Raiders Stand Up!!!

Submitted by JaNaye. Our season opener, we're celebrated 50 years, the arrival of a 3x Super Bowl Champion and on MNF. Damn it feels good to be a Raider!
“I can assure Raider Nation…..92 is ready to play football.” As I watched that interview on Behind the Scenes and heard those words, I screamed ‘Take that B*tch*s!’ I was getting worried...well I was really upset, that Seymour hadn’t yet reported. While we are a great organization to belong to, we’ve been cursed by the fact that Al Davis can’t sit in his box, trust the people he’s hired to run his team and that scares players away. So I was elated to hear Seymour say he was “happy to be a Raider.” New England was 5-11 when Seymour got there and he ended up playing in 3 Super Bowls with them. Richard said it took “work to build the success” he and NE had. Here as a Raider, Seymour is going to work with his teammates, and bring his “workmen mentality” Him being here he has already made his Commitment to Excellence. We’re only going to get better and now fellow DE Matt Shaughessy has a veteran he can look to along with Greg Ellis. Last week I made reference to Jeff Garcia wanting to take Russells place, well I can say with mixed emotions Jeff Garcia is no longer with us. He signed a deal in Philly; I hope he doesn’t think he’ll start in any game other than week 2 because week 3 it’s all Mike Vick. While I think JaMarcus is a talented QB the haste in his rookie season set him back a lot. He needs to look to a veteran QB for guidance and to learn a few things that can put him in a place to reach his maximum potential and be a great leader that the Raiders need right now. At this point I think he needs to watch tape on a few Raider greats like Stabler or Plunkett. More than anything, JaMarcus needs to work on his accuracy. Take his time and focus. He made mistakes that could have been costly and should have been avoided.

It was good to see Rookies Darius Hayward-Bey and Louis Murphy starting and seeing Richard Seymour as well. I was stoked. I was in a zone, ready to watch my team and happy that I was up on my sister 17 point in fantasy football. She had Rivers so I was really hoping the Raiders contained his butt!

The opening drive was a little shaky and I fussed at JaMarcus for not reading the defense and throwing a pick. It was one of those mistakes I was talking about that could have been avoided. It was good to see Gradkowski in his ear. Even though he needs someone with more experience ,encouragement is always good! Our O Line gave Russell a good amount of time to throw the ball and I hate to go back but if his accuracy was on point we’d score more often. We moved well on the ground and set the tone for the game. We ended the first quarter with a TD and I was very proud of that. Yelling ‘Get that Mohawk wearing, Tila loving Charger outta here’ as Shawne Merriman ran across my TV. I was more upset when I saw JaMarcus had one and Johnnie had a jacked up hair cut too...back on topic...sorry. Sproles killed us on special teams but he would have no TDs return on us tonight! My vocals cords are mad at me. My son had a football game Saturday and did a beast of job at LB and on Special Teams, he was even better. Several solo tackles, a few assisted and 2 fumble recoveries so I was already horse when the Bills game started. I ended up worse after the Raider game. Seymour couldn’t have played any better seeing that he arrived on Saturday and only did a walk thru. He had 4 tackles and 2 sacks in the first half. He said he’d “be the guy on top of the QB” and he showed and proved finishing with 6 tackles and 2 sacks. We had a fumble recovery, courtesy of LT and Huff says Thank you kindly for the pick.

Not only was I feeling good because I was up in my Fantasy Football and we were containing Rivers but it felt good to see the silver and Black coming together looking like a team on one accord. Those walk through without contact was a good idea by Coach Cable, letting the squad get use to one another. Higgins, Bush, Miller and McFadden were active on the ground. Russell even got some action as a lead blocker on a reverse. Nnamdi, Huff and Johnson held it down for us. Trevor, Greg Ellis, Tommy Kelly; Scott and Ekejiuba even mixed it up for us. Howard had 2 GREAT back to back plays. I’m calling names because they deserve it. We came to play and that we did. Rookie WR Louis Murphy had a few catches for positive yardage and was ROBBED of his 1st TD. Aye! Yo Goodell, Aye Roger! We need that back! We were laying hat to these Chargers and I was happy about it. It was no twitter just me and my Raiders. My son is a Chargers fan and I even told him to go upstairs and away from. He said fine walked out and said ‘Yall still suck’ lol. I was on the edge of my seat when the Chargers had a 3rd and 12. This was the time for our defense to shut them down, get the Raider Nation a win and silence all the Haters. The defense dropped back to far, 3rd down conversion. The outcome would prove to be crucial. A TD for San Diego. I still had faith after all, anything can happen. We had been balling all night; it was just time to get grimy wit it! When it looked like they were pulling the cord we got a breath of air and it was called illegal use of hands. Piiiyow, thanks Phillips.

Around the same time we had 2 penalties both on Green, a sack on Russell and a ball that Higgins couldn’t hold on to that proved to be costly. Maybe it’s the hair. Coach Cable took a chance. Lets go for it on 4th and 15. When I saw the FG team wasn’t coming out, my first thought was Okay Silver and Black, I see you! Run it…and what was to happen next? The Rookie, that was RAPED of his first NFL career TD, the rookie on 4th and 15 pulled down a 57 yard catch from the QB that completed only 12 of his 30 passes and took it to the house *jumping, screaming, jumping, screaming* YEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!! 2 minutes left and all the defense needs to do is hold the Chargers down like they had been doing. They weren’t really moving the ball like they would have liked ending the game with 77 rushing yards total. The Chargers moved and moved and moved the ball again though. Moved it until they hit the red zone. They line up in a pass play and in addition to the coverage on the 3rd and 12, the defense made the mistake of leaving the middle wide open and Sproles, who had killed us on the run, went up the middle unmolested. My victory dance is now a 2 step and my 2 step was no more when Jamarcus threw another interception. We fought a damn good fight and will battle it out again November 1st but for right now, we have Kansas City to take care of. My son asked me as I sat on the edge of the couch with my mouth wide open, “Mom what made you like the Raiders?” I said I was born to be a Raider! Win Lose or Tie, I’m a Raider Till I die!