Raiders O-Line: Nation, I Declare We Relax

agreed, i’m going to follow the O-Line all through the year and hopefully give out a weekly evaluation plus I will offer quick hits like the DHB one.

excellent stuff there but i can understand why Hue wanted to pass as much as he did. He wants to build chemistry with the receivers and Campbell and to shake of their rust. Also he probably wanted to see how the passing offense would look against a defense like Dallas’s, where you’ll be under pressure and your receivers will be having a tough time getting open.

Hue knows we can run the ball well, but I am with him in that we need to see what our passing game can do this year.

most of the panicking and stuff is from Inside Oakland Raiders. if anything I’m just saying that the line is at least looking improved this year.

No Russell+improved O-Line+better defense= easily enough to get us out of double digit loss streak.

I bet Henderson and Walker would give one each too. Therefore small finesse guys are not going to cut it against strong teams, I’m all for adding bulk,strength, quickness (Veldheer,Campbell). Coop is old and relies on finesse, it’s diminishing now. Satele can’t take big strong DT’s, I bet he will claim an injury though and Veldheer will start… it’s only a matter of time, we will see either Veldheer or Campbell on the starting line-up this season.
I’m not panicky, I’m just greedy and i know both of those rooks I mentioned have great talent to start since the bar is set pretty low, all we need is Solid play, not getting pushed around play.

we can take solace in this though, our D-Line and pass rush are much better than the run oriented Bears defense. It’s also much better than last year in the opener when Rivers was getting pressured and knocked down.

Added bonus, McNeil still not signed.

If we are going to be a “SmashMouth” run the ball “O” than lets do it in practice and the games…Than see how the pass can open up after that…It takes time to establish anything so it’s not done in a few plays scattered in…Take the time to establish it and see how that works now…latter in the game after we established the run the pass was there…

Other than that, 3 WRS, and 1 TE. these are the usual matchups:

3 CBs will be playing man coverage on the 3 Wrs. the safety will cover the TE, with the LB keeping the TE in check, if the TE goes over the middle.

that leaves the OTHER safety, to look out for the deep ball, RB(the idea situation if you are running the play-action).

the point is, the play-action will take maybe 2 seconds. 3 at the longest. Which means that their 3 or 4 DL, will have 2-3 seconds on our awesome pass blocking OL. That’s not including any pass rushing OLBs on the outside.

It should take maybe 1-3 seconds for a QB to make a quick read and throw.

Now the other team can 5-7(6-8 if it’s 3-4) guys in coverage. Yes, they can have ALL 3 or 4 of their LBs in coverage, with 1 LB playing zone in the middle, or watching the QB.

Now, zone or man coverage, our OL has to hold their DL with a minimum of maybe 3-4 seconds, which can be done, but it also depends if our OL either:

a) misses a block
b) one side of our OL may get overwhelmed by 3 rushers(say 2 attacked the edge very quickly, and the other one when more towards the middle)
c) The OL never will know exactly WHERE the blitzes will come from
d) The defense doesn’t bite on the play-action, and everyone but the DL drops into coverage.

The play-action never offers a perfect scenario, which is why I have stressed that our OL NEEDS to do more pass blocking this pre-season not only for your play actions but for a regular passing game when the situation calls for it(ie. 3rd and longs. late in the game when we need a game winning drive, etc.) to help campbell, which will in turn help campbell build chemistry with his new OL and WRs.

Al over spends at every position but the o-line. Exhibit A r. seymores paycheck.

Calling cornell, satele and carlisle “marginal” is rather half full. They suck.

Not sure why we pretend as if the o-line isnt important. IMO the o-line is the MOST important aspect of a offense.

Plus even if its the pre-season the O-line shouldn’t lagg because Campbell can get injured if they don’t do good. Imo, it’s because the C and RG suck, even if it were the Reg. season i’m done with both those guys, even last season i saw the same BS, it’s time for change in those 2 positions that is all i’m saying. In the bears game all i ask of all is to look at the o line, look at the flaws regarding a weak C and RG.

And that he couldn’t get off of his corner.

Watching the game again, I would say that the routes were ehh, but as far as weak, he got some separation.

he never had the opportunity to make a reception. I wouldnt throw a ball to receiver that cant catch either.

On the other hand jlh had a decent night. he plays special teams as well….

I don’t get the criticizing of Hue’s playcalling. He didn’t even open up a fourth of the playbook. You don’t go with the full playbook in preseason.

If this was a real game, Bush would have gotten way more carries in the same time frame, play action would have been seen 3-4 times, and Miller would have had deeper routes. Until regular season comes and we take the handcuffs off the playcalling, you can’t really judge it right now.

Posting pics isn’t that hard. When you copy&paste the URL, don’t highlight the http:// thing, cause the tree already has that typed in for you. Example.

made Bailey fall…LOL

relieved I didn’t draft them in fantasy draft.

And Kyle threw a deep bomb.

Might be a problem for us, especially with coverage woes.

We may not be a legitimate vertical passing team until sometime around mid season…Realistically it may take that long or longer to get this squad up to speed in that area…Chaz is the man if healthy…Murphy is decent support…Miller/Ford w “DHB” can stretch the "D"s and open things up underneath while maybe drawing away the double team to set Chaz-n-Murphy free….But to imagine we will open this season as any resemblance of a polished passing attack is a bit foolish in my book…Not with that project in front of them…That “OL”…

complement our RBs for a Balt. jets type O. We have good QBs and a top notch pair of TEs. We can move the chains with a rushing offense that will enable the pass. We must not “try to be like other teams”, we are the RAIDERS – made in the image of Al Davis (version ?) which has taken shape in the form of a Solid Run Defense and a powerful rushing Offense. Get another hurkey lineman when they starting trimming in a couple of weeks and use the Power Blocking scheme. Nice try, Cable – you’ve done well with acquisitions, for the most part, but Langston Carlise and Satele will be eaten alive – Mario, if you continue as you did in Dallas then you have earned my respect. Gallery, please stay healthy and Valdheer and Campbell – get ready for incoming action – you’re going to have to smash open holes for Bush, Bennet, Cartwrite & Reece.

We don’t have much time to get things right, but what they can do over the next four weeks is find out what we can do right, be productive and consistant with, and build from there. We don’t have 2 years for the team to find out where guys on the O-line would be best lined up, we have a month. We don’t have 4 years to develop DHB as a productive receiver, we have 4 weeks. Find something reliable and go with it until another area can be developed and lean behind.

Last year was much of the same, we spent too much time working on the passing game, that low and behold our running game struggled when the season started.