Dragda
Yes, it's really me...
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- Joined
- Feb 19, 2006
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I am still a little punchy after a ten hour drive back from Oakland last night and into the morning, but I had a great time. Oakland fans are some of the best hosts of any opposing professional team.
Due to a late decision to attend the game, air prices were too high to travel down there with my boys so we split the driving duties and hit the road early Saturday. The weather in Oregon was poor, but it improved as soon as we hit the halfway point of the trip in Medford. The Bay weather was perfect.
All said, it takes half the time to fly considering all the airport and ground transportation. Driving is much cheaper when you have multiple people.
We parked at the stadium and tailgated a bit. We were handed a code of conduct leaflet which everyone ignores. People openly smoke marijuana, shout profane snippets of drunken idiocy, and spend every other moment consuming legendary amounts of Bud Light. I was grateful I didn't have to use the six overworked porta-potties in our parking lot.
The Raiders are the absolute kings of unlicensed product sales outside the stadium. Some places have a bit of this. Like outside the Garden you can get five dollar Bruins beanies. But Oakland has so many shirts, products and styles that I really envy this. I didn't see this outside Gillette at all. The trick to these merchants is to wait until after the game. Everything is half price. One T Shirt depicted Tom Brady lying on the field in the Snow Bowl. The T Shirt said "F*ck Tom Brady" The "*" was replaced by the "u" shaped Raiders logo.
The Raiders fans were in great spirits compared to last two games I saw there. The most recent being the Rain Bowl game with Matt Cassell at QB. There was a sense of pride, confidence and excitement. After Jason Campbell hit the wide open defensive back in the end zone, the stadium deflated. They tried to make noise a few times after that, but it wasn't the same. They all knew. They all sat down for one thing.
The Raider fans cheered Mayo getting injured. Classless drunken jerks.
The Raiders still aren't a complete team. They didn't play to win. They commit stupid penalties, but they always have. The difference with this team is that they gained 500 yards total offense, but didn't keep going to the things that worked. In the fourth quarter, they didn't hurry even though they were considerably behind. They seemed to be playing like they had the lead. The Raider fans can't take criticism of their team and hated hearing me tell them that with my loud mouth. Maybe they just hated my loud mouth.
I was able to confirm from the stands what our defense looks like on television. The guys are all covered much of the time, but they just don't seem to be able to tackle well or make a play on the ball. Our pass rush looks like kindergartners playing Move Over Red Rover with grown-ups. One positive note is you can't run at 55. He is a sure tackler and fills the right gap. Guyton is a poor substitute for Mayo. He failed to contain the edge and reacted late on a running play. He's hearing about it in the meeting room today.
Anderson gets really low in his stance. It's a four point stance. It's like that early Tom Cruise movie where he played for Ampipe High and the defenders were in some weird pushup style stance.
I think the Carter's uber-consistent outside pash rush move is because he has outside contain responsibilites. He never seems to try an inside move. It makes him ineffective as a pash rusher, but he is very good at containment.
Wilfork seemed to anticipate that dump off to McFadden. It happened so fast. I hope the TIVO I set for this shows it better. The O.co coliseum has a very antiquated jumbo tron and they never show replays of positive Patriots plays.
We made a four stops on defense which was more than enough. The Raiders committed penalties which helped us out, but only one extended the drive on a third down, IIRC
Brady takes a pounding.
As soon as Seymour was out of the game, we ran through that side. We ran away from him every other run play. He knocked down Brady after the play once, but other than occupy his blocker(s) that's all he did.
Stevan Ridley gets the ball every time he hits the field. The Raiders finally picked up on that in the fourth quarter and were ready for it. Took them long enough to pick up on that.
The Raiders did a good job covering Gronkowski. He was wide open once and could have scored a TD but Brady had Welker on the other side of the field for a first down and never looked at Gronk.
