From the Easy Chair with Hitman and Attyla, Game Day In Nashville

Well, I was there, I saw it all. I never left the seat as we saw the new generation of Raiders hit the field and here is what I saw

QB's: Russell was still being held back a bit, but he had some nice roll outs, and threw some very nice passes. I only saw a couple mistakes from the big man, but ultimately he outplayed Young and made some beautiful passes. Walter still looks very good, and will not only be a good back up but will rekindle thoughts of the days he was a projected starter on the team. Tui was Tui and was only in for two series and looked about usual.

WR's: Higgins will be asking you "paper or plastic" someday soon. He was garbage for most of the game, and deserves all the critical comments he gets. Walker needs to either start playing or give the money back. He was a nonfactor in a game where he could have been a force against those DB's. Miller was extremely good, and the TD pass was beautiful. Curry made the Titan DB's look silly on more than one occassion.

RB's: McFadden will make you think you are seeing Allen on the field again. He creates very well in space, but can hit a very small hole and make it work. He caught a very nice pass, and has the ability to start and stop and start again and force you to miss. Fargas had an off game, but did have a couple nice runs. Bush...wow...as big as he is, he really did great. Deceptively fast, he blew up the Titan DL. He really looked great. Very disappointed in the FB's over all, and keeping the ball in the hands will have to be a focus. Several drops happened, but most happened after the player was down, but still, they have got to hold onto the balls.

OL: Decent performance. They had some very good moments, and while Gallery jumped once, he held his point of attack and really opened some nice holes. McQuinsten had a nice moment on a ST play where he caught the ball....big men running with a football are a sight to behold.

Offensive grade: B-

Secondary: Routte looked good for the most part and the penalty for delay of game was ticky tack. The DB's made Young look like what he is, a running back with a decent arm. Collins tore up the secondary on a couple occassions, but it never amounted to much in the end. The secondary is blazing fast, and Huff is really starting to see the play and react.

LB's: They are quick, they are bigger than I remember, and they hawk to the ball. While the Titans did run the ball at times, the LB's were much more reactive to it than last season. I think with the development of the unit as a whole, this may be a very opportunistic unit this season.

DL: Mixed bag here. While they did the job at times, when the Titans needed a big play, the DL let them have it. They could put pressure on the QB. but rarely did they actually get to the ball. They could stop the run, but then the Titans would get several big runs in a row. It was almost like they were predicting the play and reacting to the wrong call.

Defensive Grade: C+

ST: No starters on the field, so I will just say the guys they had did a very nice job. The coverage units did very well, except a couple run backs that we could have stopped.


Grade: Incomplete

Coaching: Nice to see Russell throwing the ball. The roll outs, while not designed, were very well executed, and obviously coached in practice. While there were several times I wondered why we would run the same play more than once (the kick out to Curry), it worked over all.

Grade: B

While the team is primarily young, and will need time to gel, this was by far the best I have seen us on offense in a while, and the defense has great upside.

I am becoming a fan of Russell and running attack in quick order. I just want to become a fan of the recievers and that is just not happening quick enough for me. But, I am definately a Zack Attack fan....yes, he is a beast.

From the Easy Chair

Attyla