s a good coach, but he seems to have a tendency to try to fit square pegs into round holes.

Denver is the third 3-4 defense in a row we’ve faced, so I anticipate a style similar to what we saw against SD and KC. I’d hope we see more commitment to the run like we did against San Diego. It seemed to me like Cable was so desperate to get a lead and take advantage of KC’s mistakes that he tried to force the passing game when it clearly wasn’t there.

I’d look for a lot of running behind our left tackle and guard. Even with Gallery out, the left side of our O-line is the best and I think Mario Henderson will be able to handle Kenny Peterson without much trouble and Elvis Dumervil is much more suited to rushing the passer than stopping the run.

1. It should be a mid to late first rounder because the Raiders should be at least in contention by 2010.

1. How many first rounders are going to be as good as Seymour?

1. I believe that he will sign here long term in order to avoid being franchised.

1. His 3.8 million dollar salary is peanuts compared to his impact on the field.

I would’ve been less thrilled if it had been a 2010 first round, since it’s still likely to be top 15, but in 2011 there’s a good chance that our team will start to seriously gel. Especially with San Diego on its way down and KC showing no marked signs of improvement yet, we’re likely to be slugging it out for the division title in December 2011.

Anyway, a player like Seymour doesn’t come along every day for whatever price. A 29 year old Richard Seymour is a sure thing. A D-Lineman fresh out of school is not. I think a lot of people criticizing the Seymour trade just didn’t realize what dire straits our run defense was in. Awful doesn’t even come close. Then too, Seymour brings veteran leadership and, most importantly, a winning attitude. Most players on this team literally do not know what it’s like to win. Importing Seymour and a guy like Greg Ellis brings successful veterans from winning cultures for the young, raw talent (and we’ve got that in spades) to look up to.

Now, if Seymour walks after this season, I’ll come back here and say the trade was bad. But Al will open up the checkbook, I have no doubt.

He is measured only against himself in this League, truly.

He turned a 400k loan into a 300 million dollar franchise.

As to your question, he does know how to build a team and he is never shy to re-load while rebuilding.

Adding Ellis and Seymour in the off-season has really answered the paryers of all Raider fans. He also found Chris Johnson when he was nearly “washed up”.

He does know how to build a team, the last 6 seasons have just been awful and many in the MSM have been taking shots at him, now that the losing has allowed them too.

I believe that the Raiders will be a winning team again, under Davis.

But he’ll learn. (For the record, I actually thought Steve Young’s comment about “You can’t teach accuracy” was asinine. Raiders beat reporter Jerry McDonald said that Young has personally told him that when he was new in the league, he wasn’t accurate at all. He had to learn from coaching and watching Joe Montana play. Ah, concussions.)

Your O-line is really really good. So is our defenisve line. It should be an interesting matchup. One key will be if Ryan Clady can handle Richard Seymour one-on-one. Gerard Warren and Greg Ellis had great games on Sunday because KC was devoting their left tackle, left guard and center to stopping Seymour and Tommy Kelly, which left them one-on-one with KC’s right guard and tackle . The difference with you guys is that your O-line is considerably more talented than KC’s. They HAD to double Seymour and Kelly or face utter destruction.

Yes I do have confidence that we can sustain drives if JaMarcus plays well. If not, then we’re in trouble. This whole team is on his shoulders.

Not sure who we paly that day but we will win puerly on the strength of those socks.. lol

But I can tell you the guy is an AWESOME guard. A straight up mauler in run blocking and very very very solid in pass protection.

His replacement will likely be Chris Morris, who will slide over from center and be replaced at center by Samson Satele. That being said, we do have this report from Jerry McDonald:

With Gallery out, Cable wouldn’t commit to making the same Morris/Satele move made in Weeks 1 and 2

"I want to sit down and really think that through this evening and tomorrow and make a good call," Cable said. "We’ve got to look at it like the plan to fix the next month where we can be productive that way. That may be the right way to do it. I just want to make sure as I look at the big picture."

Cable said other options include Erik Pears, Khalif Barnes or Paul McQuistan at left guard, with Morris remaining at center.

The “X” factors are going to be Russell and Orton. Both can be wildly inconsistent in their play, not only from game to game, but from series to series within the same game. How will they match up against two very, very good secondaries. (Asomugha and Bailey are two of the 5 best corners in the league).

We know the line vs. line/running game vs. running game will be the story line. I think whichever team has the best QB play will win.

Remember Russell’s two games against you last season, though:

17 for 26, 180 yards, 2 TDs, 111.1 rating

10 for 11, 152 yards, 1 TD, 149.1 rating

Given his struggles last week, I’d look for a gameplan similar to Week 12 of last year. I do have to believe he’ll pass more like 18-20 times, though.

If he plays well, I think the Raiders can win something like 23-16. If he plays like he did against KC, then I can see the Broncos pulling out a 24-13 win because the defense will just wear out.

Right now I’m being optimistic for our side, so I’m going with the Raider victory.

Round 1 – Darrius Heyward-Bey, WR, Maryland:

The ultimate definition of “ask me in a couple years.” Certainly there were more NFL ready players. Only 1 catch in 2 games is discouraging, but given the way JaMarcus has been throwing the ball to his receivers, I’m not gonna hit the panic button yet (at least with regard to Heyward-Bey himself!). He and J-Russ have got to develop a serious rapport and do it SOON. Like, before mid-season. He’s too good a potential weapon to let languish. And right now, all we can talk about is potential. I will say he is as fast as advertised and blocks extremely well.

