Teams Las Vegas Raiders - The Black Hole

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Re: Oakland Raiders: "The Black Hole"

Love the win on the weekend. Especially the look on Rex Ryans face and shake of head when Jano kicked the 54 yard field goal. Nothing a team can do when your kicker can kick it that far and even further.
Our D was again susceptible to letting big plays through due to them being a bit too aggressive and getting run around. Our special teams could also learn the same lesson as the D.
All in all though there are some great signs.
 

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Re: Run DMC!

Some stats that you will just love GG. Even better since the super Offensive line doesn't let anyone near Campbell

Quarterback Calls per
100 passes
J. Campbell 1.46
J. Cutler 1.28
C. McCoy 1.20
J. Clausen 1.00
S. Bradford 1.00
K. Orton 0.99
M. Stafford 0.93
R. Fitzpatrick 0.91
M. Vick 0.88
M. Cassel 0.75
D. McNabb 0.72
S. Hill 0.72
C. Palmer 0.68
C. Henne 0.67
D. Anderson 0.61
J. Kitna 0.61
P. Rivers 0.60
M. Ryan 0.58
K. Collins 0.53
A. Rodgers 0.52
D. Brees 0.51
A. Smith 0.48
R. Grossman 0.40
M. Sanchez 0.32
B. Favre 0.28
B. Roethlisberger 0.20
M. Hasselbeck 0.18
J. Freeman 0.17
E. Manning 0.16
T. Brady 0.16
M. Schaub 0.15
P. Manning 0.15
D. Garrard 0.00
J. Flacco 0.00
K. Kolb 0.00
T. Romo 0.00
Other* 0.73

Cutler doesn't count as her gets hit way more than anyone else, so Campbell is way out in front.
It also means Brady has only got one call since the start of last season. Yes him and Manning get hit less, but not that much less.
Roeslisberger is the one of interest, he is one who cops it
 
Re: Run DMC!

That should be "Roughing the Passer" calls, not "Quarterback" calls.

This year, Campbell's only been sacked twice, but this stat is from the 2010 season.

Last season, the Raiders pass-blocking wasn't good. This year it's better. Anyway, you're not looking at the bigger picture - a lot of those QBs with low numbers is due to a combination of better pass-protection and the QB getting the pass off quicker. How many times have Manning and Brady been hit? Not often at all, compared to the opposite combinations, of poorer OL and QB taking longer to release a pass.

Note Jay Cutler and Campbell at the top, both teams run Air Coryell 7-step drop, which is asking for more trouble per se and especially when the pass-blocking is poor.

Like PFT mentioned about this stat....it's not enlightening. It'd have been more telling to work out the percentage of roughing passer calls from the number of times a QB actually got hit.
 
Re: Oakland Raiders: "The Black Hole"

Bill Belichick on Al Davis

Some great stuff from Patriots coach Bill Belichick today to New England reporters on his head coaching inteview with Al Davis before the 1998 season. As closed off as Belichick can be, occasionally he is expansive and illuminating. He’s said some of these things before, but they’re worth repeating:

Q: What do you remember from that meeting with Al Davis? What did you take away from that?

Belichick: I thought it was good. It was good. It was good experience for me. I went out there after the ’98 season. We had a good couple days of conversation. I told him when I got out there – it really seemed like a waste of time because I felt pretty certain that he wouldn’t hire a defensive coach, because he hasn’t since Eddie Erdelatz in (1960).

Note: Davis didn’t hire Erdelatz. He was working for Sid Gillman and the Los Angeles Chargers.

It’s a parade of offensive coaches out there. He’s really a defensive coordinator and has been. You know, it was good because we talked a lot about football and he’s very, very knowledgeable about the game, personnel, schemes, adjustments and so forth. He was asking a lot of questions about what we did defensively. You kind of don’t want to give too much information there because you know, he’s running the defense. He wasn’t really too interested in talking about offensive football – a little bit. He’s a great mind.

It was unlike any other interview I’ve ever had with an owner because he was so in-depth, his interview was so in-depth really about football, about ‘Xs’ and ‘Os’ and strategy and use of personnel and acquisition of – all the things really that a coach would talk about, that’s really what he talked about. That made it pretty unique. But he hired a good coach, [Jon] Gruden. Which is again, in all honesty, the way that I expected it to go because that’s been all the Oakland coaches from Art Shell to Mike White, Joe Bugel, [Mike] Shanahan, you know right down the line, Lane Kiffin, they’re all offensive coaches.

