With the Bye Week upon us, I think we should take this time to reflect on the first half.Of course, with a 2-6 record there will be much to look at on the disappointing side, but, there will be a few things that we can look at on the positive side. Unfortunately NONE of those will be on the offensive side of the ball.
Regardless of what the players on the scoring side of the ball say, (Darrius Heyward-Bey from the CC Times, "I've been very solid") they have stunk, and they have stunk regularly.
As I pointed out last week, and many local columnists have also since, they are at a "Bed and Breakfast level" of scoring.
Coming into last week, they reached the Red Zone the least amount of any team in football, 9 times, 9 MEASLY times. That is two games worth for most, decent offenses, so that should put their futility into some perspective. They aren't even giving themselves a chance to score, thus, they only lead the hapless St. Louis Rams (9.6) in scoring and are tied with Cleveland at 9.8 points per game.
So, how have they arrived here? Let's start with the most glaring weakness, the receivers.
First off, they are starting two rookies that THINK they are World Beaters. I mean, just reference the DHB line above and then listen to Murphy talk about how, "They are a GREAT team", and you'll soon get the picture. In all fairness to the squad, the three receivers with the best hands have not found their ways onto the field yet this year.
Chaz and Miller should be back soon and the only reasonable explanation for Javon Walker not playing is the Marcus Allen treatment he MAY be receiving from AL Davis due to him having off-season surgery and doing it on his own without telling anyone.
The ONE bright spot in the entire receiving core is Zach Miller, without him, I shiver to think how poorly this team would play.
Zach has hauled in 28 passes for 421 yards. Murphy and Bey have combined for 21 catches for 306 yards. In fact, the entire wide receiving core has 28 catches for 373 yards. That is just downright terrible. Especially when you see that Johnnie Lee Higgins, last year's top wide-out has only 2 catches for 8 yards.
This really is disgusting and, I believe, is much worse than the time spent under Shell and Walsh, this team actually has talent on the offensive side of the ball and they are terrible. There is no excuse for NOT getting the ball to Johnnie Lee more and for sitting Javon Walker on the bench so that DHB can watch another perfectly thrown TD bounce off of his facemask.
What do you think of the Receiving core's perfromance, so far, Raider Nation?
This post was sponsored by Comcast Red Zone