Originally posted by SoulPatrol:Originally posted by FredFlintstone:Originally posted by WillistheWall:Originally posted by SoulPatrol:
Hey Raiders fan here,
I don't expect too much in this game and it will probably be very vanilla.. I suppose because most teams don't want to show their hand due to the later meeting in the reg. season.
Even with the loss of Coffee the Niners still present a good power running game and I expect them to run hard at the Raiders line to test their mettle. Which in turn will be a good test for the Raiders D-Line. I look forward to a true test going against a stout Niners O -Line with lots of beef.
On that note, I think the Raiders can bring some pressure on the QB with this unit as the Niners O-Line leaves some to be desired in pass protection.
Another good matchup is whoever will be on Vernon Davis. I'm sure the Niners will try to exploit any matchup in this area especially if Huff is on top of him because there is a physical advantage in Davis' favor. I expect the Raiders to try and keep Wimbley out in coverage on Davis.
Another interesting matchup will be Crabtree vs Whoever... Not sure if the Raiders will rotate Asmougha as they had said they will this season. I'm sure the Niners will motion Crabtree to the opposite side of the field often if they decide to use Nanmdi in the traditional "take away one half of the field" fashion. If the Raiders choose to let Nnamdi shadow Crabtree I don't expect much problems from the Niners passing game.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Raiders will have a good test going against a pretty improved pass rush for the Niners and the Raiders O-Line is pretty pathetic.
Also, the Niners secondary should get some much needed practice to a pretty awful Raiders WR corps.
Good Luck and hats off to whoever gets the bragging rights!!
EDIT - just saw Vernon Davis to sit out rest of preseason...
That being said... Raiders could probably pull this one out!
You could probably take everything you wrote and apply it to the regular season game rather than this game. I doubt we try to exploit any match ups this weekend and same with the raiders because we play you guys. Only thing is we might still try to run the ball if Frank plays. I dunno. The Raiders pass D looks pretty good though, so that kind of worries me.
who other than asomugha do the raiders have in their secondary??? if anything they have on their d is a solid dline and linebackers. if our oline locks down their dline and gives smith time he should be able to pick apart their d and the raiders have shown over the past few season that they cant stop the run and are prone to give up huge plays. oh and the raiders offensively against our d doesnt scare me 1 bit and i dont care if they replaced russell with campbell
There are definitely a lot of ?'s on the Raiders offense.. Starting with the O-Line, whether Michael Bush can be the power back they need and if McFadden can stay healthy.. IF he does I expect mcFadden to be a true weapon with the offense Hue Jackson has brought over. The raiders offense isn't scaring anybody, and rightfully so.
That being said.. In regards to the secondary.. Besides Aso, they have Tyvon Branch who should be a bell ringer in the NFL this season.. He was , IMO, a pro bowl snub. He played SS about as good as you can ask a guy to play it last year.
And Michael Huff, while nowhere near solidifying his #7 overall pick... he played very solid football last season. As well as a promising SS in Mike Mitchell who can really bring the lumber.
The weak link can be considered Stanford Routt or Chris Johnson opposite of Nnamdi. And if Routt wins the starting job he plays respectable ball with the sideline on his side as opposed to his traditional nickel spot.
And on the same token, whoever the WR's are.. it all falls on Alex Smith to deliver the ball.
I got's to give you props on Chris Johnson he's a good up & coming CB. You guys have a great Defensive Line. Hell could be better than ours. You have tremendous depth which we lack. Plus you guys have a good core of Lb's
but
Our LB's are much better, our DB's are all pretty darn solid Huff is good one game then s**t the next.