They have their own way of doing things which is interesting but certainly well thought-out and well planned. I’m not saying that in a negative way at all, they just have their own of doing it – they’ve had a lot of success. It was a great experience for me to have those couple days of conversations with him and also some other members of his organization relative, again, to the overall way of doing things.

Q: You’re obviously someone who has taken things from other great coaches and coordinators in the past. What mark did Al Davis leave on you defensively when you look back at his Raiders teams from the ‘60s and ‘70s?

Belichick: Well, you look at the same thing today, there’s not a lot of difference. Like I said, he’s really run the defense and to a large extent the kicking game out there for the ‘60s, ‘70s, 80’s, 90’s – 40 years, maybe more than that, I don’t know. But he’s, again they have their style of play, they have their way of doing things. As much as you can say this is a copycat league and things like that, you can’t really say that about them because they’ve done the same thing now for decades defensively and to a certain extent, offensively.

Through the course of my career, I’ve had the opportunity, just as luck would have it really, that some people that I was very close to in coaching were in that organization. In talking football, I feel like I know a lot about what they do, how they do it, again through third parties now, not directly, but through third parties. It makes a lot of sense. They definitely have a plan. I think I understand basically what they’re trying to do and how they’re trying to do it. I think it’s consistent and I’ve taken a lot from that.

The personnel side of it, the way they look at certain things in the game and what their priorities are. I definitely have tried to look at those and incorporate some of them into what we do. We do things a little bit differently than they do, but that’s okay. You just want it to be consistent and you want it to finish at the end game – where you want to be. That’s what everybody is trying to do. It’s well thought-out. I don’t think it’s a trial-and-error system. It’s a proven system, they believe in it and they’re going to follow it.

Q: You mentioned the Raiders way of doing things. Hue Jackson seems to have really taken on the Raiders persona and he’s talked about wanting to instill that Raiders and ‘Black Hole’ culture into the team. Have you noticed them transitioning back to the way things were when they were in the height of their organization?

Belichick: Again, I don’t know that that’s ever totally left. I definitely think he’s done a good job of building on the Raider pride and their historical success. Again, they played well last year, won every game in their division, which as we know is hard to do and [they] are off to a good start this year. He’s done a good job with the team – the team is playing well.

They were a good football team last year and they’ve been a good football team. I’m not saying their record has always reflected that. We’ve never played the Raiders or prepared to play the Raiders and not recognized the strengths that they had and what they’re capable of doing. I can’t speak to all the other games and so forth, but just watching them, they do a lot of things. They have a good team, they have a good program in place and its showing up in the win column so far this year and it did last year in their division. You have to recognize that.
Click to expand...

Btw, Ron Wolf on Al Davis...

Is this the same Ron Wolf who helmed Tampa Bay to the NFL-record 26 straight losses? As in 0-26??

Why, yes it is! Certain trolls like to leave info like that out…not that it’s important or anything.

Seems to me that Ron Wolf was brought to the Raiders, and Al Davis helped the man learn how to be a winner. Ron Wolf owes his career to Al Davis…and Ron Wolf says as much.

“Al is 100 percent involved,for anyone to say anything different would be incorrect. He runs it.”

“Everything I know about this game is directly attributable to what I learned working with Al Davis,” says Wolf, 58, the general manager of the Packers and the man who traded for Brett Favre and signed Reggie White. “I still think when it comes to every facet of the game of football, he’s the best there is in the National Football League.”

“Al Davis took the time to train me,” Wolf says in declining to take a bow. “I was very fortunate to have that opportunity.”

“To be perfectly honest, what Al Davis did was design that team, in his mold. Those of us who were there can take some credit, but really and truly, with the exception of Lamonica (John Rauch pulled the trigger on that one) those were all his trades. From Willie Brown to Ted Hendricks . . . I look back at the moves he made, and they were remarkable moves.”

- Ron Wolf
Click to expand...
 
Re: Oakland Raiders: "The Black Hole"

Another interesting article...

