Talkin' With Tyvon 2010: #08

Greetings Silver and Black Pride community. Once again I pleased to bring to all of you our player/fans interaction and interview with Tyvon Branch with #08 in the weekly installment of the series: Talkin' With Tyvon 2010

This week's Q&A with Tyvon follows the disappointing letdown loss to the 49ers in San Francisco 17-9. In addition to following Tyvon here on a weekly basis, you can also keep up with Tyvon and his thoughts by following him on his twitter page @tyvonbranch.

Tyvon will be back here to respond to questions not comments, so you are invited to pose your questions to Tyvon in the comments section.

Full Q&A after the jump.

 Previous week after Chargers game:

 Great game, Sunday, Tyvon. Congrats to you and the team, and keep up the intensity

you guys overcame a lot in that game. Some of those interference calls were ridiculous, and you guys just stayed in there and played ball until the final whistle. I believe we’ve turned it around.

good luck this week in preparing for Gore and company. Let’s rock the turnover ratio again!

What kinds of things are we doing in practice to increase winning the turnover battles?

Thanks again for your time. Big props to you and Huff. I’ve wondered why we haven’t brought you guys blitzing sooner. Rivers will kill you trying to rush only your front four, continually putting it where only their guys can make plays. I hate the dude seriously but watching him do that is like watching him punch my mom. It makes me wanna kill him!

GO RAIDERS! KEEP GETTING BETTER GUYS! THE NATION BELIEVES!!!!!! by brhynno on Oct 13, 2010 12:11 AM PDT

TB: That’s a tough question. Stripping the ball, and putting yourself in position for interceptions are obviously useful. But a turnover is a mistake by the offense, therefore we must force them to make those mistakes. QB pressure is huge in this aspect.

Saint: I do have a second question. It looked to me like Marshall was using Trevor Scott and Kamerion Wimbley in his FAMOUS "Elephant" position last week. They were allowed to make calls and plays all over the field. This is the first time that I have seen the Raiders Defense put so much confidence in the players over the play call in a long time. Were my eyes lying to me, or were they playing the Elephant. Also, do you think that you will be given more freedom to make plays?

TB: That position is very useful when the right guys are in there running it. Those guys are big and athletic, and can cause the D to make changes they don’t want to make.

 

TRW: The 49ers game was definitely disappointing and the Raiders certainly had their chances for a victory. What was the game plan for the 49ers game and what do you think needed to be done to make the difference?

TB: The game plan was to come out and execute. We knew pressure was key to make the QB uncomfortable, and we weren’t able to execute on that the whole game.

TRW: The Raiders defense seemed to have Alex Smith on the ropes by creating heavy pressure, then at times the defense went back to the base defense and Smith had time to get confortable and confident. Did the momentum change that occurred after the 49ers took the lead take the aggressiveness out of the Raiders defensive approach?

TB: Momentum, time left in the game, and a few other factors play into how we scheme certain plays. No matter what the call is though, it is always important to be aggressive.

TRW: There were many occasions where you were playing up close and in the box, sort of challenging Smith to throw. This can work great if everyone around you makes their assignments; however there were some plays where it appeared from the TV angle you were out of position, but really you were just trying to make a play? Can you describe some of the scheme issues there?

TB: I misplayed some throws, but I was mostly in the box trying to force bad throws. My job in these situations is to go in there and make something happen.

TRW: The team travels to Denver this week where the Raiders have had some success against the Broncos. Based on the makeup of the division now, a victory by the Raiders will put them in a solid position in the division. What are your thoughts going into the Denver game based on what you have learned from the 49ers game?

TB: Denver will come out firing. We know they are a high powered offense, but we just have to go out and play Raider football…old school Raider football.

Thank you Tyvon and best of luck with the Broncos in Denver.