Look at these Turkeys

After our win last week, I felt like we were in a good position to take one from Dallas at home. We hadn't played on Thanksgiving in almost 40 years, we have a new QB and I thought a new attitude. I went to the yearly Turkey Bowl held at Westchester High with my sister who is a Dallas fan. I'd yell 'Hurry up I have to go see the Raider game' and she'd come behind me and say "you mean Cowboys?" On top of our real life match up, I played her in Fantasy too. Me at 8-3 her at 7-4. This would be one screaming house.

I can’t say enough about the Raiders not becoming a contender until the fall of Al Davis. I read on espn.com that fans in Oakland are actually reaching out to Al to hire a GM. They have a billboard asking for a GM and a petition for him to hire some additional help in the front office. That’s something that he needs to think about for the greater good of the organization and the faith restoration of the fans. I think if he does that it will show that he is listening to us and does care about the Raider as a team and as a Nation! Every time they show Al, he looks like he's two ticks away from being eulogized. We need somebody to come in and get some order about the team. I’m not going to hold my breath though.

The game we played was not a good one. Almost every week I write about the same issues we have a team. All Raiders fans know that the problem does lie within the team; it lies in the front office. Without free will to hire fire or make recruiting decisions, it’s nothing that the coaching staff is able to do to make this team better. Were off a win over a very good Bengals team. I thought that and the fact that we havent played on Thanksgiving since 1970 would have us hyped up and ready to beat a struggling Cowboy team. That was not the case. We looked a mess. We looked liked we already full off Thanksgiving dinner and didnt want to play.

We were missing assignments that caused us to miss tackles. Special teams were out of sync and production was minimal, if any. Penalty yards did a number on us and the Offensive Line blocking was terrible. Our defense was just as bad, allowing Dallas to rack up almost 500 yards, the most they have had all season. The score was 24-7. Time of possession differed by a little more than 2 minutes and the by the end score you wouldn’t have thought. The Dallas defense had its way with us and we couldn’t get a good rhythm going. The best drive of the game is when Heyward-Bey scored his first touchdown of the season. If he had better hands this wouldn’t have been his first! Gradkowski was 18/35 for 200 yards. It wasn’t outstanding but it’s an improvement. It was good to see JaMarcus talking with him on the sidelines; it seemed as if he was paying attention. Hopefully him being benched gave him a better outlook on how he should perform as a QB and his responsibilities as a leader.
Heyward-Bey is entirely too fast and signed for a large amount of money for him not to be hustling hard trying to bring down every pass that’s thrown his way. A couple of times he should have grabbed them, he just couldn’t come down with them. I’m a firm believer in, if you touch it, you should catch it. With him it’s not the case. He has done this week in and week out and I hope that he decides to train hard during the off season to work on his hands. He and JaMarcus should think about training together bettering their skills and work ethic. While Heyward-Bey is the highest paid, I don’t think he is the best target nor will he be the favorite. Murphy goes out there and gives 110% each time. I just hope he doesn’t leave before Al Davis gets his mind together. We have a young team that possesses a lot of talent. Our coaching staff is not so bad either but as a whole they are caged birds who can’t sing. Let them sing Al, let them sing!!!