Poll...Best/Worst Player, Biggest Surprise
 

Best - Snoop. Granted only one catch but it was a doozy.

Worst - Alexander. I would expect him to make 4 catches.

Surprise - Warfield. I know he got burned on the last play, but I expected him to get burned far more. He was also laying the wood.

Thoughts??

Bartee got 'burned' on the last play, not Warfield. I think there as a coverage breakdown on that - I seriously doubt our coaches consciously counted on Bartee covering Tim Brown in man B&R w/o deep safety help. IMO, Woods blew it on that play - he was supposed to rotate over to help William.

Warfield had a pick return of 50+ for a TD - he did his job.

Speaking of 'picks', one of the long receptions that took place over Erik was due to that age-old cheat. Of course, if you don't get caught, it's not technically 'cheating'. :rolleyes:

Good, bad and not-so-ugly...
 

Best- Lew Bush. He always seemed to be around the ball, and made a couple nice open field tackles.

Worst- Green. He could have very easily had 2 or 3 more picks.
Hopefully, that's the worst game he'll have this year.
Alexander is a close second.

Suprise- Ray Crockett. Made all the play he was supposed to.

shakes-just starting to clear the cobwebs

Best: John Tait - pass blocking was incredible! Green had excellent protection all day. Hardly touched from the back-side (the play where the guy went over his back came off-guard, not tackle). Tait also pulled on a sweep and DESTROYED his man. Unfortunately, Holmes got tripped-up... if not for that, he would have had a HUGE gain.

Worst: Todd Peterson. You make how much money? A kicker's duties are to kickoff & convert FGs/PATs. That's it! He can do one out of three consistently - we need to find a better kicker ASAP. Missed 30-40 yarders are inexcusable.

Biggest Surprise: Erik Warfield. I thought he played a great game.

Gaz
 

No apology needed. I expected you to pick the waterboy!!

Best - Lew Bush

Worst - Dick Vermeil

Hey,
I wouldn't go crazy on Peterson just yet. Yes, the guy missed a FG that he should've made. No doubt about it. It's a 16 game season and, going soley on his history, I think he'll make a lot more crucial kicks than he'll miss. Also, I think William Bartee should've turned around and looked for the ball and he would've had a chance at an interception. Can you imagine if he would've done that? Chiefs win it in OT. Maybe, maybe not. Anyway, I don't know that Woods was supposed to be helping out. They were running a lot of 4 wides in the 2nd half and Woods may have had to cover another WR or the back coming out of the backfield. I'd have to look at the game tape to say for sure. I also was yelling at the TV about the Raiders picking Chiefs defenders, especially when they called the Chiefs for pass interference for it(definately BS).

Ethelyn,

I'm curious. Why do you say "Dick Vermeil"?

- Mark

Because of the way the offense looked at one time, like they didn't know what to do or how to react. The head coach should take responsibility for the sending in of the plays. Did you see that in the latter portion of the game the way people were going in and out on offense with no clue what to do? They looked completely oblivious as to what was going on.

Best-Warfield. He did make mistakes, but it was his first game this year. That pick on play one to put the raiders behind by 7 changed the whole outlook of the game. I think that's why we lost by 3 and not 33....Warfield's int energized this team. It's a shame it wore off by the second half.

Worst-Saunders. I didn't expect as much from Green or Holmes as many probably did. But I expected Saunders to call a diverse and imaginative game plan that would confuse the Raiders and give this team a chance to win. It didn't confuse anyone and it didn't give us a chance to win. He's not a first time starter, he's not in a new offense, and he's not immune to criticism in game one like I think that others should be given.

Biggest surprise-Robinson and his defense. The defense is back boys, and if the offense ever catches up(Watters might=Elliott) this team might be dangerous. Lack of depth at wr and Mad Mike's injury hurt the special teams.

Best: Warfield, Bush, TRich, Ricks (great hands, 1 questionable drop thrown behind him in coverage).

