October 3, 2008
Bye week crucial for Tom Cable: Thoughts from a Reader's Side
The Oakland Raiders have a big transition to make this week, as they use the bye week to move from the Lane Kiffin era to the Tom Cable era. One of our contributors, KA1Z2R has a breakdown of the changes that are going to be taking place this week as the Raiders have a week off from facing an opponent.
Bye Week Crucial for Cable
by KA1Z3R
Special to Thoughts from the Dark Side
Well Kiffin's been fired and new coach Tom Cable is in. And this was the perfect time for these moves, players now have two weeks to get used to Cable, and for Cable to get used to head coaching. The real test for Cable is to see what he does to improve some of Oakland's shortcomings.
-Russell and his receivers- While it's no secret that Oakland hasn't fielded a good pass offense since 2005, and that deficit will continue into this year at least. Russell needs to take some more risks and the receivers need to get open. Hopefully Troupe will play in New Orleans, freeing up Miller to make plays like he did against San Diego. Curry, who was supposed to be our possession receiver, has a case of stone hands. Walker, who was supposed to be our big play threat, looks good getting two to three catches on the first possession, but then seemingly disappears afterward. The only bright spot at WR is someone nobody expected to be anything more than a returner. However, Johnnie Lee Higgins is our second leading receiver (behind Miller) and has an 84-yard TD reception and some very good returns. Lelie has done an okay job, but nothing spectacular by any means. Meanwhile, McFadden and Bush have been great as receivers combining for 15 receptions for 143 receiving yards. If Lofton and Cable can get the receivers up to speed, expect better numbers than those from San Diego.
-Scoring Defense- It's ironic that Oakland is the 17th. ranked defense and 6th. in sacks, yet they're 23rd in points allowed. This is a culmination of Hall's inconsistent play, Ryan's 4th. quarter play calling, and the defense getting tuckered out. They need to work in 4th. quarter rotation and tell Hall to play close to his man. That's what we brought him in for. Because he was supposed to one of the best bump-and-run, in your face, man cover corners in the NFL. But instead, all he's done is give up a lot of passing yards throughout the season. I will admit he's been getting better as the year has gone on. He's had an interception in each of the last two weeks and he's had half a sack on the season. Edwards and Warren have been our most disruptive defensive linemen this year with Richardson and Burgess not far behind. Since Ryan started blitzing more often, this team has looked much better on defense. All we need is Hall to be more consistent and rotate out players when they're tired, especially in the 4th.
-Play calling- You'll notice I didn't mention the rushing offense, well it's ranked fifth and all it needs is to see more action than it did last week. No more passing on first down except for the end of half or game winning situations. I'd also like to see some change ups in the passing game. Checkdowns and the occasional big play is nice, but why not use some more play action. Teams respect our running game, so why not use pay action. Russell is more than capable of rolling out and throwing quick passes. You can argue that our O-Line isn't good enough for play action, not true. As long the opposing defense sees a running back going up the middle they'll forget the possibility of a pass play. If our receivers improve, work in longer pass plays or else teams will just use short zones and pick off passes. Stay mistake free, but don't be afraid to mix it up a bit.
That's all she wrote my friends, we actually i guess he since I'm a dude, but you get the point.
Cheers,
KA1Z3R
KA1Z3R is an occasional contributor to Thoughts from the Dark Side.
Discussion
15 Comments on "Bye week crucial for Tom Cable: Thoughts from a Reader's Side"
#1
Posted by LDizzle, October 4, 2008 1:32 AM
I thought this was supposed to be about what Cable needed to work on in his extended two weeks? It sounded like just an overview on what the team has done for the first few weeks of the season. I didn't read any real suggestions until half way through the paragraph on play calling. A few sentences confused me too:
"If Lofton and Cable can get the receivers up to speed, expect better numbers"
What exactly does that mean? Could you be a bit more vague please? Ooh I know what Cable could work on too "If Cable could get the players in the end zone more often, expect higher scores"
"You can argue that our O-Line isn’t good enough for play action, not true"
Well if one can argue that our Oline isn't good enough, then how can you state matter of fact that it is not true? Saying "you can argue" it suggests that there is a merit behind the argument.
All I got from this was "More run plays, checkdowns, and play action while taking more risks with no mistakes"
Does that pretty much sum it up?
#2
Posted by Raider209, October 4, 2008 2:48 AM
I have to agree with you on play action calling. Somethign we saw in the pre-season but not so much anymore. And J-Russ needs to throw the long ball.
#3
Posted by Mr. Shizzle, October 4, 2008 7:24 AM
Ashlie Lelie hasn't done anything spectacular? I beg to differ; he has only come into a new team/offense and not dropped the ball when thrown to him. I think Lelie could be a value to the team once he gets more comfortable with the offense he could be a go to guy and I think more reliable than the overpaid beotch Walker. Another name on my Raider beotch list is No "D" Hall. I thought the dude was overhyped before he landed in Oaktown, now he has confirmed it for me. He considers himself one of the best cover corners in the league, bawahahaha! Not! Rookie Eddie Royal punked him on national TV and unvieled the true Hall. He talks the talk but can't walk the walk, period!
#4
Posted by autumn_wind, October 4, 2008 7:35 AM
When Fargas and Mcfadden are 100% healthy again, this will be a different football team. Agreed, they have to find away to get Higgins the ball on passing plays, he is down right dangerous in the open field, same go's for miller, he is living proof that you don't need to be fast to get big chucks of yardage. As the season go's on, i hope Curry and Walker start playing how they were expected to, maybe it's because Kiffin didn't pass that much, so how can you really judge this guy's on the amount of work they are getting. With Kiffin out, i think we will see the passing game open up a bit. I don't think it will be much of a factor because Kiffin is gone, Knapp has more experience with pro style sets than Kiffin dose. I also think that Cable is the best coach the raiders have, yes even when Kiffin was still a round.
