Quick hits from Saturday night’s 24-0 loss to the Arizona Cardinals at
McAfee Coliseum:
– A forgettable night was rendered unforgettable for coach Lane Kiffin
when the Raiders lost two key players, probably for the season, less
than two minutes into the game.
Oren O’Neal was helped off the field with a left knee injury on the
opening kickoff and did not return. JaMarcus Russell opened the game
with four consecutive pass completions for 37 yards, but the last of
those was a 7-yard gain in which Drew Carter fell awkwardly.
Carter, who has three previous knee surgeries while at Ohio State and
the Carolina Panthers, was also helped off the field with a left knee
injury. Kiffin said Carter’s tear was an anterior cruciate ligament. He
wasn’t sure about O’Neal’s, but said, “It doesn’t look good.”
Let’s just say that Kiffin wasn’t exactly Dr. Feelgood when he greeted
the media.
“I don’t know if it was a sign or what but I felt our team’s energy died
down on the first play when O’Neal went down with an obvious long-term
injury,” Kiffin said. “It’s something that most likely will be the whole
year. It’s the last thing you want to have happen in a preseason game,
especially that early.
“Everybody knows that last thing they want to do is to get hurt. For
that to happen right away wasn’t a very good sign. We lost Drew Carter
probably for the rest of the year as well later in the game. So not a
very good day. That was way more important than the outcome of the game.
Nobody remembers these outcomes. They really don’t matter. But we lost
two significant parts of what our offense hoped to be so not very good
from that perspective.”
– Kiffin didn’t confine his glum assessments to injured players. The
passing game he hoped would carry the offense against the Cardinals
wasn’t up to the task.
“We weren’t very good. Our pass protection was not very good,” Kiffin
said., “It looked like Kwame (Harris) struggled a lot, I’ll see on film.
We missed probably at least four blitzes. Guys bounced off guys and came
free or we just got beat on them. I was very discouraged. It just kind
of reminded me of who we are.”
And then this:
“Unfortunately I think that I saw what I already knew,” Kiffin said. “If
we try to just throw the ball around you are going to get penalties, you
are going to get your quarterback hit, he is going to start running
around a lot, he will be in trouble.”
– Russell’s solid opening drive, which was short-circuited by the first
of four Cardinals sacks, gave way to an uneven performance which wasn’t
helped by the fact that Kiffin announced his intention to virtually
abandon the run and concentrate on passing.
It was almost as if Kiffin was out to prove to anyone with a pair of
eyes why complaints about opening up the offense were off base.
“The thing about the running game is it’s not the type of running game
you can just run a couple times and things are going to break,” Kiffin
said. “It’s a running game that wears on people. Looking at our stats
from last year we continued to improve as the games went along. We
weren’t very good in the first quarter. That’s the system. You’ve got to
wear them down, get them on the ground, get them tired. When you are
throwing it around you are not getting that. You are not getting the
defensive line tired. We have to go back to the way we were before.”
– If Kiffin’s plan put Russell in an impossible position, he didn’t seem
to mind.
“It was just what coach wanted,” Russell said. “No matter what the down
and distance was, we was out there throwing the ball, and it was pretty
fun. But at the same time, the running game will help out.”
Fullback Justin Griffith said the Raiders were doing what teams do in
the preseason _ experimenting.
“I think in preseason you tend to try some things,” Kiffin said. “ You
go out there and try stuff. That’s what preseason is for. Everybody saw
what we did the first two preseason games, running the ball.”
– If Carter is indeed gone for the year, the Raiders at least have
reason to be more optimistic about Javon Walker. Walker caught four
passes for 60 yards and on his first catch was an ankle tackle from
Roderick Hood from a 64-yard touchdown.
“I know what type of player I am. When I’m in the zone I feel like I
can’t be stopped,” Walker said. “That’s the only thing you can think of
and motivate yourself to play. So to get out there and get some
opportunities catching the ball going into the regular season feels
good. I know what I can do, and I know what I can bring to the table. So
hopefully this team will win, and I’m looking forward to that.”
While Walker bristles at the suggestion that he had a crisis of
confidence, Kiffin isn’t so sure.
“Even though (Walker) has had two big seasons throughout, his career
confidence can get shaken and so having no catches coming into this
game, watching him catch a couple balls, he looked more confident this
game than in a long time,” Kiffin said.
– Kiffin said he felt good about the Raiders run defense, although it’s
worth nothing that when the Cardinals tore through Oakland in the third
quarter for a 13-yard scoring run by Tim Hightower and an
all-too-familiar 67-yard burst by J.J. Arrington, frontline defenders
Tommy Kelly, Gerard Warren, Kirk Morrison and Thomas Howard were still
on the field.
“The four were still in there, but the way I look at it is we lost force
(on Arrington’s run),” Kiffin said. “Stanford Routt let the ball get
outside him.”
– Kiffin wisely didn’t revisit the roster issue directly, but you could
still read between the lines regarding the Raiders’ lack of depth.
“I was not very happy with our backups as far as our effort and
execution we played with,” Kiffin said.
– The loss of O’Neal should have the Raiders checking the waiver wire
when teams cut rosters in each of the next two weeks, but it may be
tough to find an adequate replacement.
“That’s a big deal right there,” Kiffin said. “There are a number of
games last year he played even more for us than Justin. He’s a guy when
we run the ball and he is in there play after play, he brings a physical
attitude, and he’s very good on special teams as well.”
Said Griffith: “He represents what we’re all about, a hard worker and
when he’ s on the field he makes the best of every opportunity. Just to
see him go down, man, me, personally, I hate it. Fullbacks tend to hang
tighter. There ain’t a lot of good fullbacks in the league and he was
one of ‘em. Hopefully he bounce back from this. To me, he’s a Pro Bowler
in the making.”
– Safety Jarrod Cooper conceded it was tough to see two players helped
off the field in the first two minutes.
“The first thing the players think when they see that is, `The preseason
is too long,’ ” Cooper said.
– With a 29.3 average on three kickoff returns with a long of 31 yards
and one punt return for all of seven yards, Johnnie Lee Higgins
seemingly assured himself the job as Raiders return specialist simply
because he held on to the ball.
– When the Raiders did run, they persisted in sending Darren McFadden up
the middle. He gained 40 yards on 12 carries running into the heart of
the Arizona defense, and common sense suggests they’re saving a few
opportunities to spring him outside for Sept. 8.
– The good news for the Raiders _ at least they didn’t draft Matt
Leinart in 2005. Leinart was 4-for-12 for 24 yards, threw three
interceptions. The Raiders deserve partial credit for flummoxing the
left-hander, but in truth Leinart brought a lot of the misery on himself.
The interceptions were by Stanford Routt, Michael Huff and Rashad Baker.
Huff’s came on a classic center field, free safety break on a depe ball.
Routt and Baker were delivered gifts.
Leinart wasn’t the equal of Kurt Warner, who could end up the
regular-season starter. He wasn’t even the equal of Brian St. Pierre,
who smartly guided the Cardinals against mostly Raiders reserves in the
third quarter.