Everything is too fast. Even though we were in upper deck yard line seats with a great perspective, you can't watch the backfield and rest of the action at the same time. If there was a rewind button, I would have much more to report.
Due to a late decision to attend the game, air prices were too high to travel down there with my boys so we split the driving duties and hit the road early Saturday. The weather in Oregon was poor, but it improved as soon as we hit the halfway point of the trip in Medford. The Bay weather was perfect.
All said, it takes half the time to fly considering all the airport and ground transportation. Driving is much cheaper when you have multiple people.
We parked at the stadium and tailgated a bit. We were handed a code of conduct leaflet which everyone ignores. People openly smoke marijuana, shout profane snippets of drunken idiocy, and spend every other moment consuming legendary amounts of Bud Light. I was grateful I didn't have to use the six overworked porta-potties in our parking lot.
The Raiders are the absolute kings of unlicensed product sales outside the stadium. Some places have a bit of this. Like outside the Garden you can get five dollar Bruins beanies. But Oakland has so many shirts, products and styles that I really envy this. I didn't see this outside Gillette at all. The trick to these merchants is to wait until after the game. Everything is half price. One T Shirt depicted Tom Brady lying on the field in the Snow Bowl. The T Shirt said "F*ck Tom Brady" The "*" was replaced by the "u" shaped Raiders logo.
The Raiders fans were in great spirits compared to last two games I saw there. The most recent being the Rain Bowl game with Matt Cassell at QB. There was a sense of pride, confidence and excitement. After Jason Campbell hit the wide open defensive back in the end zone, the stadium deflated. They tried to make noise a few times after that, but it wasn't the same. They all knew. They all sat down for one thing.
The Raider fans cheered Mayo getting injured. Classless drunken jerks.
The Raiders still aren't a complete team. They didn't play to win. They commit stupid penalties, but they always have. The difference with this team is that they gained 500 yards total offense, but didn't keep going to the things that worked. In the fourth quarter, they didn't hurry even though they were considerably behind. They seemed to be playing like they had the lead. The Raider fans can't take criticism of their team and hated hearing me tell them that with my loud mouth. Maybe they just hated my loud mouth.
I was able to confirm from the stands what our defense looks like on television. The guys are all covered much of the time, but they just don't seem to be able to tackle well or make a play on the ball. Our pass rush looks like kindergartners playing Move Over Red Rover with grown-ups. One positive note is you can't run at 55. He is a sure tackler and fills the right gap. Guyton is a poor substitute for Mayo. He failed to contain the edge and reacted late on a running play. He's hearing about it in the meeting room today.
Anderson gets really low in his stance. It's a four point stance. It's like that early Tom Cruise movie where he played for Ampipe High and the defenders were in some weird pushup style stance.
I think the Carter's uber-consistent outside pash rush move is because he has outside contain responsibilites. He never seems to try an inside move. It makes him ineffective as a pash rusher, but he is very good at containment.
Wilfork seemed to anticipate that dump off to McFadden. It happened so fast. I hope the TIVO I set for this shows it better. The O.co coliseum has a very antiquated jumbo tron and they never show replays of positive Patriots plays.
We made a four stops on defense which was more than enough. The Raiders committed penalties which helped us out, but only one extended the drive on a third down, IIRC
Brady takes a pounding.
As soon as Seymour was out of the game, we ran through that side. We ran away from him every other run play. He knocked down Brady after the play once, but other than occupy his blocker(s) that's all he did.
Stevan Ridley gets the ball every time he hits the field. The Raiders finally picked up on that in the fourth quarter and were ready for it. Took them long enough to pick up on that.
The Raiders did a good job covering Gronkowski. He was wide open once and could have scored a TD but Brady had Welker on the other side of the field for a first down and never looked at Gronk.
Everything is too fast. Even though we were in upper deck yard line seats with a great perspective, you can't watch the backfield and rest of the action at the same time. If there was a rewind button, I would have much more to report.
