It is customary to criticize the Raiders after a loss. If you expect that from me stop reading right now. Look, I expected nothing from this team. But they played a real football game and they played like a real football team. They played with anger and energy and brains. They got beaten by the better team at the very end -- and it's a flaw to lose at the end, sure.
But they made the Chargers sweat and they participated in one hell of a football game. And even though the Raiders lost you tend to think they are making progress. I think that based on what I saw tonight. They can run and defend and JaMarcus Russell seems to be getting it at least some of the time.
And I'm grateful for all of that. I'm getting tired of writing the Raiders are bums. It's nice to write something else for a change. To read my column on the Raiders opener click here.
I'm a 49er fan who was rooting for the raiders on monday night. But i have question for charger fans. How hard is it to be forced to cheer for Philip Rivers? The guy is the most unprofessional crybaby I've ever seen. His antics on the field are a total disgrace.
'Praise?'
We starting that argument again?
I read the rules and I still think that the Raiders were robbed of a touchdown.
I think that Russell is never going to be a good quarterback. He can't throw passes accurately with any consistency. What was he? 12-30? However, the team's got great running backs and the defense played great (except for the strategy of dropping back the linebackers at the end of the game).
Bob: this interpretation--that the receiver has to maintain possession--was used all of last year and even, perhaps, the year before. I knew that the ruling would be incomplete and no amount of wishful thinking would change the rule. What really shocked, and disappointed me, was that the three professionals in the booth were so ignorant about the rule. Also, the rule is a good rule. It eliminates that grey zone of whether or not the receiver has possession, and the various interpretations, which gave everyone fits in previous years.
Lowell, I give your column an "A" for effort. Your assessment of the game was accurate and the Raiders still have a ways to go in proving to themselves that they can play a complete game for 60 minutes. They appear to making progress and it was a tough game to watch and it will be interesting to see if they can sustain some momentum towards KC.
The defense benefited from Richard Seymour's presence and i think it helped that Rob Ryan is no longer their coordinator.
As for the bad call on Murphy's TD...I have no doubt that it was a TD, and at the same time it's a shame to see the officials botch-up the intent of the instant replay system.
I recognize the interpretation of the rule book, and it's too parallel to the infamous tuck rule.
Bad calls are a part of the game and they must get accepted and everybody must be able to move on, and the Raiders did move on.
I have had a hard time accepting Cable for his actions that happened in Napa, but he does deserve a ton of credit for calling that 57yd bomb on a gutsy 4th and 15.