Being the Nerd that I am, I thought that I would offer up some of my hopes and visions for the Oakland Raiders defense. I have read many of the Twitter updates and watched many of the news segments on our beloved Raiders and have noticed a trend, this defense has the capability to be lethal.

The strength of this defense still lies with the linebacker play, and this year is very promising. With the play of Rolando, Wheeler and Burris this could be the best line backing corps the Raiders have seen since John Matuszak and Howie Long prowled the mid field like Great White's sniffing chum. I know I always raid the Kool-Aid, but our current Line Backers seem to be knifing through an offensive line that only gave up 25 sacks in 2011.

Now, you may be wondering why I named this years defense the Shrike defense. Well, there is a little known book called Hyperion by Dan Simmons (Sarcasm), in which the Shrike is surrounded in mystery, the object of fear, hatred, and even worship by members of the Church of the Final Atonement (the Shrike Cult), the Shrike's origins are described as uncertain. It is portrayed as composed of Razor wire, thorns, blades, and cutting edges, having fingers like scalpels and long, curved toe blades. It has the ability to control the flow of time, and may thus appear to travel infinitely fast. The Shrike may kill victims in a flash or it may transport them to an eternity of impalement upon an enormous artificial 'tree of thorns' in Hyperion's distant future. The tree of thorns is described as unimaginably large, alive with the agonized writhing of countless human victims of all ages and races. The region of the Tombs is also the home of the Shrike, a menacing half-mechanical, half-organic creature that features prominently in the series. It appears in all four Hyperion Cantos books and is an enigma in the initial two; its purpose is not revealed until the second book, but even then left somewhat nebulous. The Shrike appears to act both autonomously and as a servant of some unknown force or entity. In the first two Hyperion books, it exists solely in the area around the Time Tombs on the planet Hyperion. The basis for this universe revolves around traversing the black hole.

Pretty Bad Ass. This fits in well with the Raider Nation, which is composed of Darth Vader, Mike Meyers and Pinhead. Anyway, a defense that is organic and autonomous seems to be the direction we are heading. The Shrike Defense is the perfect compliment to the paranoia that surrounds the apocalyptic fears of 2012.

via 2.bp.blogspot.com