Saturday, August 05, 2006

Warning: Before Everyone Goes Nuts

Our excitement is growing everyday... I know I have butterflies in my stomach - for a freaking pre-season game! But hey, I am a huge Raider Fan, a huge Art Shell fan and I can hardly wait until I see him on the sideline again, in Silver and Black, where he belongs... Art Shell, a good man, a man's man, a Hall of Famer, a "Raider" in every sense of the word - coming home to complete unfinished work... Will Art Shell become the first Head Coach to be twice voted "Coach of the Year" in the first seasons with their new teams? Thats my prediction, but lets leave that for another day...

The reason for this post is to point out that tomorrow's exhibition game will probably be ugly in terms of execution and horribly conservative/vanilla in terms of play calling... lets all please keep it in perspective... Coach Shell has made it clear that the plan is to line up and play football at it most basic level, block and tackle...

So on 3rd and 8, when Jordan carries the ball up the middle for 2 yards, please do not call for Tom Walsh's head.... when we come out and run the ball on 1st and 2nd down for a total of three yards, throw incomplete on 3rd down to punt on fourth, when we have multiple "3 and outs", don't call for Walsh's head, don't doomsday, don't rant about what a mistake the Walsh hiring was ... don't bring up the Bed and Breakfast, just don't... this will be about basics, simply lining up and blocking and tackling... I will be happy tomorrow just to make it out without injury...

Besides, we as Raider Fans have so much to be happy about this weekend. Canton Ohio is invaded by the Silver and Black. We will see the Great John Madden take his rightful, belated place in the Hall of Fame, we will see our Great Leader Al Davis, despite all the rumours, alive and well, make his record 9th induction speech, we will see swarms of Raider legends, Otto, Plunkett, Flores, Branch, Willie Brown, Biletnikoff, Tatum, Casper, Lawrence, Atkinson, Haynes, Villapiano, Davidson, Lamonica and on and on... This is the essence of the Raiders, the Raider Family, we as Raider Fans can be very proud this weekend, and thankful to Al Davis for creating it and nuturing it...

PS: I still think the first play will be a play action pass deep to Moss!!!

12856

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you sure it's not going to be a peek at what we Raider fans are in store for all year long? I appreciate the optomism in your blog, and it's usually a good read, but I'm not expecting much from this team. Hopefully I'll be surprised tomorrow, but I think not.

Anonymous said...

Great take...as Raider fans we MUST be patient. Tomorrow probably won't be pretty...most pre-season games are not. For a change I'm going to sit back and look at only the positive things that happen tomorrow. Go Raiders and CONGRATULATIONS TO JOHN MADDEN!!!!

Anonymous said...

Yes the offense will be vanilla tonight, but I can't wait to see real speed from our LBs. We now have speed to blitz and actually cover guys. A good defensive effort is all I want to see. keep up the good work here.
Rick Wascher
Dundee, Illinois

The Analyzer said...

I hope we start using Moss soon, I don't want him to get too pissed before the regular season even begins