Silver and Black Report

The Oakland Raiders, despite falling late in the game to the Tennessee Titans, fared very well considering the seemingly daunting task of keeping it’s quarterbacks off the turf against a very good defensive line and the defense preventing one of the deepest running teams from running them out of LP Field.

In general, I thought the first units played pretty well. On defense, the Raiders pass defense was very good. Going on the last drive, the Titans sputtered all evening. Their two big runs in the first half displayed that the Raiders need to play better because they are over 5 yards, they do end up over 5 yards a carry at the half versus the first team. “So, that was the only disappointing thing there and that we didn’t force any turnovers the whole night,” said head coach Lane Kiffin during a conference call with the media on Saturday.

Now that the offensive line showed what it is capable of doing  against a strong defensive team, the up and down play of it’s receiving corps is thrust back into the forefront with veteran Javon Walker not being able to haul in a couple of passes. “There’s a couple of balls that we would have liked him to come up with so at the end of everything all that matters is that you take everything in and how do you perform after you do everything, how do you perform on game day,” said Kiffin.

The coach even referred back to last week’s game against the 49ers, citing problems there as well, “For him not make those plays or on our first game…you know there’s a fade that we throw to him that he can’t go up and get is discouraging because he was paid a whole lot of money and was paid like one of the top five receivers in the NFL for him to make those plays.”

In terms of second year receiver Johnnie Lee Higgins and his route running, consistency and understanding of the offense, “Johnnie just ran the wrong route…that was discouraging. That’s something that Johnnie did last year a lot in practices and why we weren’t able to trust him to play him that much in games,” said Kiffin although he plans to give him another go next week at home against the Arizona Cardinals.

Higgins will also get the nod to return kicks after his debacle near their own endzone that resulted in a fumble and a subsequent Titan recovery for a touchdown.

The receiving corps as a whole must do a much better job next week as they will undoubtedly be compared to the dynamic duo of receivers Arizona has(Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin), and potentially have their differences magnified. Two such players who look to be up to the comparison challenge are Chaz Schilens and Todd Watkins, despite the difference in experience and size.

Watkins has been the best target in training camp thus far and will undoubtedly look to show his former team just what they missed out on. Having been on the outside looking in back during his rookie year (2006), he was placed on the practice squad, mostly due to the crowded depth chart behind Fitzgerald and Boldin. Since then, Watkins has had time to hone his skills and become a receiver that a team can rely upon to come up with big the catches.

But the receiver of the night was without a doubt rookie Chaz Schilens; a tall target that opened a lot of eyes with his ability to go up and haul in passes in tight coverage. As Kiffin exalted, “He played the best of all our receivers last night including the front-running guys. It was good to see because he did not play well in the first game on offense or on special teams.” It will be exciting to see these pair of receivers put pressure on the incumbents and hopefully elevate their game. If not, then look forward to another difficult season at receiver.