#5
Posted by Mad Road Dog, October 4, 2008 8:11 AM
Good article. Tom Cable needs to do what Kiffin never did, improve the passing game, the passing game needs a quicker tempo so that JR does not hold onto the ball so long. Then, hopefully next year, those in charge will have figured out that a line that can pass block is as important as a line that can run block.
#6
Posted by KA1Z3R, October 4, 2008 8:16 AM
L dizzle- If I "Could you be a bit more vague please?" You'd understand less of it. You should have said be more specific. And I understand all of your points and agree I kinda just did a team summary, but I was rushing to get this done and I really enjoy breaking down teams player by player. I apologize for any misunderstandings and confusion, and will work on that in future contributions.
#7
Posted by Mildog, October 4, 2008 9:22 AM
There are 2 things that Cable has to work on during the bye week. One: work with Cable to open up the offense to take advantage of every asset that we have. Two: start house hunting in Seattle so that he can join Cable in Seattle under Mora.
During the bye week we (the fans) can start our speculation on who the head coach will be next season. My guess will be that the coaching decision will be made in May after the draft. This will allow us to go into next season possibly as unprepared as JaMarcus was last year.
#8
Posted by Your Niner Reality Check, October 4, 2008 9:27 AM
LMFAO...Ditzle??? Correcting others posts?
Are you serious?? Pot, meet kettle.
Don't worry about Ditzle, KA1. He's officially been anointed the boards Motley Fool.
His idiot takes have been shredded so many times it's almost as if he expects it, and revels in it, if only for the attention.
OBVIOUSLY little whining Ditzle is all buttfurt that others are posting threads, along with his silly sorry pathetic attempts.
That's the funniest part of all.
Oh..BTW..Ditzle is also the proud owner of 'I HAVE NO BALLS".
See, most step up, lol...but Ditzle? This is where he BEGS everyone to not reply when I shit on him. He thinks if no one replies to his bitchslappings, then no one actually saw it.
He's kind of a board project.
Just pat him on the head, and say 'Good little boy...now run along"
#9
Posted by Raiderkev25, October 4, 2008 10:31 AM
I've been saying for weeks that we need to start blitzing alot more to allow our playmakers to make plays. We look like a totally different defense now, but we must rotate our defensive players in better in the 3rd & 4th quarters. The defensive line are starting to get in better playing shape as evidence by Terdell Sands last week. He dominated the middle last week against the Chargers and had 2 sacks. It's a matter of time when Tommy Kelly gets back and start doing the same thing. It will be hard for teams to run or pass on us in the second half of the season i believe, only if we just continue to play aggressive and bring it to opposing teams.
I'm one to believe that we can do more playaction, especially when we're in max protection. When we bring in Mario Henderson as an extra o-line it gives us flexibility to run or pass. I think we should do this alot more, and we should run alot more screen plays too. We need to show defenses more looks so they won't aggressively blitz us so much.
#10
Posted by Raiderkev25, October 4, 2008 10:44 AM
Why all this D-Hall hate? The dude is playing good. He just need to play bump-n-run just like Nnamdi more and stop giving too much cushion. Anybody would get beat playing that way. This is his first year with this defense, along with Gibril Wilson, give these dudes a chance to gel with their teammates man! They haven't played a year to together yet? U so called raider fans are just as worst as niner fans. U don't give ur own players a chance. I'm sick in tired of so-called raider fans bashing our own players. Bash Al Davis if u wanna bash someone, or even kiffin now, but please stop bashing our players. All these new players on the team is a work in progress. We will get better. If u watched every game like i did, then u know we have promise. We could and should be 3-1 right now. Denver blitzed us in the first game, and we moved on from that. But we definetly should have beaten all the other teams. We must finish games, period!
#13
Posted by Seattle Raider, October 4, 2008 11:29 AM
I like the passing on first down, (and you can correct if I'm wrong, But) it seem like we have a pretty good completion % when throwing on 1st. And, didn't some of our biggest runs come on 3rd down?
I would like to see more gadget plays, including shovel passes that seem to be perfect for an offense like ours. Anything to keep the opposing Ds guessing.
#14
Posted by Peglegged Raider, October 4, 2008 1:34 PM
I the last couple of weeks while our passing game has more than struggled Kiffin was calling long pass plays on 3rd and less then a yard. I saw this on more then 5 occassions that killed respectible drives. These actions drove me to believe Kiffin needed to go. If Cable wants to be successful all he has to do is convert these third downs and keep our drives alive. I mean run the damn ball on third and an inch, or at least don't get Russell sacked and go for it on fourth. If I see 3rd and an inch and a Russell 20yard pass again I am going to break something. The only other coaching flop I have seen that has cost us games is the soft 4th quarter defense. I hope we know better then to play hard three quarters and let up in the 4th by now. These two things to me are obvious fixes, burt at the same time they both look like conspiracies by the coaching staff.
I am one pissed off Raider fan right now. The past five years we were downright lacking talent. We have the talent on this team, it is the play calling/coaching that has been our demise. That and Al Davis sitting back and pushing the self destruct button. I am routing for Cable and I hope Knapp can simplify the task of getting the ball in the endzone.
#15
Posted by LDizzle, October 4, 2008 10:13 PM
KA "could you be more vague please" is what is known as sarcasm. So to break it down, what I was saying was indeed for you to be more specific.
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