Rush To Respect
King Leonidas: Spartans! Prepare for glory! Daxos: Glory? Have you gone mad? There is no glory to be had now! Only retreat, or surrender or death!
King Leonidas: It's an easy choice for us, Arcadian! Spartans never retreat! Spartans never surrender! Go spread the word. Let every Greek assembled know the truth of this. Let each among them search his own soul. And while your at it, search your own.
The Raiders offensive unit exerted their collective will by squishing the fish 35 to 17. This game was won in the most barbaric and ultimately satisfying fashion ... rushing the ball 49 times for an eye gouging 299 yards. Ok, 1 yard short of 300 but still an amazing show of force.
The offensive line has been completely revamped & revitalized under the direction of Offensive Line Coach Tom Cable. The OLine's domination of the Fins front 7 led to 15 rushing 1st downs, a 6.1 yards per carry average, and a total eclipse of the TOP at 35:07.
Jordan got the Raiders ground game going in the 1st half by rushing for 74 yards on 15 carries before injuring his lower back late in the 2nd quarter. Fargas promptly stepped into the lead carrier role and rips off a career high 179 yards on 22 carries at a whopping 8.1 yards per carry.
The 2 most eye popping changes in the Raiders in 2007 in comparison to 2006 has been the ability to consistently establish the run and ring up points. The Raiders are currently the #1 ranked team in the NFL in rushing yards per game (194.2). This yards per game average is 100 yards more than the Raiders averaged in 2006 (94.9). The Raiders are currently the #9 ranked team in the NFL in scoring average per game (25.5). This is 15 more points than last season (10.5). The Raiders have scored the same number of rushing touchdowns in 4 games (5) as the team did all of last year (5).
King Kiffin: My Players, gather round! No retreat, no surrender; that is Raider law. And by Raider law we will stand and fight... and die. A new age has begun. An age of freedom, and all will know, that 53 Raiders gave their last breaths to defend it!
posted by Calico Jack at 8:02 PM
10 Comments:
I repeat my post from Sunday night:
Tooz 72 said...
Well he sure was the QB of TODAY. Holy moly! Pack your bags, McCown...
2:15 PM
Now that was a game. Let's keep in mind it was against one of the worst teams in football. And yes we could be 4-0 if we had the same momentum, blah blah. It was a great game. The team and fans should be proud as hell. It is really something to build on, especially in the face of a god-sent bye week.
I like this season a lot so far.
Good one Calico.
Jordan is still second in the league. If he had played the whole game he would be 1st since Willie Parker had a not so good game against Arizona.
Travis Henry only passed him because of the injury. As proud as I am of Fargas, Jordan may have gotten over 200. Although I think Kiffin would have pulled him after touchdown number 4 because he does have back problems.
If Jordan's back gets better, it will be extremely interesting how we do with a three back rotation.
As the GEICO Gecko says "Oooo Tasty".
H
I'm with you Tooz ... Pepper deserves to be the starter until JRuss is fully ready to take the reins & Sundays effort should make all Raider fans proud.
Lord H: The identity of this team now is being shaped by the effectiveness of the running attack. The Raiders are now able to dictate the game, sustain drives, win the TOP battle, rest the D, and score largely due to the running game. This is no small feat considering the dismal showing last year. A 100+ yard net gain in rushing per game and 15 point net gain in scoring is a tremendous accomplishment.
Onwards & Upwards,
Calico Jack
The most important comparison to 2006 is 0-4 v 2-2 and last v first. What got into Fargas? Jeff
Jeff:
You are exactly right. Ringing up W's is the only difference that truly matters.
Fargas career day was a combination of a number of factors.
(1) The new Zone Blocking Scheme (ZBS) is opening up holes and cutback lanes for ALL the RBs
(2) The Miami run D is very poor especially with Zach Thomas out.
(3) Fargas has always run hard & recklessly. Now he has a more simple 1 cut read.
(4) Fargas got in a groove with the increased workload and Kiffin dialing up run play after run play.
(5) The Raiders dominance in the run game is due more to the system and scheme (ZBS) than the individual talent of the back.
I personally believe that you could plug Jordan or Fargas or Rhodes or eventually Bush into this system and all of them would be successful. This system is very similar to Denver and Atlanta over the past years where different backs all had the opportunity to be successful.
CJ,
I was at the game and I have one two word observation
Jeremy Newberry
In tribute to his performance lines from Sin City would have been more appropriate.
Marv: This is blood for blood and by the gallon. These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back! There's no choice left. And I'm ready for war.
Jeremy is big, bad and nasty all things the Raiders have needed since Barrett's unfortunate departure
Regards
Florida Raider
Classic Florida Raider. I love the Sin City movie quote. Newberry is a beast. We will need him to have a big game vs. NT Jamal Williams this Sunday.
CJ,
Thanks your blogs are truly creative. I hope as movies go you enjoyed sin city more than 300, which I found to be nothing mroe than eye candy. Sin City was awesome hard boiled to the core I can not wait for number 2.
Back to the Raiders and your comment--Jeremy will be ready for Williams look at the following quote:
I played against Jamal numerous times," Newberry said. "I've probably played against him about three or four times. We'll have a good battle."
Its nice to have some guys on the team who don't scare and can do some intimidating of their own. That has been missing for years and Grove though a grinder just can not play that role like Newberry.
Regards
Florida Raider
300...."only eye candy"? Not only was it a visual feast, but at its core was probably the greatest, most heroic military stand in history. Those guys were beasts and they were a TEAM!
That's why Calico equating 300 to the Raider performance in pounding Miami is so appropriate.
(I'm Greek-American, so I'm a bit biased)
I am loving what we are doing, what we are building under Kiff and Ryan, I am anxious about the game tomorrow, but unlike Raider Take won't compare it to our SB loss against the Butts.... We are going in the right direction, teams fear lining up against us again - Kudos to Kiff, bringing in coach Cable, Newbs, Warren (too bad not playin this week), bringing back the offensive power game; i dont give a damn who it is, no one wants to line up against Newberry and Gallery, no ones laughing now... Go Raiders, and to paraphrase Calico, Win or Lose, Raiders til I die....
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