Talkin' With Tyvon - #7

Greetings Silver and Black Pride community! I am pleased to bring to all of you the 7th installment in the series, Talkin' With Tyvon, from Raiders starting strong safety Tyvon Branch.

After the shellacking the Raiders took from the Giants this past Sunday, it's frankly amazing that any Raider player would want to speak to the Nation and its unhappy fans. But Tyvon is here again to speak to our community and give us his straight-up answers.

The Community is invited to pose some questions for Tyvon in the comments section and he will do his best to get as many of them answered as quickly as possible:

Hello Raider Fans! I am sure you are all taking this one just as hard as I am. It is tough to swallow any loss, much less one of that caliber. The Giants game planned very well against us and took advantage of every one of our miscues. We knew coming in that we could not make any mistakes, but we did and we lost. Time to move on and concentrate on Philly this weekend. They pose some different challenges then teams we have faced recently. Depending on how much they run their wild cat stuff with Vick, we will have to game plan accordingly. From what I have seen so far he has not had a ton of touches, but we will be prepared for everything.

TB

 SABP: These are definitely some difficult times now for the Raiders. Do you feel that outside distractions and the adversity the team is facing now could be causing some drop off in focus or direction? Do you believe that team will now be more emboldened to turn it around in the face of that adversity?

TB: There are some outside factors buzzing around the locker room right now, but those are all things we must block out. Every day we get to put on the silver and black and play football. No distraction should take us away from that. It is all about coming together as a team. At the end of the day, the team is all we have.

SABP: It got pretty ugly out there on Sunday, but I did notice something that I wanted to ask you about. It is your tackling technique. It seems that you had no problem tackling their 265 lb lineman playing running back, then I realize that your technique allows you to bring down larger men without a problem. Can you give us a tackling 101 breakdown? What is YOUR technique?

TB: I usually try to come in to any tackle as quickly as I can. I am a decent size guy, and when I get my momentum going it can deliver a punch. For those bigger guys it is crucial to hit them low. No matter how big you are, you need your legs. From day one, we are always taught to stay low. As fast as the game is played, it is hard to think about anything other then assignments out there…it is all about making plays.

SABP: It looked like the Giants saw, on tape, how Steve Slaton was able to cut back, against your pursuing defense, and beat you guys against the grain and they used Bradshaw in the same way yesterday. How do you correct that? I am sure that the Eagles will be planning on doing the same things next week.

TB: We will dissect that in film and work on keeping the flow slowed down. We need everyone to pursue, but we have to be disciplined in our approach. The backside guys have to be able to play with patience and pursue accordingly.

SABP: The high flying Eagles will be coming to town Sunday and for the Raider defense, their offense presents a lot of challenges. In particular, their TE, Brent Celek is quite a pass catcher. As far as what you are going to be doing, does going up against Celek in that offense give you any different challenges compared to the other TE's you have faced?

TB: Just as when we faced Gates, I will have to stay on his hip and play the ball. They are a very versatile offense, so being prepared for whatever they throw at us is important. Whether it is the cutbacks, Vick and the wildcat, or just Donovan making plays as he always does we have to be prepared to stop it.

Thanks again Tyvon and best of luck this Sunday against Philadelphia.