Hue Jackson Lives Life On the Edge

Raiders coach Hue Jackson says often that he prefers to live his life on the edge, bucking convention, doing things his way and reaping the rewards, consequences be damned.
As evidence, Jackson cited a halfback pass and a reverse on back-to-back plays against the New York Jets on Sunday that.
Running back Darren McFadden gained 27 yards on the first play, wide receiver Denarius Moore netted 23 yards and a tiebreaking touchdown on the reverse.
“A lot of people won’t run reverses like I will,” Jackson said. “A lot of people won’t run a halfback pass and turn around and run a reverse right after that. A lot of people won’t run four arounds in a game. I don’t have that fear of that way.”
Jackson is of the belief that the best way to keep his players happy and to win games at the same time is to make the most of their talents. Hence, rookies such as Moore and Taiwan Jones, second-year player Jacoby Ford, and others already are seeing playing time and touching the ball.
“When you have good players, you give them the ball, you let them make plays for you. That’s why my players enjoy playing for me, because I don’t have that fear.”
Jackson is willing to take chances, he said, because he has trust in his players to make plays.
“I threw the ball from the 1-yard line against Denver,” Jackson said. “I’ll never forget when I called the play. There was complete silence on the headphone. Like, ‘What are you doing?’ Well, hey, lookie here, a 99-yard touchdown. We were that close from having it happen. I just think your players appreciate that when you believe in them, and I do.”
Quarterback Jason Campbell’s deep throw for wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey was just off the mark. It wasn’t a complete failure or waste of time. Jackson made his point, to his player, his coaching staff and opposing teams: He isn’t afraid to throw caution to the wind and trust in his players.
It’s a philosophy that Jackson developed from studying the way other coaches functioned at the many places he worked before the Raiders hired him in 2010.
“I guess I see it as living on the edge a little bit because I’ve been places where people won’t do that,” Jackson said. “People won’t make those decisions because, if they do, they can come back to haunt you, too, and we all know that. They truly can.
“But I don’t worry about that. I’ll let you guys write about that. I want the result. Give me the touchdown Denarius Moore ran and give me the 27-yard run that Darren McFadden had, and then we’ll be talking about good things.”
Make no mistake, Jackson isn’t guessing or taking wild stabs when he calls for a reverse, a halfback pass or the Wildcat formation.
Call it educated guessing, playing the odds and knowing the opponent’s tendencies.
“That’s a lot of study on our staff,” Jackson said.
Jackson cautioned people not to make too much of what they saw from the Raiders offense during the four exhibition games. He said he was as simplified with his play-calling as he has been in a long time and that, when the time came, he was going to “open up a can.”
Inside that can, it is apparent, is a dizzying array of play calls designed to keep the opponent guessing and his playmakers in position to make plays.
“I’ll do anything to score a touchdown,” Jackson said. “I’m not afraid, like some people. They’re afraid to call those plays. I’m not. That’s kind of the way I live my life. I like to live on the edge. That’s just the way it is and that’s the way it’s going to be.
“It’s a calculated thought process because I truly believe in my players and I believe they will make good decisions when I call those plays, and they do. … My goal is to always get us to the next down with the ball.”
McFadden and others enjoy Jackson’s derring-do when it comes to play-calling.
“He brings a lot of enthusiasm to the table for us,” McFadden said. “(It’s about) just going out there and just wanting to play hard for him. He puts his faith in us, and we just want show up for him on Sundays.”
Jackson will be there, too, with something else to pull out of his can.
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Re: Oakland Raiders: "The Black Hole"

A very good tribute, from Monte Poole ironically.
And many choice photographs to view.

A Lifetime with the Raiders

He had as many loyal friends as he had sworn enemies, though plenty on both sides never met him.

Just as he loved and hated with an intensity that could cut glass, he too was adored and detested with a passion that could come only from the bottom of the heart.

Al Davis, the iconic Raiders boss who died early Saturday morning at 82, was an amalgam of many great and historic figures yet somehow an American original. Possessing a unique persona — charming yet abrasive, defiant yet compromising, ruthless yet compassionate — he managed to be exceedingly complex yet utterly simple, unforgiving as cold steel and sensitive as doctor's cotton.

He will be forever regarded as one of the most fascinating figures in the history of athletics, unquestionably the most compelling in the comprehensive book of Bay Area sports, all without personally engaging in actual competition.

