Oakland Raiders News 12-05-07: Bring On The Cheeseheads!!!
by Raymond St. Martin (Saint) on Dec 5, 2007 10:06 AM PST
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PrintIt has been 5 years since I could, without wearing, silver and black shaded glasses, look at this team and believe that we could go into the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field and NOT ONLY COMPETE with a 10-2 Green Bay Team, but beat them and their dedicated, cheese loving fans!!!
The weakness of this Green Bay Team is their run defense. They allow 100 yards a game, which is good enough for 14th in the League. The key here, is that they score a ton of points, 26 a game (5th in the NFL), so most teams are forced to try and pass more than run on them. Thus, they have the 10th fewest carries against them.
As we all know about a rushing offense, thank you Kiffin and Cable for showing us "Mad Bombers" how this works, the defense begins to tire in the late third and early fourth quarter and the gains get bigger. So, IF, we can keep the game close enough that we can stick to a run based game plan we can run against these guys in the late third and fourth quarter.
What we also know is that a stout rushing offense opens up the middle of the field for the tight end and the deep corners for play action.
The key to keeping the score close will be shutting down Ryan Grant.
Grant is averaging 6.7 yards per carry in his last 2 games and 4 weeks ago he ran for 114 yards against Minnesota's staunch run defense.
Even though the run D did perform well against Denver they are still DEAD LAST in the NFL in yards per carry, so, I am sure that Green Bay is looking for a way to get him 25+ touches this week.
Green Bay passes so often and uses so many shotgun formations that he has been limited in his carries for the past two weeks (15 and 14 respectively). In fact, his season high workload is 25 carries in the Minnesota game which was a runaway 35-0 victory.
I am confident that if Favre tries to go to the air 39 times (His average per game), we will have a couple picks.
The Raiders are #2 in the NFL in interceptions per pass attempt (1 in every 21.6). That is an astounding fact, seeing that we don't have the luxury that San Diego (1 in 21.1), (New England (1 in 22.4) or Dallas (1 in 24.7) have in trying to pick off a Hail Mary once a game and padding their stats.
When you look at the Green Bay pass defense, one can only wonder what our pass defense would be like with Charles Woodson (11G, 4INT, 1TD, 8PD, 48 tackles) roaming in the 2007 Raider backfield. It is almost the same wonder that one gets when thinking about Randy Moss being on the receiving end of Daunte's passes.
The Green Bay pass defense has allowed the 6th most touchdowns in the NFL, 19 (1 in every 31.4 attempts), while the Raiders have allowed the second fewest, 8 (1 in every 40 attempts), despite being the 7th worst in the League in yards per attempt (Just BEND do not BREAK Baby!!!).
As far as fumbles go, Justin Fargas has only fumbled twice in 181 rushing attempts and Ryan Grant has yet to fumble in 121 attempts.
So, Raider Nation, it comes down to the same old story again. Run the ball, stop the run and win the turnover battle.
With the way that our boys have been playing for the last few weeks, I can see this Sunday being a REAL BARNBURNER!!!
Go RAIDERS, let's turn Lambeau into CHEESE FONDUE!!!
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Well put Saint
At this stage we don't even know who the starting QB will be, I suspect Culpepper if healthy due to the fact he played against the Packers so often. Like you I expect the Raiders will come out running, running and running. It remains to see how effective they will be. It is also unknown how injured Favre is, he will start but how bad is his elbow, questions to be answered, nevertheless I like the direction the Raiders are going in. I love the fact Kiffin is not afraid to sit high name guys and replace them with no name guys. I watched the game again on Tivo last night, was surprised how many reps Madsen was getting and even Higgins, didn't notice that during the game on Sunday. They didn't contribute necessarily but they are getting into the game, that is good. I like the infusion of young players onto the team.
Biggest disappointment for me this year is Sands who should dominate the middle of the line but instead is almost non existent.
by chinabob on Dec 5, 2007 10:37 AM PST reply actions
Sands is experiencing being RICH:
Most players drop off in the first year of getting a FAT contract. Especially when they are...you...know...already gluttonous.
by Raymond St. Martin (Saint) on Dec 5, 2007 11:29 AM PST up reply actions
Sad but true
by chinabob on Dec 6, 2007 9:56 AM PST up reply actions
Teams have been taking advantage:
Finally, Rob Ryan has been run blitzing and it has made a difference.
Last weekend I pointed out every time that Burgess made contact with the RB because you just don't see that too often.
by Raymond St. Martin (Saint) on Dec 6, 2007 10:11 AM PST reply actions
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