Interview: Bill Barnwell and Football Outsiders Don't Like The 2010 Oakland Raiders Playoff Chances

I think retaining an effective pass rush and hopefully getting some development out of Stanford Routt is the biggest thing the team can do*

I wasn’t buying what Barnwell was saying, but it wasn’t unreasonable until this remark. Anyway, it does make me appreciate Grad – recalling how it wasn’t at all luck in our winning those close games but heroic playmanship.

I completely agree with him when he talks about the LB’s..Spot on there.

As for him saying Tyvon is only good because of our poor Rush-D, well, that deserves a big Fuck You there.

It sounds like he basically went off of typical Raider stereotypes. Didn’t sound very knowledgeable when talking about our players.

and it’s a big advantage for the team and for our retirement portfolios. The gaming market adjusts as the season rolls on of course but the basic fan perception is so skewed that we should be able to rake in returns on investments throughout the season. Just win, Baby – b/c we’ll be dogs for the most part.

He obviously did his homework. I supposed the Chargers are slated for 14 wins too, right?
“Campbell’s clearly the questionable player”
WTF?

Statistics are never a reliable gauge of a team sport ( I.M.O. )

It’s leave out the ’ Blood, sweat, & tears’ We the fans can better judge OUR team.

So in the immortal words of Jake – " well, that deserves a big Fuck You there."

I don’t see us winning that battle anymore, not with the same o-line of last year with two new late round rookies, not first or second round rookies…. (good to come for McClain and Houston though) But I foresee our offense still struggling, not the same as last year though because Campbell is more mobile same with Gradkowski. The run game will struggle though.

I think any of our rookie DB’ s can to a better job than Routt,,,,,

gay azz Raider hater go ahead homie spew your hate get the rest of the league thinking that playing the Raiders will be a walk in the park. They will be surprised when the “predetermined losing team” puts egg all over their faces! Fuck all the haters!
GO RAIDERS!!!!!!!!

will give us more wins than last season.

New tackles to rotate the line with should help with keeping people healthy. Expect more yards out of our backs with a more solid line and a new blocking fullback.

DHB should at a minimum, get 5 times the yardage of last year; while the passing of Campbell should connect more with McFadden, and give Miller a pro-bowl level of yardage. Murphy should be solid once again.

As long as our defense is allowed flexibility in looks, and is quick to adjust, we’ll be fine.

It’s this year’s Oakland Raiders, but you just keep making your shitty predictions.

It’s innately woven into true Raider’s fans’ DNA: “This year’s the year, bitches!”

I know the D will be markedly better than last, and I know he didn’t watch the Raiders because he’d know calling Kirk an “above average MLB” is inaccurate. A solid defender? Yes. Capable of the occasional great play? Absolutely? What you want in a field captain, and liner up of defensive men, and keeper-in-liner???? No. Rolando will be an immediate upgrade in this aspect, that will flower with his development and the trust he establishes with his teammates.

You have to know how to read between the numbers, and he kinda gets that, but it’s clear he doesn’t watch the Raiders. Furthermore, our D wouldn’t get gashed for nearly as many huge plays with an offense.

There is no way for stat based predictions to account for the level of destruction the chaos of the Raiders and our fat deuce attributed to the woeful stats last year.

Really though, what the fuck?

What effect do you expect to see from John Henderson and LaMarr Houston replacing the pass rushing Greg Ellis and Gerard Warren?

BB: I don’t think you’ll see much of a difference as far as pass rushers go

Did he really think that was the question? He failed to address or give any credence to the fact that the Raiders defense should be exponentially better at stopping the run.

Also…

Our system always saw Kirk Morrison as an above-average linebacker, and I think that’s something backed by what scouts have said;

This for me was the capper:

don’t think the rushing defense will have much to do with the play of the defensive backfield. It may put the team in better situations on third down, I suppose, but the Raiders were actually best on third down on defense a year ago.

Uh, what? He supposes stopping the run may put the team in a better 3rd down position. Well, I suppose it would and in theory should fairly regularly. He also points out how the Raiders excel at 3rd down.

Wouldn’t this mean that the Raiders defense should be in a position in which it succeeds far more often than last year?

Smh.

I agree with his assessment of both Campbell and Gradkowski. I disagree to a point with the close games assessment since those wins were with decent defense and solid QB play in most of them. I think he means being lucky based on the dropped INT in the Pittsburgh game that would have lost it for us but that is overall a real half-assed assessment. I really think the McClain and Morrison argument is BS since Morrison hasn’t had a pick or caused a fumble in probably 3 years. Also McClain seems like the type who will hold himself accountable moreso than Morrison ever did. Also waiting for Routt to develop in year 6 is ridiculous. How about talk about D-Mac or DHB’s development instead? Overall this is a half-ass assessment of our team in my opinion. Its almost like he didn’t care enough to take Saint seriously or give him a thoroughly researched interview which is sad since I imagine this is what this douche does for a living.

Nobody should pay attention to it.

First and foremost you cannot account for injury nor can you account for the intangibles such as the will to win. There are just certain things you cannot account for that any math formula does not work. Yeah we won some close ones and yes it does balance out. Look how many game over the years we have been totally fucked over on with calls in close games. The universe has balances and counter balances sometimes you get raped and some days you hit the jackpot.