News and notes from the Raiders’ 45-7 loss to the New Orleans Saints
Saturday at the Coliseum:
– Tom Cable said the Raiders didn’t have any zip, Jon Alston said there
was a lack of enthusiasm and the stats said the Raiders barely showed up
at all.
New Orleans had 31 first downs (14 rushing, 14 passing, three by
penalty), the Raiders had 9.
New Orleans had 536 yards of total offense (304 passing, 232 rushign)
and the Raiders had 289 (237 passing, 52 rushing).
New Orleans was 8-for-16 on third down conversions, the Raiders were
1-for-10.
New Orleans was 4-for-4 on fourth down conversions, the Raiders were
1-for-3.
New Orleans ran 83 plays and had the ball for 39:27, the Raiders had it
for 47 snaps and 20:33.
– The official attendance (tickets sold) was 32,585. The amount of
people who actually showed up was considerably less, and many were
booing after the Saints scored on the second of their three effortless
drives to open the game.
– Repeat to yourself, “It was only a preseason game.” Otherwise, the
game had the distinct aroma of some of the Raiders worst home field
performances of recent years. At least that’s what it says in my Web
exclusive column.
– Game circumstance would have made it difficult for the Raiders to run,
but Cable indicated the plan was to pass anyway. He is determined to
upgrade the passing attack, and it appears to have worked to some extent.
The quesiton whether they can suddenly revert to being an upper eschelon
running team after working so hard on passing during pracitce and
preseason games. Cable said the Raiders are doing enough in their
running periods in practice to stay sharp for Week 1 of the regular season.
“I stated numerous times we really need to get this passing game to a
level that will give us some balance where we can score points,” Cable
said. “We just continue to want to work at that. I believe it’s the
right thing to do.”
– Wide receiver Louis Murphy was targeted seven times and caught three
passes for 84 yards, but had two drops and a fumble _ the fumble coming
after a 38-yard gain from Russell into New Orleans territory.
“Aw, man, it was my worst game ever,” Murphy said. “Two drops, a
big-time fumble, costly when we tried to come back and give a spark to
the offense. I take that responsibility. The NFL is faster and the DBs
are right on you so you have to work on tucking the ball away.”
– Darrius Heyward-Bey, the first-round pick and also a rookie starter,
caught a 12-yard slant on the first play from scrimmage and was blanked
afteward even though he played into the third quarter.
– Wide receiver Javon Walker estimates he got in about “six or seven”
snaps. He was never the target of a pass as the Raiders are easing him
back in slowly. When asked if he was disappointed he didn’t play more,
Walker said, “A little bit, you know just to get into the grove.
Obviously it’s kind of hard to keep yourself motivated, keep yourself
warm, but I’ll take what I can get and let them make a decision from there.”
– Wide receiver Jonathan Holland scored the Raiders’ only touchdown on a
43-yard catch and run from Jeff Garcia and plans on putting it behind
him to concentrate on his roster battle with Nick Miller and Todd Watkins.
“As a football player you never become complacent,” Holland said. “You
don’t want to be like that. I feel like next week, starting Monday, I
still gotta go out there and prove myself. So I don’t want to settle for
what happened today, or for what happened at practice. I want to keep
getting better.”
– Safety Hiram Eugene didn’t start after missing a few days of practice
and was a late arrival Devery Henderson’s 40-yard touchdown reception
from Drew Brees.
– Other than holding on to the ball too long and coughing up the ball on
a sack-fumble, Russell continued to show growth as a young quarterback.
“I didn’t really see too much of what you would you say poor decision
making,” Cable said. “I thought he was pretty much right on.”
Russell’s fumble came on a play which Cable thought he should have
checked down to a back rather than wait for Zach Miller to come free in
the end zone. It was reminisicent of last season, where fumbles (Russell
lost seven of them) were a bigger issue than interceptions.
– Terdell Sands never got into a game in which the Saints had 83 snaps.
Cable said he’s been bypassed on the depth chart. Could be they simply
don’t want Sands to be hurt because he they’re planning on cutting him
during the opening cut down to 75 on Tuesday.
– Desmond Bryant, the undrafted rookie out of Harvard, had the Raiders’
lone sack and seems assured a spot on the 53-man roster.
– “Like I just told them, don’t let that game define us, but
certainlygoing into it you want to put an effort out there that kind of
sets you up for the rest of the road here. Disappointing. Very
disappointing, is the only way to put it. We’ll go back to work and see
if we can freshen up and get this team where it should be,” Cable, when
asked what he told the team after the game.
– There wasn’t a lot of explanation from defenders as to what happened.
Most said they were embarrassed, need to pay attention to detail and
have to play better. It was hard to conclude anything other than 2009
could be more of the same with regard to the Raiders defense.
Getting cut up by Brees is one thing. That’s going to happen to a lot of
teams. But the Saints’ ability to run the ball with ease suggests
they’re not close to curing what ails them in that area.
– After going from 14 penalties in the preseason opener to seven against
San Francisco, the Raiders were back up to 10 against the Saints for 89
yards.
– Cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha sustained a chip fracture of his left wrist
that Cable said is not an issue in terms of missing game time. Others
who didn’t finish included CB-KR Justin Miller (turf toe), S Michael
Huff (strained quad) and S Rashad Baker (stinger).
