Notable Raiders
from 30-20 routing of Broncos in statement win:
1.) Marquette King
Raiders punter Marquette King is making punters great again in America.
After pinning the Broncos deep on two great punts (1 and 2 yard line, respectively) he rolled the dice on getting fined by the league by showing human emotion/celebrating. Watch him gallop and ride an imaginary bronco here.
2.) Donald Penn
After acquiring three key offensive lineman in three consecutive free agencies (LT Donald Penn in 2014, C Rodney Hudson in 2015, LG Kelechi Osemele in 2016) the Raiders now show a dominant offensive line that helped the Raiders rush for 218 yards Sunday Night against the stout defense of the defending Super Bowl Champs.
This greatness, however, did not come without a little inter-team conflict. All great groups experience a creative differences between members, even the Beatles. So when Penn and offensive coordinator Bill Musgraves got into it on the sideline about offensive play calling, we knew it was a matter of time before a masterpiece came about.
Penn appeared visibly frustrated about the lack of running
plays called and decided to be vocal about it, screaming "Why the (expletive) are we not
running the ball?...They can't stop us! Just run the damn ball!"
He moved on from yelling at Musgraves
to yelling at offensive line coach Mike Tice.
The steamy dialogue:
DP: "You need to speak up!"
to which Tice replied "How do you know I'm not?"
enter 2.5) Mike Tice
Penn’s “leadership” worked,
apparently, as the Raiders changed game plans at halftime and began controlling
the game on the ground.
After the game, Penn revealed that
the Raiders dominance came from running only two different running plays during
the second half, one of which they ran 10 times in a row with success.
“We ran the same running play ten times in a row. We kept
wearing them down with double teams. They knew it was coming. It didn't matter.
That's when you take somebody's will."
The
aforementioned play is called “Crunch”, according to O-Line coach Mike Tice,
former head coach of the Vikings. The play was installed at halftime in
adaptive response to the defensive looks that Broncos defensive coordinator
Wade Phillips was showing the in the first half.
"It's a play our defense calls Crunch, an off-tackle run that
Pittsburgh brought into the league way back when, and a whole lot of us have
since stolen," Tice said. "It's basically a double-team -- center and
guard, or guard and tackle, or tackle and tight end -- on one of their guys,
depending upon what front they show. They tried to bring a couple of guys down
low to pull us off the double team, which didn't surprise me, cause it was
something Wade did to me when he was the head coach of Buffalo a long time ago.”
"It didn't matter. We kept executing
that play. We could have announced it. They knew it was coming."
Tice is one of the best line coaches
in the league and seems to be a key influence in molding the Raiders line into
ascension.
But just how good are they?
Hot Take of the week: They are the best in the league, according to Derek Carr.
Per Michael Silver of NFL.com:
"They are the best in the league, bar none," Carr told me between bites of a chicken sandwich as he stood in the middle of the Raiders' locker room after the game. "I don't know if anybody's scored 30 on (the Broncos) this year, but we always expect to have success up front. And trust me, we're not even close to where we think we can be."
A Few more performances like Sundays and it will be hard to deny that the Raiders are a serious Super Bowl Contender.
Other
Tidbits from Sunday:
*The most overwhelmingly passive looking coach in the league Jim Caldwell allegedly argued with a referee, fighting to add two seconds on the clock. The Lions ended up needing those 2 seconds, as they spiked the ball with 0:02 left in regulation to kick a game tying field goal to beat the Vikings 22-16 in OT. Good on you Jim.
*Cleavelands loss to the Cowboys on Sunday clinches a losing season for the 0-9 Browns for the 9th season in a row. Lebrons magic almost worked on the I-words (Indians) but the city’s football team looks hopeless for now. #DawgPound
*Almost as much of a dumpster fire as the Browns, a leak within the Jets organization reveals that the team’s two best players Sheldon Richardson and Mo Wilkerson allegedly skip meetings and are late all of the time. This report comes after other reports Tuesday that the team was frantically trying to move D-lineman Sheldon Richardson before the trade deadline.
Someone need to punch Geno smith in the face again ASAP and take control of this locker room because the Jets desperately need a leader.
http://www.nj.com/jets/index.ssf/2016/11/jets_sheldon_richardson_muhammad_wilkerson_miss_te.html
*Mike Wallace makes History as the only player to catch two 95+ yard catches with two different teams.
Catch 1 from Big Roethlisberger http://a.video.nfl.com/films/s2011/nflcom/w07/111023_phl_wk7_pb_pit_wallace_95yd_td_3200k.mp4
Catch 2 from Joe Flacco, against his former team
*Former Cardinals and Giants Safety Antrell Rolle has announced his retirement. Last of the remaining great safeties from the early 2000’s University of Miami Team. (Sean Taylor, Ed Reed, Rolle)
*Travis Kelce upset about a no-flag on what he perceived to be pass interference against him in the End zone, so he decided to take matters into his own hands and throw his hand towel. The referee likely saw this as an attempt to take his turf, so in a dominance struggle over who gets to throw things wear, the ref ejected Kelce.
https://mobile.twitter.com/SportsDailyBlog/status/795366696345223168
* Melvin Gordon's 261 scrimmage yards is 2nd in Chargers history behind LaDainian Tomlinsons 271.
After a disappointing rookie campaign of scoring 0 TDs, the Chargers sophomore running back appears to be on pace for a breakout season. He showed looked explosive in Sundays win over the Titans and it appears the Chargers have hit on this pick that previously looked like a bust.
*Case Keenum allegedly showers. Claims to have showered after loss to Panthers. Among other awkward quotes from the post-game press conference, Keenum mumbled:
"We have the 24-hour rule, for me, I have a shower rule. I take a shower, good or bad, I rinse all the crap off and I’m looking forward to next week.”
Despite Jeff Fishers apparently inability to develop a quarterback/offense, rookie QB Jared Goff needs to start at QB next week no matter what. If not, look for riots in LA circa 1980’s and NWA songs to be written about it. Rest in Peace Eazy.
This has been the
first installment and
week 9 of the Doggystylesports Monday
Morning Column. Email me at AlbMattheis@aol.com with hate mail, questions, and pictures of
your children.
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