Upcoming Season Analysis

by CommittedToExcellence on May 6, 2009 3:15 PM PDT Comment 17 comments

The Oakland Raiders are coming off of their 6th straight double-digit loss season, yet we fans are still excited for this upcoming season...why? Besides the obvious reason that we love the team, this season does hold promise, and here's why: we're making positive moves in this offseason.

The draft held a lot of promise for us, though some would have liked us to take Darrius Heyward-Bey later, meaning a trade down situation, and they pretty much universally panned us regarding our second round pick, Michael Mitchell. The fans are still very much excited...what is going on? Are we all just homers? Of course not.

Anyone who has watched this team over the last few years has seen the adverse effect of a bad locker room. We have had guys that are not so good for locker rooms/have bad attitudes/flat out "me first" attitude guys. It's not fair to us as fans to put up with that, and after 6 straight losing seasons, it's time for a change. The team is finally making moves to solidify the locker room, which is something that will go a long way towards turning our losing ways around.

Starting with our offense, with the Darrius Heyward-Bey pick, and the McFadden pick before that, our offense is developing an identity. With our offensive weapons, we're looking for a speed kills style outfit. You can teach a guy to run routes, how to catch, how to block, and how to run, but you can never ever teach speed. With our guys on the outside, and Higgins in the slot, we'll have at least 3 guys on the field that need to be accounted for at all times (the third is Miller).

Looking at the offensive units we'll face in the first few weeks of the season, we're going up against a very powerful group. Up to week 9, we face the Chargers (always high powered, always dangerous against us) twice, the Giants and their balanced set, and the Eagles with their dangerous offensive weapons. We also face the Chiefs who are basically bereft of offensive weapons, having traded away Tony Gonzales, leaving them only Dwayne Bowe. We face Steve Slaton and Andre Johnson when we meet the Texans in week 4. The first half of the season is going to be rough in terms of our offensive matchups.

The second half doesn't show any let up, as we face the rest of our divisonal opponents, then get to go up against the Cowboys, the defending champion Steelers, the Redskins, and the always dangerous Ravens. We'll need to be rolling and running on all cylinders for the game against Dallas and Pittsburgh, while the Browns and the Bengals games are likely going to be ones where we'll be in the game as long as we're playing to our strengths.

General analysis aside, our schedule in order is:

San Diego at home

Kansas City away

Denver at home

Houston away

Giants away

Philly at home

Jets at home

San Diego away

Bye week

Kansas City at home

Cincinnati at home

Dallas away

Pittsburgh away

Redskins at home

Denver away

Cleveland away

Baltimore at home

Looking at these games, we have the usual 8 home, 8 away spread, with the also expected home and away split in the division (6 games, 3 home, 3 away). We also face the AFC South (4 games, 2 at home, 2 away), same for the NFC East. We also have 1 game apiece against the other two divisions in the AFC, we head to the Houston to face the Texans from the AFC South, and the AFC East sends the Jets to our house.

We still have a good shot at a winning record this year, even though we face a much harder schedule than last year. Seeing as the teams we face are generally good, and come from solid divisions, hoping for a good start for our divisional slate is going to be key to us having a good season. If by week 8 we are 5-3, with losses coming at San Diego, at home to Philly, and at the Texans, then we are going to be just fine in the rest of the season, and I only see us struggling with Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore. We're at home for Baltimore, but the other two are going to be very tough in their home stadiums. If we can hold our losses to 6, then we're in the playoffs and winning the division. Of course, if we drop one at home and one away in division, we're still in good shape, this is a division full of teams in the middle of rebuilding and the Chargers.

If you have anything to add, do it in the comments, have respect for your fellow Raider fans, and let's ride this optimism to our first winning record in 6 years.

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Comments

As I said previously

stopping the run will determine our win loss record and Obviously scoring more points on offense. Cinn and Cleveland are the only 2 teams we face without a solid run game, all the others are going to run on us until we prove that they can’t.
Time of possession will also play a big part I know I’m stating the obvious here but the offense needs to stay on the field longer so our D isn’t worn out by the 4th. but
I’m very optimistic about our offseason and our New team attitude I am looking at a winning season this year, even with the tough schedule.

by S-n-B4life on May 6, 2009 3:39 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

and said well

offense cannot go three and out, it will kill our d. We have matched up well against any team when we move the chains.
defense needs to stop the run, every team in the league is going to the two back sets to wear out the defense and keep their running backs fresh for more than a 16 game season or 4 season productivity. With Manning, Romo, Rivers (2x), Palmer, McNabb, and big Ben, we better open up the blitz as well. I believe in Johnson and Asamoga are a good tandem, but you can’t cover for 10 seconds with the QB’s we will be facing

looking forward to the next 30 years of this team

by 30yearR8RFan on May 8, 2009 7:30 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

Thats pretty tough

Im a die hard and ill admitt that if we come out this season with winning stats ill be shocked.im glad were all optimistic as usual,but come on,Giants,Eagles,Cowboys,Redskins and Chargers? Unless DHB is the living form of HGH,those look like 5 tough losses to me.good stuff for the young guys to get experience from,some more tape to watch.God forbid any freak of nature accident happen to any of those teams….oops.

by LaRaider on May 6, 2009 9:03 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

It is so difficult to

predict a team from year to year. If the Raiders have in fact improved then there is no reason they don’t match up well with the teams on this schedule. The Raiders get the Redskins and Eagles at home, no reason to fear any team when they play here. It is always a problem when a West Coast teams goes East and starts a game at 10 a.m. PST. As for SD, this team had SD beaten last year in Oakland only to melt down late, a Russell giveaway at the Oakland 10, and a gift 47 yd. run by LT where half the Raiders decided to fall down and let him score. The only reason the Raiders have lost so many games is because they could not score any TD’s. It is not the run defense that has killed this team, it has been the total lack of any offense whatsoever that has led to the defeats. The only exceptions last year were the Buffalo and NE games where the Raiders got pulverized, but did put a few points on the board. There is reason to hope that Russell learned from last year as did the offense, they can run the ball, pass the ball and score TD’s.

by Laoren on May 7, 2009 9:41 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

The Buffalo game

was down to the wire. The Raiders probably would have won if Rob Ryan’s defense had stopped the game ending drive.