Quite a feat, indeed, and it only begins to measure the magnitude of Al, who devoted his life to the Raiders, making sure his fingerprints and footprints touched every component.

Sport is filled with a vast array of characters, from the regal and distinctive, to the bellicose and occasionally unhinged. Al was all that and more. Feared and followed, respected and despised and admired and always — always — worthy of observation, he lived for the ceaseless and methodical pursuit of all he visualized.

His visions, from the young adulthood, were acutely ambitious. Davis set out not only to realize his own version of the almighty New York Yankees of his Brooklyn childhood but to identify and select the organization he could mold to his liking. He found the AFL Oakland Raiders in 1963, when at age 33 he become head coach and general manager.

Davis attached himself to the operation. It became his obsession, man and team becoming one and the same, inseparable and most assuredly incomplete without each other. The Raiders barely existed before he landed upon them, but when his feet touched down they began to live. By the time he seized a share of ownership shortly thereafter, the team was living hard, fast, tough and without regret.

The Raiders played and lived as Al dictated, by the only rule in his book: win.

That's what Davis was all about. He could not care less about being liked, for it was more important to project an air of power and authority. His desire to be feared was met as long as his teams were rampaging over opponents — as the Raiders did for nearly a quarter century. Al's Raiders developed a reputation of bending the rules and twisting policies to maximum benefit.

All is fair in war, right? And football, to Davis, was a form of war.

The franchise mindset descended from the top down. It came from Al, who always seemed to know the fine print better than anyone in the room or, for that matter, anyone in either the AFL or the NFL. He was fiercely independent, swinging his knowledge like a hammer, never hesitating to walk alone, thus cultivating the maverick image he embraced.

Never was there a more iconic and enduring symbol of a business. Not Jack LaLanne, not Don King, not Miles Davis, not Oprah Winfrey, not Steve Jobs. Not George Halas or Bill Walsh or Bob Knight. Not even Davis' good friend, George Steinbrenner.

For Al not only represented his team but dressed the part. He wore his suits and sweatsuits like a shield, never deviating from black or white and silver — the colors of his team. It was a matter of mutual identity, Al and the Raiders, the Raiders and Al. He spoke as a Raider, gestured as a Raider and fought every battle with the ferocity of a Raider.

Yet Davis' reach extended far beyond his renegade image as King of the Silver and Black Empire. He was instrumental in the growth of the AFL and its subsequent merger with the NFL. Even as he built consensus with others, Davis remained his own man in every way, with little no regard for common wisdom.

He quietly paid medical bills and funeral costs for countless members of the extended Raiders family — or those with whom he had perceived a measure of loyalty — yet he didn't hesitate to publicly belittle an employee who had crossed him, even inadvertently.

Davis supported African-Americans even when it was rarely popular, standing with them in the face of Jim Crow incidents in the 1960s. He believed in second chances, believed in equal rights. Insofar as he believed what he believed with such profound conviction, no one — past, present or future — was more committed to his own personal rhythms.

In the macho world of the NFL, Davis in 1987 recruited a young woman, Amy Trask, and developed her until she became his chief lieutenant, as synonymous with the Raiders as he was. He did it not to be a pioneer but because he admired her intellect, toughness, loyalty, dedication and ambition.

Davis in 1988 hired the first black head coach in the modern NFL. Art Shell, a former Raiders great in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, took the job and was moderately successful over almost six seasons. The two men shared an unmistakably reciprocal respect and a love of all things Raider.

Eighteen years later, in an effort to correct what he perceived was one of his biggest mistakes, firing Shell after the 1994 season, Davis re-hired Shell. It was a disaster. The 2006 Raiders finished 2-14, the franchise's worst record in four decades under Davis. He fired Shell, blistering him in the process. Suddenly, two men who had shared so much, who had made such history together, had little use for each other.

Yet it was classic Al, ever capricious, the very same Davis who out of anger and ambition, moved his team from Oakland to Los Angeles — only to return 13 years later, guided yet again by ambition and, this time, a bit of romance.

I'll never forget my first extended interview with Davis, which took place in 1995 during the team's old training camp site in Oxnard. I was directed to his hotel suite, entered bearing the tools of my trade and was encouraged to take a seat. The blinds were shut, the lights dimmed.

