Injured Starters, New Quarterback, Tenacious Defense..Raiders Win!!!

The Chargers game was a defining game in the Raiders locker room. Again the second half had turnovers, a 4th quarter with no scoring by our offense and a defense plagued with injuries that was forced to man up and did so. If you were on a football team as a player that just went through what the Raiders went through, losing their starting quarterback, losing games in the second half, signing a new QB then being defeated in a heart wrenching way against Denver, Michael Y you may not think so, however, every football player in that locker room knew this game was a season buster!!! Lessons learned? You don’t give up, you fight and push until you die!!! Considering the lesson learned in Denver the Raiders will come out swinging from now on and will continue to swing until the final whistle. Sure the season isn’t over, however, beating the Chargers was a season changer, a loss would have sucked the life right out of the Raiders locker room.

I agree Michael Bush is a baller and we need to lock him up. Sheppard played well, but he and the whole secondary “interception practice”.

We did a good job filling the gap’s but next we have Adrian Peterson.

John Henderson also played a big part in our win.

We also did a great job on the penalty’s .

But

I knew I would come here and find an I told you so post Rodney. LOL I was one panicing after Denver. I will say you are right to an extent but I don’t think we are out of the woods yet. The potential is there, no question, to make the playoffs. However it is going to take several games in a row like last nights to convince me. I will feel much more comfortable if we can get to three games over 50%. Not just one. I don’t want to be a stick in the mud but last years team and this years team has not shown they can win and put out a strong defensive effort week in and week out. If Hue can motivate this defense we can make the play offs.

we’ll have to win the rest of our divisional games, beat Miami in their house and win two over the NFC Norse division. I can see us beating Minnesota in that dome and the Bears at home (if we play defense like we did last night and make tackles on Peterson and Forte) , but Green Bay in Lambeau and the Lions here will be real tests. I just don’t see 11-5 unless we really get on a roll.
Hopefully we’ll start get some our injured players back as the season goes on and not add anymore to the injured list in the meantime.
The defense will be the key to all these aspirations, hopefully the offense can start putting up big numbers in the high 30’s and 40’s. That will take some of the pressure off the defense and keep them rested.

If DMC was there, some of those Bush runs were TD’s. No knock on Bush, he’s a great player to have. However speed is not his name. I love Bush as the back up, but he reminds me of Michael Turner, big, fat, and gets yards. I would really prefer to have DMC back ASAP. This was a huge win and I hope they take the momentum going forward. Lito did a good job last night for only his 2nd regular season game. For once, didn’t feel that CB was an issue. Safeties, ummm, nice pick by Giordano. After that, Mitchell hits hard. Their coverage is average and sometimes they look lost. I fear for our safety out there :P On the whole, a 10-6 record is still achievable. The key will to not play down to opponents the rest of the year. Oh, and no more injuries. May Ford come back soon. Yeesh.

I owe you guys a beer, played your friggen hearts out. I love my team

The D was overplayed and was tired. This was more evident as those games ended. With Palmer finding his groove, the D will have a chance to stay rested and should remain dominant. I don’t know how they might do with GB or the Lions, but I think they will perform well against all of the other teams.

Its up to the players to beat their man period…Man on Man, the Raiders have to go out and straight up hit teams in the mouth…Tackle hard, get to the QB and play hard every play period. We are not a good enough team to take plays off, to win the Raiders have to play their best all game. There was a time when the Raiders would play terribly and still win, those days are over. With our speed, the addition of Carson Palmer I expect the Raiders to become one of the NFL’s elite teams again. Carson was worth a first round pick, hell the Raiders screw up their first rounders on draft day any way, at least he is proven.. I expect to make the playoffs and win there, this is going to be interesting if our players go out and play with heart…Go Raiders…