AFS in progress....
American Football Spectacular: Dark Homecoming
Coming to you from next to the fireplace at Fiddler's Green while watching The Big Game, it's your American Football Spectacular Week 13 preview for the Raiders!
* Houston vs. Oakland
Sunday, December 3, 2006. 1:15 PM, PST.
Week 13
The Battle Of The Trough
After losing four straight games to every team in the AFC West and one franchise that used to be in the division for good measure (@SEA; DEN; @KC; @ SD), the Raiders limp home.
In uglier times early on this season before the wins versus ARI and PIT, this Week 13 game against the flailing Houston Texans had been projected as the Raiders' best chance to get a win.
The rest of the season for Oakland looks like this: @CIN; STL; KC; @NYJ. Oakland will be hard-pressed to upend any of these franchises: a powerful hot-and-cold streaky team, a team with some offensive talent but no identity, RB Larry Johnson's team, and then the surprisingly not-so-useless Jets with rookie Head Coach Eric Mangini.
The game against the Texans is going to be blacked out on local TV. Oh, great. The first blackout of the season for the Raiders. I mean, we knew this was coming, and it's this game, but it's still an annoyance.
The trough is the low point in a wave's progress, and that's what this week is for Oakland's 2006 season. Their trough. It will not get any easier than this.
On to Yoostuun. The Texans, having continually sucked since their (re-)inception due to their front office's refusal to acquire players to actually play on the offensive line are still trying to get a foundation laid for their franchise. Poor QB David Carr set an NFL record for times sacked in a season. Eeegh, bummer.
Attempting to hit "restart" on this team is rookie Head Coach Gary Kubiak. Koob was a career backup QB at Denver behind John Elway, then rose through the Bronco coaching staff under evil Head Coach Mike Shanahan to the rank of offensive coordinator. Now he runs the show in Houston.
Having failed throughout the whole 2005 regular season, and successfully tanking the last game of the year against the 49ers, the Texans garnered the first overall pick of the 2006 draft, which became DE Mario Williams. Mario will spend the rest of his career being weighed against #2 overall pick RB Reggie Bush, who went to New Orleans, where the Niners are headed this wnknd.
Both the Texans' offense and defense are in a state of reconstitution as Kubiak works to recreate the success he created at Denver.
When these two downtrodden teams meet, who will be the victor?
The Raiders have proven their defense to be capable with improved personnel under defensive coordinator Rob Ryan's power mullet schematic. But the OAK offense will be the real question.
Now under the the command of www.firejohnshoop.com, the Raiders' offense supposedly will be using the same "menu" of plays that the demoted offensive coordinator Tom Walsh drew up, but now with one of the more reviled persons in recent NFL history at the play-calling helm. Doesn't bode well, does it?
How does a conservative pseudo-"West Coast"-scheme favoring coach get on the Raiders in the first place?! It's silly. And now he's running the old OAK playbook? Double silly!
Whether the Raiders' disorganized offense can get any points against the Texans' 27th-ranked D will be the fulcrum on which this game turns. The Texans aren't likely to get too much offense against the formidable Oakland defense when Raider DE Derrick Burgess is... unleashed!
So, it's then the question of whether the the pathetic Oakland offense can beat the pathetic Houston defense.
For the love of Pete, in the last games, Randy Moss has had four catches for 34 yards! There's room for improvement.
And even the team who wins this game may well still lose in the long run -- the race for the 2007 first overall NFL draft pick is currently between the Detroit Lions, the Arizona American Football Cardinals, and the Raiders, all with two wins. The Texans have three wins and are favored to win this game. Ugh.
Perhaps you should be glad that this game is blacked out. Even for the Raiders, the future has rarely looked as bleak.
Next up on your American Football Spectacular: AFS picks up the wreckage of Week 13 for you. Would be proper, if rooting for the Raiders, to hope for them to win against the Texans, or to hope for them to lose so they can get a higher draft pick?
Coming to you from next to the fireplace at Fiddler's Green while watching The Big Game, it's your American Football Spectacular Week 13 preview for the Raiders!
* Houston vs. Oakland
Sunday, December 3, 2006. 1:15 PM, PST.
Week 13
The Battle Of The Trough
After losing four straight games to every team in the AFC West and one franchise that used to be in the division for good measure (@SEA; DEN; @KC; @ SD), the Raiders limp home.
In uglier times early on this season before the wins versus ARI and PIT, this Week 13 game against the flailing Houston Texans had been projected as the Raiders' best chance to get a win.
The rest of the season for Oakland looks like this: @CIN; STL; KC; @NYJ. Oakland will be hard-pressed to upend any of these franchises: a powerful hot-and-cold streaky team, a team with some offensive talent but no identity, RB Larry Johnson's team, and then the surprisingly not-so-useless Jets with rookie Head Coach Eric Mangini.
The game against the Texans is going to be blacked out on local TV. Oh, great. The first blackout of the season for the Raiders. I mean, we knew this was coming, and it's this game, but it's still an annoyance.
The trough is the low point in a wave's progress, and that's what this week is for Oakland's 2006 season. Their trough. It will not get any easier than this.
On to Yoostuun. The Texans, having continually sucked since their (re-)inception due to their front office's refusal to acquire players to actually play on the offensive line are still trying to get a foundation laid for their franchise. Poor QB David Carr set an NFL record for times sacked in a season. Eeegh, bummer.
Attempting to hit "restart" on this team is rookie Head Coach Gary Kubiak. Koob was a career backup QB at Denver behind John Elway, then rose through the Bronco coaching staff under evil Head Coach Mike Shanahan to the rank of offensive coordinator. Now he runs the show in Houston.
Having failed throughout the whole 2005 regular season, and successfully tanking the last game of the year against the 49ers, the Texans garnered the first overall pick of the 2006 draft, which became DE Mario Williams. Mario will spend the rest of his career being weighed against #2 overall pick RB Reggie Bush, who went to New Orleans, where the Niners are headed this wnknd.
Both the Texans' offense and defense are in a state of reconstitution as Kubiak works to recreate the success he created at Denver.
When these two downtrodden teams meet, who will be the victor?
The Raiders have proven their defense to be capable with improved personnel under defensive coordinator Rob Ryan's power mullet schematic. But the OAK offense will be the real question.
Now under the the command of www.firejohnshoop.com, the Raiders' offense supposedly will be using the same "menu" of plays that the demoted offensive coordinator Tom Walsh drew up, but now with one of the more reviled persons in recent NFL history at the play-calling helm. Doesn't bode well, does it?
How does a conservative pseudo-"West Coast"-scheme favoring coach get on the Raiders in the first place?! It's silly. And now he's running the old OAK playbook? Double silly!
Whether the Raiders' disorganized offense can get any points against the Texans' 27th-ranked D will be the fulcrum on which this game turns. The Texans aren't likely to get too much offense against the formidable Oakland defense when Raider DE Derrick Burgess is... unleashed!
So, it's then the question of whether the the pathetic Oakland offense can beat the pathetic Houston defense.
For the love of Pete, in the last games, Randy Moss has had four catches for 34 yards! There's room for improvement.
And even the team who wins this game may well still lose in the long run -- the race for the 2007 first overall NFL draft pick is currently between the Detroit Lions, the Arizona American Football Cardinals, and the Raiders, all with two wins. The Texans have three wins and are favored to win this game. Ugh.
Perhaps you should be glad that this game is blacked out. Even for the Raiders, the future has rarely looked as bleak.
Next up on your American Football Spectacular: AFS picks up the wreckage of Week 13 for you. Would be proper, if rooting for the Raiders, to hope for them to win against the Texans, or to hope for them to lose so they can get a higher draft pick?