He spent more than an hour talking football and war and football and world history and football and civil rights and more football. He was engaging and colorful and quotable — even quoting Sir Winston Churchill — his words effectively painting a mural of his experiences and beliefs.

I'd known of Davis since childhood, when I rooted for the Raiders. I'd heard many stories about him. I'd read about him. I'd observed him from afar, then from up close.

Davis was a spellbinding subject and that interview was the most fascinating of my 26-year career. One man, discussing his principles and how they were shaped, his life and his team — which were one and the same — to a rapt audience resulted in an unforgettable afternoon.

Given an audience or a platform, Al Davis never disappointed. Nobody, not even Donald Trump, better understood the art of the deal.
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Re: Oakland Raiders: "The Black Hole"

Surprised at Jerry Jones glowing Davis tribute. Have a new found respect for Dallas.
 
Re: Oakland Raiders: "The Black Hole"

Thinking of heading to Denver @ Oakland while in San Fran. Tickets are cheap and it looks like a reasonably short trip on the train. Any suggestions or recomendations? There are tickets in the black hole(I'd wear my black and white PAFC hoodie ;)).... tempting.
 
Re: Oakland Raiders: "The Black Hole"

GG said:
A Patriot in the Black Hole, blasphemy. They'll sus you out.
Click to expand...

You've probably already put out an APB on me on all Radiernation forums ;)
 
Re: Oakland Raiders: "The Black Hole"

Probably not going to go the Black Hole option but it would be something I'd love to experience. Perhaps I'll view from a far somewhere else in the stadium.
 
Re: Oakland Raiders: "The Black Hole"

Nice piece. Mean Joe Greene remembers Al Davis.

Snippet...
But that’s what you were in for with the Raiders because they played with a purpose. Again, they played together because Mr. Davis brought them together. I’ve talked to a lot of former Raiders players over the years, and not one of them has ever said anything negative about Mr. Davis. He cared for them. That’s the feeling you get. He was out there on the field with them. He understood the game because he was a former coach. He knew what they did and who they were.
Click to expand...

And nice memories by Parcells.

Bill Parcells On Al Davis
Snippet...
How sad is he that so many fans only know Davis for his mismanagement of the team in the final years of his life:

“You know, when I was with Miami, we played the Raiders, and the Raiders came down. And Al was on a walker, he could hardly walk, and I went over to the visiting owners box prior to the game and he had kind of settled in up there. And I was able to sit with him and talk for maybe 30 or 40 minutes. And my last dealings with him — I’m not trying to get sentimental, this is actually what happened — I get up, and I don’t know why, but I just kissed him on the cheek. And I said ‘I’ll see you later.’ And he said ‘thank you.’ And that was the last words that we ever spoke in person together.”
Click to expand...

Howie Long tribute to Al Davis...

 
The Raiders traded for Seattle Seahakws outside linebacker Aaron Curry on Wednesday afternoon, less than a week before the trade deadline.

The Raiders gave up a seventh-round pick in the 2012 NFL draft and a conditional pick in the 2013 draft in exchange for Curry, who was selected with the No. 4 pick of the 2009 NFL draft, the same one in which the Raiders used the No. 7 pick on wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey.

Curry cleaned out his locker Wednesday afternoon. He has not arrived in Alameda yet.
Click to expand...

I called it.
 
Also, Terrelle Pryor finally comes off suspension...

PRYOR MAKES 2011 DEBUT
Rookie quarterback Terrelle Pryor practiced with his teammates Wednesday for the first time since his five-game suspension ended.
Jackson said he is eager to get a long look at Pryor and get a feel for what he can do. Quarterback Jason Campbell said Pryor isn’t afraid to assert himself in meetings.
“He talks,” Campbell said. “He’s really quiet but, at the same time, he still talks. He’ll come up with suggestions. He’ll write it on the board – ‘I think we should do this on this play.’ So I said, ‘What are you our consultant now?’ ”
Pryor talks in meetings, but he has spoken with the Bay Area media only once since he was taken in the third round of the supplemental draft in late August.
For the second time this week, he declined an interview request. He said today that he was late for a meeting.
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Teams Las Vegas Raiders - The Black Hole

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