Round 2 – Mike Mitchell, S, Ohio

He was having a great camp until he tweaked his hamstring and missed every pre-season game. He was ready to go on opening night, but has only been used in special teams since he missed pre-season. He made a sweet solo tackle on Sproles during kick coverage. Looking at his highlights, everyone got all hot and bothered over the brutal hits he can deliver, but what I was most impressed by was his football sense. He can diagnose a play and close on the ballcarrier in a flash. I hope that translates to the NFL. We probably won’t see him at safety a whole lot until the 2nd half of the year, though.

Round 3 – Matt Shaughnessy, DE, Wisconsin

This was a reach for sure. I was very unimpresed with him during camp, but he did come on in the last two pre-season games. I thought maybe he should be cut and signed to the practice squad, but he made the team straight out of camp. He’s proven me wrong to a degree by proving in the pre-season and spot duty while spelling Ellis the past two weeks in having a very high motor and disrupting some plays in the backfield and harrassing the QB. He can only get better.

Round 4 – Louis Murphy, WR, Florida

Great pick, especially value wise. Murphy has already shown he’ll be good as soon as he polishes his game. Look for a breakout year in 2010.

Round 4 – Slade Norris, DE/OLB, Oregon State

I liked what I saw from Norris in camp & pre-season so I was surprised when he was cut. But, fortunately, he was signed to the practice squad. I think he has big potential. Apparently the Raiders like what they see in him too, they just felt he hadn’t fully transitioned from playing DE most of the time to playing full time OLB.

Round 6 – Stryker Sulak, DE/LB, Missouri

Epic fail here. He was cut by the Raiders before camp even started. He was signed by Green Bay and was part of their first batch of roster cuts in the trim to 75. As far as I know he hasn’t signed with anyone else.

Round 6 – Brandon Myers, TE, Iowa

One of the pleasant camp surprises, Myers was drafted as a blocking TE, but suddenly started catching everything thrown his way. He’s the 3rd TE right now on the roster behind Zach Miller and Tony Stewart, but I look for him to move up to #2 next season.

He moves inside to DT on passing downs to allow Trevor Scott to come in as pass rush specialist.

One of the things I liked that they did against SD that they seemed to get away from against KC was moving Seymour around constantly. He played all 4 positions by the end of the night and it seemed to confuse the Charger offensive line.

Right guard and right tackle……well, not so much.

Gallery’s loss will hurt the running game, but Chris Morris has been a real pleasant surprise at center and should be able to play guard effectively too.

….he finally figured out how to be an NFL coach. So we were mostly for retaining him, especially since the team showed pretty good. He appears to be trying to bring the swagger back to the team, which is something that we’ve all missed.

A lot of people think Cable is a puppet of Davis, but that’s not fair. ANY coach is going to have to defer to Davis to a certain degree. For a lot of coaches who are extremely Type A personalities and control freaks, it explains why they don’t want to come to Oakland.

….I was mostly on his side last year, until I realized—not to put too fine a point on it—what an insufferably arrogant prick the man was.

Anything else would be treason. :-)

Seriously, though, I do think mistakes and field position will rule this game.

….scare the crap out of me. Stanford Routt is a dime corner masquerading as a nickel DB. John Bowie probably couldn’t find a roster spot on any other team.

Our starting corners are one of the best starting tandems in the league. The depth after them is appallingly bad. Wouldn’t mind seeing the Raiders take a shot in the draft in the second or third round to try and secure a true nickel DB.

….three years ago. Nice to see him finally coming around. He seems like a good kid who just could never put it together. This season was known to be his last chance…either perform or hit the waiver wire. As for why he suddenly came on this season? I have no idea. Sometimes with players, the light bulb just finally clicks on, you know? We’re hoping it happens with JaMarcus next.

He’s also finally playing deep free safety, which is his natural position. This is another way of saying “Rob Ryan is a moron and I’m glad he’s gone.”

Russell has got to have a run game behind him. But with him being so ineffective, teams just stack the box. Which leads to a bad run game, which then spirals into a vicious cycle that feeds on itself.

He needs to improve. He doesn’t have to be Tom Brady or Drew Brees or Peyton Manning—anyone who expects him to be is a moron—but he does need to be a Matt Hasselbeck or Kerry Collins. that is, an efficient game manager who limits mistakes but can also get the job done with his arm if it comes to it. Of course, I’d like for him to be a touch above either of those two, given his physical pedigree and huge contract!

Brandon Spikes out of Florida or Rolando McClain out of Alabama could be plugged into the middle, with Morrison sliding to SLB, where he’s also very effective.

Sean Weatherspoon out of Missouri would be a great pick to replace Ricky Brown on the outside.

Of course if we have a shot at drafting any of those, we’ll be drafting in the top 15, so i’m kinda hoping we don’t. :-) But that’s who I’d take if I could.

This is an Urban Legend, isn’t it?

…is Warren Sapp. Which is another way of saying it’s not true.

They stole his hat uponarrival and threw it in the trash and dumped nachos all over his back. His new nickname is “Nacho” now.

Thomas Howard has been everywhere these past two games playing with fire an intensity. He’s one of the best pass-defending linebackers in the league. In fact, I’ll go farther and say he may be the most underrated weak side linebackers in the league as well. Kirk Morrison in the middle had a bad game against SD, but had 13 solo tackles in Kansas City. The weak spot right now is Ricky Brown on the strong side.

Problems tend to arise when they have Morrison drop back too far, which leads a huge hole in the middle. Our linebackers also aren’t great at blitzing, which may explain why we don’t do it a whole lot.

It’s like Reverse-Stockholm Syndrome, where we start empathizing with the inmates. Not Natural. = )

Yeah, it’s tough for us too. We all picture you as orange gremlins at normal times. It’s tough to realize you guys are nice, smart people. :-)