I like to believe my best HITS border on Felonious ASSAULT
-Jack Tatum

by DarksideJU08 on May 7, 2009 9:55 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

That is what I said

the game was lost by the defense and one of the few games where the offense did something. My recollection is that the Raiders had a 10 pt. lead with 6 minutes to go, and the defense completely fell apart.

by Laoren on May 7, 2009 3:54 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

umm

did u forget they didnt have merriman on the defense last yr? this is a completely different team without lights out..we will not be so close this yr with his return and the addition of the best pass rusher in this yrs draft larry english plus our inabiility to stop the run still

by RaiderMeasT on May 7, 2009 10:55 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

It is always a mistake

to assume that because one player is back, everything else falls into place. Last year there were a lot of people assuming that LT was still LT, but I was saying then that his slide was evident from the year before despite gaudy numbers, you could see it in his play. To assume that English is as good as Merriman was is a great leap also. Everything you say might be accurate, but I have watched too many games, and too many seasons to agree that what happened last year necessarily means it will happen this year.

by Laoren on May 7, 2009 3:58 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

THIS SEASON

Will show where we stand for sure . Put-up/TD’s or shut up.
WIN lose OR TIE RAIDERS TILL I DIE !!!!

by 8fog3town1 on May 7, 2009 8:58 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

ummm

who cares about merriman? He wasn’t nearly as effective when he wasn’t on roids. And who says that larry english is the best pass rusher in the draft??

by The Autumn Wind on May 7, 2009 12:44 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

+1

WIN lose OR TIE RAIDERS TILL I DIE !!!!

by 8fog3town1 on May 7, 2009 9:01 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

They may have Merriman back,

but they still have Norv Turner coaching, which should negate the positive of getting Merriman back. Remember, he led one of the most talented teams in the AFC to 8-8 last year, and nothing in his track record suggests that he can do any better. (We of course know about his head coaching skills far too well!)

by pridenpoyz on May 7, 2009 4:02 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

Exactly,

Norv Turner is like every other teams secret weapon.

by Streams Of Whiskey on May 8, 2009 7:25 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

+1

Turner is a fantastic offensive coordinator… but a pile of poo as a head coach. history proves that

looking forward to the next 30 years of this team

by 30yearR8RFan on May 8, 2009 7:33 PM PDT up reply actions 0 recs

our toughest game this year will be against pittsburgh away. next hardest will be giants away. those are the two games that will be hardest to pull out a win. we have a great shot of beating any AFC WEST team home or away. we beat the jets last year. cleveland is a mess. we might have trouble with washington and philly, but both of those are at home so we have a chance to beat them. cincinnati and houston are questionable though because i think these two teams are on their way up. houstan has a good run and pass attack. cincy has carson palmer coming back and they got a few good defensive picks in the draft, but they did lose t.j. “whoseyourmama”. i think dallas and baltimore are both on the downward skid. if baltimore is doin well though, we play them last and their playoff position may be set already, so we might play them with some of their starters out and playing soft. guess we’ll have to wait and see once the season starts. i’m saying possible 9-7 maybe even 10-6 which should be enough to take the West crown back.

by iBleedSnB on May 7, 2009 4:24 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs

ehh

Winning record seems pretty optimistic. If we don’t have a top 5 draft pick I’ll be content. While its nice to have guys with good character, it doesn’t mean all that much on the field. Chemistry and “good” guys in the locker room is something that may separate a very good team from a great one, but just having nice friendly players wont win you any games if they don’t have the talent, just as if you have an extremely talented team they can get away with being bad character wise. Some of the great 90’s Cowboys teams were full of coked out hooker loving sketchballs, but they could play football damn well. DHB is a good guy who I’m glad to have on the team, independent of how he ended up there, and I’m sure he’ll be a productive receiver and maybe how nice he is will balance out what a tremendous asshole Javon Walker is. Our Raiders was pretty damn bad last year though, just as they’ve been every year since that Superbowl, and even if all of our draft pics are studs we haven’t changed enough outside of that to really justify having an expectation of a winning record. I want to believe we’ll be good so bad, just like I did this time last year and the year before, but we’ve been so bad for so long that its hard to even remember that there used to be a time when watching the Silver and Black was something that would fill me with pride. I hope that we’re quality this year, and even seeing a six or seven win team with a ton of potential would be amazing, but I really need to see something to warrant my excitement before jumping on the bandwagon again.

bring back rickey

by yo on May 9, 2009 4:38 AM PDT reply actions 0 recs

I see a lot of change.

I guess I disagree a little. I actually do think we have changed in a lot or good ways this off-season. I’ve been a fan for over 30 years and have seen a lot of up’s and down’s (pun intended), and for the first time in years I’m very excited about the direction of this team. I agree a winning season is a best case scenario but I think we have had a tremendous amout of ‘growth’ in this off-season and that is the best cause for opitimism about the years to come.

by dram5780 on May 10, 2009 11:36 AM PDT up reply actions 0 recs