Sunday, September 30, 2007

Dolphin's Game

Damn did the Raider Nation need this game!! Daunte Culpepper looked good but most of all the offensive line dominated!! I hadn't seen one of our o-lines play that good since the SuperBowl season! I mean Huggy Bear tore it up. I was all for releasing his ass at the end of training camp but he showed a lot today. His first long run where he got tripped up the gained his balance back and took it to inside the 20 was awesome. He showed a lot of heart. But guess what? The o-line had no penalties allowed only one sack and sprung our runners for 299 yards!! That was the most yards since the game where Bo Jackson ran over Brian Bosworth on Monday night wayyy back in the day. 

Although Culpepper did not  have to pass all that often due to total line domination, he showed he still has it and had it not been for a couple of dropped balls by Curry hI don't think that salaries in the NFL are guaranteed at all. Andrew Walter is making 435k wwhile Josh McCown is making 2mil this year. If McCown's salary is not Guaranteed and Culpepper continues to play well I wouldn't be surprised if they end up keeping Walter and cutting McCown-Culpepper #1, Walter #2, Russell #3 w/Russell Gradually moving up the depth chart and taking over by the end of the year if we are no longer in contention. If we do contend for the AFC west or a wild card at the end, don't be surprised to see Culpepper start the rest of the year and offered a contract befor the season is done to give Jamarcus Russell some more time to learn the ropes.

One thing I really liked about this game a whole of a lot is that Kiffin showed some balls!! At the end of the 1st half it was awesome that he trotted Janikowski out for the field goal, let the refs spot the ball then when they got the spot right threw Culpepper back in forcing miami to burn a time out. That shit was spot on brilliant! Then to actually go for it on 4th and 1 and call a play action was ballsy and would have worked had Curry not dropped the pass. I am not going to get TOO excited because miami was 0-3 and now 0-4 but this game showed that we are in the right direction. As of today we have 12 touchdowns which equals the total for all of last season!! We get to rest then go back at it in 2 weeks against a suddenly beatable charger team. I don't know what's up w/the-how do you go 14-2 then bring back your whole team back basically and start 1-3. I don't know maybe their smart as GM should have brought back a key component-the COACH!! I am so glad they got hound dog looking Norvel Turner. He sucks ass. When the news came out that they signed him as their new coach I was happy as hell, let's hope he keeps them in the same direction they are heading!!

Next 4 opponents:

at san diego
vs kansas city
at tennessee
vs houston

The  niners lost and gained less than 200 yards on offense again!!

1 comment:

Dogbreath said...

kiffin said it, and its true: tom cable is the mvp of the team so far. the o-line is astounding, flabbergasting... how could they be so wack last year and dominate so thoroughly this year? after 4 games, the raiders rushing stats look like this: 194yds/game, 2nd in the league behind pittsburgh; 5 rushing tds, 2nd in the league; 37 attempts a game, 1st in the league; 37 rushing 1st downs, 1st in the league; 9 rushes of 20+yds, 1st in the league; and finally 102 total pts scored, 6th in the league. does this sound like the raiders we all know and often hate to love? 102 points was like 8 games last year! kiffin may appear foolish for going with mccown to start the season, but i for one am still thankful to him for installing a 21st century offense. i love all the misdirection in the running game, and calling culpepper's number on the bootleg 4th and 1 for a meaningless touchdown -- the dagger in their porpoise hearts!

(it almost makes me forget all those missed tackles...)