Say It Sain’t So!: Raiders Dominated at Home 45-7
DeMarcus Davis, Staff Writer SBReport.net
Saturday August 29, 2009
Oakland, CA – Oakland’s starting defense was carved up and was served up some pipin’ hot butt whoopin as the Saints started the day off on offense first and threw and ran the ball down the Raider’s collective throats. The Raider defense played soft and was reacting to what the Saints were doing, rather than attacking, or at least showing that they could show a vanilla base attack scheme. The Saints marched 80 yards down field and were connecting on every pass and gaining yards on every run. The Raiders ‘D’ had absolutely no answer for QB Drew Brees as New Orleans would strike first blood by going ahead 7-0 on a 4-yard touchdown run in which Raider DE Trevor Scott had an opportunity to stop the score, but could not wrap up on the two handed tackle.
Oakland’s offense looked to match the Saints’ drive. Led by QB JaMarcus Russell, the first play of the game for the Raiders was a 1st down pass to WR Darrius Heyward-Bey. Russell would then follow up with a 35-yard pass to a wide open TE Zack Miller. However, that is where the wheel fell off the Raider bus because on the next play, Russell would get stripped on a pass attempt and the Saints recovered.
The next Raider defensive stand initially looked a bit better, but quickly collapsed as Oakland would fail to cover wide open WR Dervery Henderson sprinting to the endzone to put the Saints up 14-0. Oakland’s offense again would offer no answer as they would be forced to punt on their next drive. By the end of the 1st quarter Drew Brees had already amassed 159 passing yards, was 3-for-4 on pass attempts, and posted a 133.1 passer rating.
New Orleans’ offense continued to live in the Raiders half of the field as they again went on a long drive, 78-yards, as the Oakland Raider defense offered little to no resistance to the New Orleans’ juggernaut-esque offensive onslaught. Drew Brees connected with another receiver in the endzone to put his Saints up 21-0 just inside of the 2nd quarter.
In fact, the Raider defense only made a successful stand once Drew Brees was out of the game and QB Mark Brunell came in to play. The Saints would score again with a Brunell led offense half way into the 2nd quarter, but only a field goal after the Saints kept backing up from committing their own series of shot-yourself-in-the-foot penalties.
Brunell would get another bite at the apple when RB Darren McFadden fumbled the ball inside his own 20 yard line and was recovered by New Orleans. Raider safety Hiram Eugene gave the Raiders some life when he intercepted Mark Brunell after the Saints were on the Raiders’ doorstep. That pick off would be wasted when the Saints forced Oakland to punt after yet another dismal offensive showing. The Saints’ Brunell would make the Raider’s pay for not seizing their prior opportunity as he would hit receiver Robert Meachem on a short pass, but was sprung free for 71 yards on a whiff of a tackle attempt by Raider CB Stanford Routt. The Saints would get a field goal out of the drive to push the score to 24-0.
The Saints would abuse the Raider offense yet again to get their offense back on the field to try for another score before the end of the 1st half. This time, New Orleans would pound it into the endzone from 1-yard out to extend their lead to 31-0 as that would conclude the scoring for the 1st half.
To sum things up for Oakland, the Raiders in the first half committed badly timed, soul crushing penalties and miss-cues. It came in the form of errant passes by Russell on a key 3rd down plays, or a pair of dropped passes by the once sure-handed WR Louis Murphy, or holding penalty bringing back a 15 yard run play. It didn’t matter who ran the ball or who was catching it. The ENTIRE Raiders offense looked horrible. The Raiders only managed to muster up 6 offensive plays in the 1st quarter and the ONLY positive one could take from the 1st half offensive performance was the 1st pass to DHB to start their 1st drive and the 35-yard pass to TE Zack Miller…and that’s it! What little gains the Raiders got in the first half were almost called back because someone either held on the play or were lined up incorrectly on the line of scrimmage.
The Raiders didn’t get significant yardage until QB Jeff Garcia manned the helm. The troubled receiver Louis Murphy found some redemption as Garcia connected to him twice for big yardage plays, but could do nothing with the field position as they would fail on their second 4th down attempt.
That offensive failure would lead the way for New Orleans journeyman QB Joey ‘freakin’ Harrington to look like John ‘freakin’ Elway! Harrington took his ball club 78 yards, resulting in yet ANOTHER obscene, gratuitous touchdown; making the score 45-0.
Late in the 4th quarter, the one ray of hope came in the form of a touchdown pass to WR Jonathan Holland as he danced and weaved his way through a defender’s weak arm tackle to score the team’s only touchdown to avoid the embarrassing home shutout by making he score 45-7 in front of a nearly emptied out Oakland home crowd.
Poor defense, poor offense, and poor personnel decisions have culminated into what was seen here today. Granted this is only preseason, but the lack of execution in all facets of the game is the Raiders’ greatest concern.
