The Oakland Raiders would try to rally around their embattled head coach
as they battle their cross-town rivals; the San Francisco 49ers.
The game began on a weird note as the Raiders would win the toss, but
only to have the referee initially award the football to the 49ers.
After realizing his error; much to the consternation of the Raider ad
49er captains. The Raiders would elect to receive.
On Oakland’s initial drive, the Raiders got only a single yard on a
total of two run attempts and Russell threw an errand pass to WR Darius
Heyward-Bey on a simple up and out pattern that would have been good for
a first down. The Ball either was thrown too short of the receiver or
Heyward-Bey ran too deep on the route. In any case, the miscommunication
killed the drive and the Raiders were forced to punt.
Oakland’s defense looked solid on its initial stand. The one time the
defense fell asleep at the wheel was when they allowed the 49ers to
convert a 1st down on a failed Nickel blitz that sprung TE Vernon Davis
for the 1st down. The Raiders later would force SF to punt.
The Raider second offensive bite of the apple yielded meager results and
was forced to punt yet again. The Raiders defense would exact a bit of
revenge as Raider LB Rick Brown would pick off a pass intended for FB
Moran Norris that was too high to bring down. Brown would run the ball
back 49 yards before being brought down by QB Alex Smith. Smith on the
tackle showed some grit as he did on a previous play when he made a
blind side (legal) block on Raider DE Greg Ellis on a reverse play.
JaMarcus Russell, this time in the red zone, looked much like he did on
that Wednesday morning joint practice against the 49ers minus the
interceptions. Russell’s passes were either behind receivers or way over
their heads when he had them open in the endzone. The only pass Russell
completed was a dump off to TE Zack Miller that essentially went
nowhere. The Raiders even decided to go for it on 4h down. Again,
Russell threw of target and turned the ball over on downs.
Fast forward to the 2nd quarter and the Raiders have advanced the ball
via some smart running by RB Justin Fargas and a timely. The Raider
found themselves on the doorstep of the endzone following a deep pass to
WR Louis Murphy when CB Nate Clements was called for a pass interference
penalty when he gabbed Murphy’s jersey outright and didn’t let go after
he was burnt from the get go at the line of scrimmage. The hold saved a
touchdown, but helped Clements lose a bit of hi dignity and forced him
to eat crow. Especially after his comments last Wednesday about the
Raiders.
The Raiders would then begin to start walking backwards on a couple of
badly timed offensive penalties. The Raiders later would try an end
around with WR Louis Murphy that didn’t fool a single 49er defender.
Even CB Dre Bly was in on the play. The Silver and Black lining in that
play is that Dre Bly got the wind knocked out of him and was on the
field for an extended amount of time. The same Dre Bly that talked more
trash than Oscar the Grouch after the last Raider/49er AM practice last
Wednesday. I guess Bly won’t be able to talk much about the “best
practice he’s ever had.” On 3rd and long, WR Louis Murphy would have the
last laugh as he blew but Nate Clements and found himself in the corner
of the endzone all alone as he waited for what seemed like an eternity
as he hauled in the prized catch to put Oakland up 7-0.
Oakland’s run defense began to fall apart as they, on their next stand,
to allow 49ers RB Glen Coffee to amass more yards and more key first
downs that allowed Coffee to achieve 129 rushing yards before he first
half was even over. Fresh off the long barrage, the 49ers then tried to
punch it in the endzone to tie the game up, but failed on each attempt.
I guess the Raider defense adopted a bend-but-don’t-break scheme where
they will allow a runningback to gain over 100 yards, but not score a
touchdown. (wink wink). The 49ers would then have to settle for a short
field goal to get them closer to the Raiders with a score of 7-3.
QB Jeff Garcia would man the helm and with about 2 minutes left on the
clock, Garcia would scratch and claw his way down field to get the
Raiders into scoring territory (Janikowski range), but it all came to a
crashing end as Garcia scrambled and threw a pass to WR Johnnie Lee
Higgins that was tipped by Higgins and fell into arms of a 49er
defender. WR Higgins looked to have given up after the muffed catch and
walked towards the sidelines as the 49er defender ran up field.
Thankfully an alert Jeff Garcia came up and stopped him from getting a
large run back. The half would later come to an end as the Raiders held
onto their lead of 7-3.
The third quarter porous Raider run defense was much like the first half
Raider run defense, except that the 3rd quarter defense allowed a
another 49er rusher to gain a hair under 100 yards (actually 97 yards)
in just the one quarter alone. All would not be lost for the Raiders in
the 3rd quarter. Oakland QB Bruce Gradkowski would team up with TE
Brandon Myers. They connected for a big pass play and then on a
touchdown pass to put the Raiders up 14-3.
Oakland’s defense would remain porous as they let San Fran run all over
them on a drive that had eaten over 4 minutes and culminated in a
touchdown. The 49ers went for two on the PAT to bring them to with 3
points with a score of 14-11.
On the Raiders next series, Bruce Gradkowski would get picked off after
trying to get the ball to TE Zack Miller. There would be no return on
the play, but the 49ers would get the ball on Oakland’s 29 yard line. At
least the Raider defense would hold San Fran to a field goal as the
49ers tie the game 14-14.
History repeated itself on the Raiders next drive when QB Charlie Frye
threw a high pass intended for WR Nick Miller and was picked off by 49er
CB Carlos Thomas. The 49ers would get the ball on the Raiders 25 yard
line, but this time, the 49ers would get in the end zone to take the
lead with a score of 21-14.
Oakland would respond as QB Charlie Frye would lead the team 67 yards
down the field that culminated in a diving touchdown run by a sprawling
Charlie Frye whose outstretched arm got the football inside the pylon
before going out of bounds to get them back to within one before the
PAT. QB Charlie Frye on that play would also become the Raiders leading
rusher with 16 yards on the evening. The Raider decided to go for two
instead of the conventional PAT in order to avoid a tie and possible
overtime, but failed to convert as the play broke down and Frye was
forced to throw up the ball in the end zone. The ball fell incomplete
and would be stuck with a one point deficit at 21-20.
Oakland still had a chance after forcing the 49ers to punt the ball
after the defense had finally stiffened. There was an opportunity for
Oakland’s WR Nick Miller to seize the moment and make a name for himself
by finally getting free on a punt return and break the hearts of the
home team. Unfortunately, the only thing that broke was Miller’s luck as
he fumbled the ball on his own 26 yard line and was recovered by San
Francisco. After having gotten a first down, the 49er offense kneeled on
the ball to end the game.
The Oakland Raiders DID clean up their penalties from last week by half,
but those penalties they earned were at crucial times’ often killing
drives or extending San Francisco’s. Oakland also allowed essentially
two 100 yard rushers by the end of the 3rd quarter and looked woefully
bad at tackling. LB Kirk Morrison, the Raider’s leading tackler,
suffered a separated elbow. He said that he’d be out for about 2 weeks.
Obviously that is a conservative estimate. Expect LB Ricky Brown to take
over the reigns at MLB. RB Justin Fargas has a groin injury; Rashad
Baker suffered a concussion, and CB Nnamdi Asomugha still hindered by a
heel contusion.
With the glaring need for a front four that can actually run block, I
have the distinct feeling that the Raiders will bring in another
defensive back because God knows defensive backs are the end all be all
for run stopping.
