The Raiders were coming off a bye week and I will tell you
now that I didn't even expect them to compete. The Falcons on the other hand
have been one of the top teams in football throughout our young season. And even
though nothing changed or was a surprise about the end score. The Raiders showed up to play a football
game! This came as a surprise to even me, the Raiders played till the final
whistle and put up their best performance of the season. Even better than the
win that they had against the Steelers. But now on to the performance grades…
Game #6 – Oakland Raiders
at Atlanta Falcons
Offense: B+ (C.Palmer
23/33 353yrds 1TD,1INT, D.McFadden 27/70yrds 1TD, D.Moore 5/104yrds 1TD): The
offense looked outstanding against a very good Falcons defense. Carson Palmer
and the offense seemed to struggle in the Red Zone but were still able to put
points on the board which says a lot about where this offense is headed. The
same Falcons defense that forced the great Payton Manning into 3 1st
Quarter INT’s , could only force 1 INT out of Palmer. And a running game that
seemed to non-existent over previous weeks all of a sudden came alive during
this game. McFadden and company made the falcons defense look weak out there. Unfortunately
they couldn’t help pull out the victory…
Defense: B+ (Passing
Yrds All. 249yrds, Rushing Yrds All. 45yrds 3TO’s): The defense played extremely
well all game. I would say that they
played well enough to win. They forced 3 TO (2INT’s) out of the most potent
offense this season short of the Patriots. The Raiders showed signs of life
this preseason as the 1st team defense looked good in all 4 games.
And coming into this season I thought that the Raiders were poised to win the
AFC West. If the defense continues to play this well they may still have a
shot. With a little help from the Broncos and Chargers. But lets look at this
week where they made RB Michael Turner nonexistent and held QB Matt Ryan to
under 300+ yards passing. Both are things to hang your hat on.. Will it result
in victories has yet to be seen…
Special Teams: C-
(Punt Return Yrds 1/0yrds, Kick Return Yrds 2/25yrds): The Special Teams
were pretty much not there during this game. Amassing only 25 total yards on
the return game. This is something that I think will change for the Raiders as
the weeks go on. They have a very strong kicking unit but the returners need to
step it up. You consider the fact that the Raiders have a potent offense and if
givin good field position they can do great things. Keep an eye on that as the
season progresses…
Final Score: Falcons
23, Raiders 20
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to the old podcast go to the address below or listen on itunes…
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to the West Coast Bias show on the 4ACES network…
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/fouracespresents
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