The manner in which we arrived at it, yeah. I was surprised to see our defense allow a young QB like Flacco a chance to find his rhythm. You need to put some pressure on him, force him into making a mistake or two.

Field position favored them big time, but I would have liked to see the Raiders think pass from the start. Just give up on the run completely, and go for broke. Especially with McFadden on the bench.

Clock management has long been an issue for this team, and I agree that an opportunity was lost at the end of the first half. You need to treat your scoring chances- especially against Baltimore, on the road- for what they are: gold. A field-goal at the half does two things: 1) gives you a little momentum heading to the break, and 2) changes your strategy if you do happen to get closer, which we did. Not saying we would have made a field goal, but you at least have to give the offense a shot to get within Jano’s range.

Coming east is tough for you west coast teams, but you did well in Buffalo, almost coming away with a victory. What the Ravens do when they fly west is to go early and adjust to the time difference before they leave Baltimore. That makes it easier to deal with the jet lag issue.

As far as the game, there was no comparison between defenses. I don’t get the positive comments about your CB’s, as these were the Ravens you were playing against and we still made the plays with our relatively average at best offense, including a blown coverage TD pass. Special Teams were horrible for you guys, when I was afraid that it was your strong point. What the hell was Higgins doing running out of bounds on the two yard line on that kickoff!?

At the same time, you do have a young team. JaMarcus is a beast and will get better once he has a line to protect him. McFadden will be great one day and Schilens has great hands and impressed us. Don’t give up, get rid of Al Davis (yeah, right!) and take care of the Chargers and Broncos!

Thanks for the cool aid Saint. Keep it coming. Wilson is everywhere on the field. I am impressed. No, the defense isn’t ranked at good as last year (so far) but exactly what would it be without Wilson? Hall is coming along too. We all expected him to be great from the start…think about how many balls are coming his way as a Raider versus last year. He is going to get better and better as he settles in and gets used to it. If he could just hold on to a few of those potential picks he will be a game changer. Can anbody say “stick em?”

Raiders @ Ravens 10/26

Let’s face it, the Ravens are a better team than us. They have surrounded their rookie QB with a bone-crushing defense and just enough talent on offense to keep it interesting. Given all that though, yesterday’s game was about execution and desire rather than talent, and the Ravens beat us thoroughly in those departments as well.

The "Barely" Good

JaMarcus Russell
The guy was getting hammered in the first half and made a poor decision that led to a safety. He also airmailed JLH on his interception. Still, he bounced back and managed to get 228 yards and a TD, highlighted by the beautiful Schilens catch. Something makes me think that the Raiders don’t practice mid to long passes enough and that’s why JaMarcus isn’t as accurate on them as we’d like.

The Not So Good

Raiders Defense

Raiders Pass Defense
On a typical day holding QBs to 13/25, 183 yards, and 1 TD would put this squarely in the "Good" category, but the mistakes were big mistakes, highlighted by the 70 yard touchdown throw where the D-line got absolutely no pressure on Flacco and Gibril Wilson decided that Demetrius Williams wasn’t worth covering. Even worse, it seemed like the Ravens converted a lot of long 3rd downs on check down throws where missed tackles led to first downs. Morrison and Howard led the team in tackles, but they were far away from the line of scrimmage.

Raiders Run Defense
192 yards and a 4.2 yard average. The Ravens offensive line pushed the Raiders D-Line around all day. The secondary also missed a lot of tackles against the run. Is it too soon to discuss moving Morrison to SLB and bringing in a bigger MLB via free agency or the draft? (Jasper Brinkley from South Carolina is a BEAST)

Raiders Offensive Line (In the First Half)
Yikes, it was not pretty in that first half. It looked like Cornell Green had the worst day of anyone on the line, followed by Harris. Still, there’s no way Mario Henderson would have been an upgrade in that situation. As for the run game, everyone knew that the Ravens were going to stop it, but the Raiders tried, in delusional fashion, to establish it anyway. This game confirms what we’ve all known about the Raiders O-line the past 2 years: above average in run blocking, below average in pass blocking. Don’t look now Kwame, John Abraham and Julius Peppers are coming to town.

Red Zone/Goal To Go Efficiency
Once again, 1 for 3 in the red zone and 1 for 2 in "goal to go" situations. The missed opportunity in the 3rd quarter was really the end of the game for the Raiders, settling for 3 points after the long bomb to Chaz Schilens. Credit the Ravens defense for keeping us out of the end zone.

Final Notes
The momentum of the Jets win is gone, but the Raiders get two home games in a row to get some love from the fans to help them out a bit. This game showed where the upgrades in the Raiders roster need to come, and its with the big guys. We simply need more talent on the O-line and D-line.