Official Game Day Thread: Chargers @ Raiders - 9/10

I like him better as a pass catcher out of the backfield, than as a primary runner. Brinkley has more juice and drive. Brown is showing his age.

If we keep winning, then I'l keep making them...... it's really up to the team.

I dunno what ur talkin bout this is a plus considering the unique ability to make games painful to watch that this team has had in recent years.

It looked like the exact opposite of our special teams fiasco from last year, (or was it the year before) karma was a total bitch for the boyz in blacchh.

Raider fans are recording their voice mails for tomorrow right now..."blah blah blah...we got 3 Super Bowls 30 years ago"

well at least i went 10-6 on my week 1 picks...

100% agreed. The hate us. LOL

People don't appreciate the evil genius of Norval Eugene Turner....... it's sad really.

How many times have we been over this, Blue?

Coaching is only responsible in games Norv loses!

He certainly pulled out all the stops at the end, but ultimately fell short....... maybe next week.

Saw the result this morning, didnt get to watch live as it was a 3.15 am kick off over here. Great to get season off to winning start, and against the faydars too. Looking at the stats, lack of rushing yards sticks out a mile. Please god Mathews gets back sooner.

Just watched the game over coffee ... just too damn late a start here for live viewing & I didn't want to stop in the middle.

Some good adjustments made on D. I think we held back a bit on the blitz because of the McFadden threat. He was the key to their O, particularly with 2 starting WR's out for Oakland.

Pleased with Harris performance. A little surprised that Oakland didn't dial up more pressure on Rivers, particularly in light of the rook at LT & their past success against Clary. Run game was virtually non-existent, but guess what? You have to stick with it to some degree to keep the opposing D honest. I know this may be a tough concept for some here, but learning can be fun. Rivers missed a couple of shots, Gates had a couple of passes that I thought he should have caught. We'll see whether the return of Mathews gives the run game a spark or if we just don't have the OL for it.

Our DB's are in trouble if we don't get pressure on the QB. Jammer had a decent game, Cason made a couple plays but benefited more from luck - nothing new there. Butler is a stud, nice game from Phillips, Demorrio Williams had a good performance, English got handled, & Melvin should be starting. DL looked pretty stout. Hey - it's McFadden .... healthy, he can make a LOT of D's look silly. Overall pretty pleased with Pag's first outing.

Play of the game .... hit on Oakland's LS. Honorable mention for SD's player of the game .... Tommy Kelly with 2 offsides to extend the TD drive.

An awful lot of estrogen in this thread tonight. I'm looking hard at the li'l fella from Oregon. Man up, bud. Hexedbolt has you in his sights & nailed you to your own feminine hygiene ad. Whoever made the comment that a lot of folks here are just waiting for their preconceived notions of this squad to come to fruition is stating the uncomfortable truth. Was it perfect? No. Was it particularly pretty? No. did we get a "W" against a division rival & hated foe in their house? Bet your ***.

Sorry Nate didn't live up to your expectations too, Corona Doug. But you still have Miami.

See my post in the other thread. It may be what you expect from me.

Surprised Harris hasn't been talked about. Great game from a rookie UDFA.

Also, someone mentioned Palmer beat out Rivers statistically on the stat sheet. Well Palmer also started inside his 20 or at the 20 to begin his drives far more than Rivers did and you can thank our D and special teams for that. The only time we had the ball inside the 20 was the 90 yard drive we scored on.

Yes the CB's did play good. But it was Hayward-Bey, Streater, and Hagan. 2 guys that wouldn't even make it on an NFL roster. Cason still playing zone coverage allowing a great cushion for the receiver and it showed from time to time. I thought Jammer played VERY well. Could have a bounce back year.

No run game, need Mathews back ASAP because that someone the defense has to prepare for. Offense has to start clicking better. Why doesn't Norv throw Ladarius Green in there in the red zone instead of McMicahel. McMichael wasn't going to block he was out to receive. Throw a 6'6 guy in there for christ sake Norv!

We still have many improvements to make. And we'll get it right for the home opener against the Titans!

I was pleased with the W, but if they hadn't kneed their own long-snapper in the head while he's on all fours, we'd have lost that game. I was able to watch Bal/Cin before our game, and what stuck out to me was how the Ravens seemingly capitalized on every scoring opportunity with 6. Obviously they kicked 3 FGs, but they also scored 5 TDs. It seemed like we were hesitant coming out of the gate, and our pass rush was non-existent until it was late in the fourth and we were up by 16.

I'm hesitant to slam our pass rush too much, because it seemed like we were playing the run, but in obvious passing situations we were stilling having a hard time getting pressure. I liked our safety play, and I liked Rivers' mistake free QBing. I didn't like the production we got from our backs rushing the ball, and that comes from the line. RBBC doesn't work if your line isn't top notch, and we obviously missed Mathews. I liked Kaeding's touchbacks, but since this is the first time we've seen him kicking since the rule change, I'm not sure what to make of it. His kicks were straight, but since 3 of them were from inside of 30 yards, that's not really surprising. I was a little disappointed by some of the drops.

Overall, the team needs to play better if we're going to beat a team that doesn't have Tommy Kelly on it giving us free 1st downs, a long-snapper who hasn't snapped a ball since high school, or any Wideouts. Also, I was really disappointed by English.

Actually, Pag's worked the Raiduds into the teeth of the defense. Stopped the run cold by McFadden and only gave up the underneath stuff causing the the Dud's to be one dimensional. I loved watching Jammer bring the hammer down and exacting the toll in his zone. Bigby was a surprise and seemed to be able to sniff out some plays a bit anxious maybe but was motoring to the spot. I took away some good feelings for down the line on defense, once these guys get clicking I see some shut downs coming. The dirt infield didn't help matters either but it is what it is and the win is the best opening I can ask for.

Last time I saw Gates drop two very catchable balls,
Matilack was a (already cranky) zygote.

I'm curious to know, who do you think has the best rated or ranked special teams, based on this week's performance? If another team had better stats, I would like to see that...

Only say the game tue nite here. Loved what I saw from Butler. Jammer looked like he might rebound. Gates dropping balls wow. Malcom performing as he always does ie. brilliantly.

O line run blocking was an embarassment..... those guys, esp inside, need to get their **** together and fast.

Went to find the inactives as I saw Corey Lynch on the field. I see Taylor sat it out as did Mouton. 2 highish draft picks overlooked for Lynch and Gachkar maybe? I know we gotta sit somebody but Mouton must be disappointed.

With our injuries at CB, wonder if we might see Taylor activated & Weddle slid over to CB temporarily?

Not sure where you're getting that...I see no evidence for it.

One obviously can't do a simple point count, since the Chargers went prevent to protect a large lead.

We got the ball 3 times inside of their territory, already in FG range, while leading 10-6. Once we saw their backup LSer in there we were going for the block on every punt attempt. It completely changed the nature of the game, because Dennis Allen failed to recognize the impact and basically gave us 180 yds of free field position.

I'm entirely aware of the circumstances...no one is arguing that the long snaps didn't hurt the
Raiders significantly...was it enough to make the difference? One could certainly try to argue that...
but I wouldn't. Again, the overall evidence doesn't support that. To state that the Raiders would
have won otherwise--as fact--is a huge, unsupported stretch. Just politely pointing that out.