09-12-12 9:40 pm pac

 



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Photo by Drakus Lovelis / AP News Wire 

DENNIS THE PHANTOM MENACE?

"We lost. It sucked. Get over it."

Thats the note I woke up to the day after another nightmare Monday night opener for the Raiders. But this time...this time, upon further review there is something vastly different.

Certainly Oaklands toughest opponent is Oakland more often than not and whether he wants to admit it or not HC Dennis Alllen better f'in' lump it because frankly, it is never going away. Anger, Acceptance. Get over it.

What everyone before him or since fails to realize is you have to embrace your weaknesses. You f'ed up right? Drew a flag or worse, didn't but get phantom flagged anyway?

Good.

Use it.

F**k you. And oh, you? On the sideline? I see YOU too...

Embrace your inner Vader Luke...I mean Dennis...

The Emperor is no more but the Dark Side is eternal.

KNAPP TIME

"Its Greg Knapp's offense this year. Deal with it."

Thats the note I encountered on the freezer when I went to throw away the rest of my Jager. Oi vey...

If Monday night is an indicator ( it is) Knapp's notoriously conservative approach is in effect and that means yet another offense bristling with high powered weaponry is mis-used and left to rust.

 Now pardon my French (which sucks ai fait)  but f**k the system.

In politics, in life in general and definitely on game day.

"Combat is highly fluid and subject to change at a moments notice!"

Adapt or perish.

Greg Knapp's selection this off season drew furious eyball rolling and groans from a Nation painfully aware of how erratically operated the Offensive side of the Raider war machine has been.

An extremely vanilla pre season had some grumbling whilst others reassured themselves Knapp would take the gloves off come the season opener.

And then he didn't.

So stale, so scripted, conservative and inflexible. Exactly what this offense doesn't need.

Knapp choose to play small ball against an offense we torched for over 300 yds in the air.

Say what you want about Hue Jackson. He may not have been the best PR guy but he was a hell of a Field General.

Hue had the rare God given ability to gauge the game real time, adjust, sense weakness and strike. He was rolling for the whole enchillada with visions of Captaining a dangerous Davis built Raider team into the next decade and it showed on the field.

At least on offense...

Hue rolled the dice went for it on 4th all the time, threw the deep ball, ran reverses (with success too) and utilized his weapons by playing to their strengths ie. asking them "Which plays did you love in college?" and then adding them to the mix.

He also used Legendary Super Bowl winning OC and current Raider figure head Al Saunders for more than a chair filler.

Simple.

He used what he had to the best of his and their ability. And despite a QB transfusion and a Wide out mass casualty list Oakland damn near cracked the play offs last year on the back of their high-flying, daring offensive deeds.

And without Darren McFadden mind you.

But, Davis died and the plan planned for years in advance fell into place without thought to where the team was, how it was built or even if it was effective. It was blindly, robotically assimilated.

Now, we all know they pretty much had to because no one on earth could ever have run it like Davis.

Ever.

But, enough people existed at the facility that the machine could've theoretically coasted through another year just to see what the Raiders could've done with the last team Davis built.

But that was not to be.

Imagine if Hue had won?

Try explaining the need to fire a success so you can rebuild ground up because you have no choice.

Oaklands over due upgrade doesn't mean that the entire franchise has to become part of the Hive mind. Bent on system reliance as opposed to guile and gall, but if Oakland truly is going to hybrid, THIS is where it needs to be.

Q:"Go back to more power / straight line blocking? Why?"

A: "Because it F'ing worked Gawd dammit!"

Agreed.

What more do you need?

Ask the players what plays they think they can have success with and when they do their confidence grows and they become part of the team. Not a mindless cog in a system.

Oakland has weapons, oh yes the do. The excruciating part of it is we've got an F-22 Raptor flown by a helicopter pilot.

If we don't see a Pryor package or Marcel Reece busting loose for big yards against Miami odds are we aren't going to see them ever as long as Oakland is a slave to the system.