Middle: Green - had he not saved the last minute TD drive, he'd be in the worst. The next to last possession, he overthrew a WIDE open Alexander, and threw badly towards Gonzo blanketed in triple coverage. He also missed a read in the late 3rd quarter - Gonzo in the flat with MUCH running room. He held the ball WAY too long many times. O-line (pretty good pass protection, but run blocking SUCKED).

Worst: Peterson, Waters, Crockett (Rice caught 5 of his 8 balls going across the middle on 5-10 yard crossing routes. The fact that nobody covered him was bad, but nobody CRUSHED him and that makes me sick).

Bush really suprised me...he was all over the field and made some nice open field tackles.

Warfield looked great in the first half, maybe 3rd quarter....I think those guys on D just got tired.....

the D line did a pretty good job against the run, but I wished they had more push up the middle.


Alexander must be hurting worse than we thought...If thats all the gas he has, put in Parker or someone next week and sit him down for a week or two.

Woods/Wesley were really laying some people out....as expected, but definitely appreciated.

***Bonus to Willis for KO on Beikert....He ran strait towards TR and then into willis on purpose.....awesome.

BEST = Snoop (O), Bush (D), Stryzinski (ST)

WORST = Green (O), Bartee (D), Special Team ('nuff said)

BIGGEST SURPRISE = DA not getting a catch all day

Biggest Suprise: The pressure the defense put on Gannon

Best Player: Entire defensive line. Gannon was under pressure all day, they stripped him twice.

Worst Player: By far, Trent Green

I am not going to give you guys an "I told you so.." yet on Trent Green. Its way to early. But I will say that Green looked like a guy who hasnt played regularly for some time. He was pretty bad and only a courageous 4th and 10 play prevented him from being "awful". I thought Todd Collins could have played just as well as Green did.

When you force 4 turnovers(one for a TD), at home, you gotta win. No if, ands, or buts. IMO, the only way you would lose is if your QB plays poorly. Thats exactly what happened.

Not to add fuel to your fire, Packfan, but 37 yards on the ground = "L" no matter how many TO's there are....

Oakland should be proud of their rushing D and Special Teams but embarrassed about every other aspect of their game.

I'm curious why anyone would consider Minnis as the best Offensive player. He had very seperation all day. Even the catch he only had a step on Woodson and if the ball wasn't thrown as good as it was, it would be marked as INComplete or as an INTerception.

I wish our DT's could get more pressure on passing plays. During the first few quarters they just seemed to be stood up at the LOS.

I think Bush will challenge for the MOST tackles this season, he wraps up very good and has speed and power now.

I really wish that we would have not only used simple plays in preseason cause everyone looked confused and all the motions created no big mismatchs (other than gonzo, who mismatches against everyone).

Saunders needs to look at the 2 or 3 decnet drives we had and realize that RICKS needs to be utilized ALL game and not just in the last few minutes.

BEST: O-Gonzo D-Bush
WORST: O-Waters D-Secondary (too much dink dunk) ..

As I stated before I did not feel as upset about this game as I have about other losses in the past 2 eras. I know we are a the bottum and at points the team showed lots of potential.

I also loved the Willis hit on Biekert. You notice how the raiders didnt swarm around him, only like one guy went up to Willis.. LOL the only shots I saw were Cheap. Like I think Grady or something pushed Tait when he was turned to the side.. LOL the fatas$.

DO you guys think UPshaw will get fined for the helmet to helmet?

Positives. If you can play as badly as KC did and only lose by 3 points, they obviously have talent. Our LB's played pretty well, but I still think Edwards is overrated in coverage. Punting was good.

Negatives. Special teams. DB's. Trent Green. Derrick Alexander. And our OL for not taking out Upshaw after his helmet to helmet hit on Green. Someone does that to your starting QB someone has to retaliate the next play to send a message.

The raider are the better team at this point. They kept fighting and didn't give up.

I hope this game puts an end to the debate over whether it was stupid for Oakland to spend a first round pick on a kicker. He's beaten us in the last minute several times already.