Let's hope that we have more Silver and Black Mondays than Black Mondays and Blacked OUT Sundays.
Today the news in Raider Land will be all good. I promise!!!
First off, our franchise QB should be inking his 68 m.m.m.m.MILLION dollar deal at some point today and that can only be good.
Next, I'd like to reflect on the positives from Sunday:
I'm going to start out with the player who has flown under the Raid-dar all preseason and even in every write-up I've read about Sunday.
That person is the "NEXT BURGESS-LIKE STEAL"...Chris Clemons!!!
Clemons has been a sack machine when he has been healthy and just like Burgess he may be entering his prime, just in time to make everyone say Quentin Who?
With 3 tackles, 1 sack and a key pass defensed Clemons should see even more reps this Sunday. Good Job Chris, S&BP is pulling for you!!!
http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=4864
The next thing I want to point to is the improvement on the offensive line.
LaMont Jordan averaged 4.7 yards a carry, or as "Son of Monte" said, "4 something".
If we can average 4.7 yards a carry we will win MANY football games.
Also, until the last few minutes the line had only surrendered 1 sack. And that was after losing Newberry on the first drive.
There were a few hickups that cost us a few first downs, but they are mental mistakes that can be fixed. I don't expect to see Gallery too far downfield on a screen anytime soon.
There was also the fact that a Raider QB wearing #12 completed 75% of his passes for 313 yards and two touchdowns. No it wasn't Rich Gannon, but, Josh McCown did well enough to start again next week as Daunte continues to learn the offense.
He hadn't started a game since 2005 and after he shook the rust off he did pretty well.
If he can't keep calm at the end and execute when it matters, he won't last long. His two turnovers in the end are exactly what "Son of Monte" hoped to avoid by starting him.
Kirk "The Oaktown Assassin" Morrison took his game to the next level on Sunday.
He had a HUGE pick that ended a sure scoring drive for the Lions. He also knocked down two passes and had 9 solo tackles. That is the kind of play that can elevate him to All-Pro status.
Keep it up "Assassin" and can we PLEASE get somebody to tell the announcer to announce him as being FROM OAKLAND???!!!
Speaking of players who can elevate their NFL status, how about Ronald Curry?
It looks like the Raider's patience with his injuries is paying off in full in 2007.
He made every catch imaginable on Sunday. He caught a long ball in double coverage, he cought a tough ball over the middle, got his bell rung and still got up, and he had a successful quick hit to start his day.
Curry ended up with 133 yards on 10 catches and a TD. Not bad for a point guard!
Another missed point is how well our kicking teams did at not letting Detroit return the ball.
In 7 kicks, they were only able to return 2. That is something that will help our field position battles all year.
Lechler is 5th in Net AVG. (He finished 22nd last year):
Jano leads the NFL in TB's with 3. He only had 7 all of last year, which ranked him 20th:
These are all subtle and some not so subtle signs that this team will be better this year.
Now they just have to learn how to WIN!!! And that is the hardest part for the losingest franchise of the past 4 years. But as Al Davis says, "JUST WIN BABY", and then "Son of Monte" will truly become his own man in this League.
Let's Go OAKLAND!!!