With less than a week before the 2009 season opener, the Oakland Raiders gave the New England Patriots a 2011 first round draft pick in exchange for superstar defensive end Richard Seymour. Seymour was expected to be the answer to the Raiders run defense (which has been at or near the bottom of the NFL since 2003) and he was expected to give the Raiders a premeir pass-rusher. Seymour made an instant impact on Monday Night Football when he sacked Phillip Rivers twice in the season opener.
Then Seymour cooled off, a lot! He only got 2 more sacks all season, both against the Eagles, and finished the season with 47 tackles, 30 solo. The Raiders team leaders in sacks were Greg Ellis and Trevor Scott (7). Not only did Seymour not get after the quarterback, the [...]
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The Raiders had the momentum of a win at Denver last week coming into Cleveland. This game was supposed to be Charlie Frye showing the Browns they made a bad move by trading him. This was going to be the Raiders finally getting back to back wins and finishing strong. But the Raiders theme of the season has been inconsistency, and thats what they showed at Cleveland.
The Raiders started the game with the ball and after a 4 yard run by McFadden, Charlie Frye dropped back and threw his 1st of 4 INTs of the game, giving Cleveland the ball in the red zone. Jerome Harrison ran for a TD from 17 yards out. He would finish with 39 carries for 148 yards and a TD. The Raiders quickly fell behind 10-0. The offense was going 3 and out. Then the Raiders stepped up and got 2 [...]
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The Raiders are 3-8, and I don't expect to see an 8-8 finish to the season. So what are the Raiders playing for? Well, Tom Cable is trying to get another season to show what he can do with a football team, any coach of Al Davis is on the hot seat. Bruce Gradkowski has no job security. He is playing to force a battle between him and JaMarcus Russell in the off-season and to stop Oakland from taking maybe Tim Tebow or possinly Jimmy Clausen in the 2010 draft. Heyward-Bey is playing to prove that he is not the bust of the 2009 draft. He just got his first touchdown in an Thanksgiving massacre from the Cowboys. Kirk Morrison is in a contract year. The Raiders better put all they have into re-signing him but if they can't keep him then he is playing for a massive contract [...]
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