Calibus, you're right, bro. I was trying to be a little bit nice, but you hit the obvious nail right on the head. The man knows his team, folks. And whatever became of their vaunted offensive line? Didn't they have five guys over seven feet tall and 420 pounds apiece, able to run AND pass block in the Gruden days? What happened to Lincoln Kennedy? Did he go into politics already? And what's the matter with Jonathan Ogden? I thought he was one of the premier offensive lineman in football?
TreeFrog brings up an interesting and very good point. Although Collins had a couple of good wideouts in Ike Hilliard and Amani Toomer in his Giants days, Moss is otherworldly, and it may take Kerry a bit more time to realize that Moss will help you open it up, if you can just lose the fear a bit. I have always thought that Collins had one of the premier arms in football, but perhaps not a "premier" brain. Nonetheless, if Collins begins to sniff out that Moss can catch it with three guys making a circle around him in the alley, .357's pointed at him and blocking every exit, then we might start to see some good old fashioned Raiders scoring!!!
Man, how I miss the AFL!!! I don't know if Calibus is old enough to remember seeing Lamonica throwing to Wells, but look up his stats and you'll see he has the highest yards per completion in history. That's why they called him The Mad Bomber. That's also why they didn't need to throw for 65-70% boring, West-Coast offense crap in those days. They just told everyone what we used to say in the ghetto, "everybody go deep and I'll hit one of you." That old AFL stuff was incredible football.
They had the highest yards per completion in football history, Lamonica, Namath and Co. They had some good running backs then, too, it wasn't all passing. People have been raised on this bogus "yards per attempt" statistic. Start looking at people's "yards per completion" and you'll get an idea of what the old AFL passing game was like. If you look at a guy throwing for 500 yards in one game today, it's usually like this:
35-48, 500 yards.
On October 27(?), 1972, an already ailing Namath, whose career would end at age 34(!!!), battered into retirement, got together with Bert Jones of the Colts to put on one of the greatest passing shows in history. Namath went:
15-28, 496 yards, 6 TD's, 1 INT.
That's right folks, 15 completions, 496 yards, 6 TD's. Jones threw for 376 yards that day, and to this day, it is listed in NFL record books as one of the greatest single game passing shows in history. The leagues were on their way to merging, and in a few years that kind of game would be gone. Sure, guys throw just as many, sometimes a lot more (Manning, Marino) TD's in a season, but anyone who doesn't play "safe" and throw for 65% won't make it in this league.
Collins has to watch some old AFL tapes and use Moss like that. The reason the Raiders still play that kind of football is because Al Davis is still alive. He's an old AFL guy, hire a bunch of "elements" from society "at large," throw the ball all over the place and send the FANS home tired.
Here's some wide receivers for you guys who have been raised on Jerry Rice and Co. Believe me, I have nothing but respect for Jerry Rice, and if you want to call him the greatest wide receiver of all-time, I won't quarrel with you. Sometimes however, I feel even the John Madden's of this world have forgotten the old AFL, and the brand of football that made the NFL take notice and eventually surrender into a merger agreement, after "we" kicked their asses in two straight Super Bowls.
For the record, the second victory, by the Kansas City Chiefs, featured the forerunner of today's West Coast offense, starring Len Dawson, the first guy consistently throw for around 60% completions in the AFL, but it was the bombs away offense of the Jets, Raiders, Chargers, Bills, etal that made the fans and the NFL understand that a rogue league could become a reality. For those of you hypnotized by the synchronous crossing patterns of Rice and his partners on the other side of the field and their boring 15 yards per catch stats, put these names into a Google search one day, or whatever engine you use.
Don Maynard
Lance Alworth
Elbert Dubenion
Warren Wells
Paul Warfield (old NFL guy)
There are others that I could come back with, as I remember more names, but those should help you understand what the passing game was like. 15 yards per catch, my ass!!!! In a friendly sort of way, of course. :mrgreen: You gotta let old men rant, sometimes. I know what you do, the same thing we did when we were your age. You just nod your heads, bid him good night, wave your hands at him, and go ahhhhh!!!, he's just a harmless old man, thinks it was all "better" back then. I just let him go on for a couple minutes, and then tell him my mom's serving dinner and I gotta get home. Just a harmless old man. :cryinlaugh: :cryinlaugh:
They were great in their Super Bowl year and they were solid last year. This year is most of the same guys but just moved to different positions. I think the problem is just that they are not playing up to their ability. It seems to mainly be a problem inside with the guards and maybe the center. First, Langston Walker is not a great lineman but he is all the have on that side. Ron Stone, the other guard, is old and getting slow. That leave Jake Grove in the middle at center and he should be doing well but it is hard to tell. The middle is just unable to open up any holes for Lamont Jordan. It seems to be a little bit better when they pull off tackle but Turner's playbook is made to pound up the gut. As for the pass protection, it looked better against KC but was still wildly inconsistent. And it isn't all the line. Their blitz pickup is pretty horrible and that is Collins fault for not recognizing the blitz and calling for the RB/FB/TE to stay in and block. I have counted at least 10 times now where I have seen a defender run right past the RB going into his pattern and hit Collins. That will happen sometimes but the majority of the time it should be seen and picked up. Anyways, if the line gets more consistent I am sure that Collins will start looking better. He is one of those QBs that is highly reliant on his line. With a good line he can look great and with a bad line he can look terrible. He wouldn't be having all these problems though if we could ever get in a good down and distance. The inability to run the ball and have a 2nd and 6 means that they are constantly forced to throw long which means the line has to hold that much longer.