Monday night against the Chargers, the Oakland Raiders registered a dismal 42 yards total in passing, but racked up 54 yards in penalties against them. When your penalties result in more lost yardage than you gain passing, your team is in serious trouble. They did manage 87 yards rushing, which is not much higher than their penalty total.
Maybe they don't understand the concept of the sport. You can't score by going backwards. A saftey is points for the OTHER team, not yours... so try to head towards the other end of the field on occasion.
We all understand that the penalties are a treasured part of the Radier mystique. Back in the glory days, the Radiers were known for taking blatent penalties just to strike fear into thier opponents. They abused thier opposition and stripped away thier will to play. But those were what we call 'smart penalties.' They served a purpose.
The new Raiders is a tradition of 'Stupid penalties.' There is nothing intimidating about a false start, offsides, or holding penalty. Its laughable. Until the team developes a bit of mental discipline, they are doomed to be at the bottom of thier division.
Penalties are not the only problem facing the Raiders. Fans had high hopes for Aaron Brooks in Oakland. If they had listened to me, they would have known that thier big offseason aquisition would turn out to be a disaster for them. Now they are stuck with a quarterback who can't hit an open reciever, can't avoid a blitz consitantly, and can't hang onto the ball. And his two primary recievers, possibly one of the best tandems in the league with Moss and Porter, are calling for a replacement. When the quarterback has lost the confidence of his recievers, his season is over.
The team is not much better on the other side of the ball right now. Last night, the Chargers scored all 3 of thier touchdowns from outside the red zone. For those of you not familiar with the term 'red zone,' that means the Charges scored 3 times from more than 20 yards away from the endzone. The Raiders are getting beat on big plays for long yardage. They are letting recievers get open, they are missing tackles, and they are failing to pressure the opposing quarterback.
In other words, the Raiders suck right now.
The first head to roll has to be Aaron Brooks. The quarterback carousel in Oakland needs to spin one more time.. something fans should be used to by now. The problem is that the Raiders missed out on the big fish during the offseason. They grabbed Brooks when they should have gone after Culpepper or McNair. Now they will have to do something drastic and desperate.
I predict that Patrick Ramsey will be traded to the Raiders soon. Oakland waited too long already, and now will be forced to overpay to get him. And thats IF they act quickly, before Pennington gets hurt again and Ramsey takes the starting job for the Jets.
