Oakland Raiders 3 San Francisco 49ers 17
BATTLE OF THE BAY
In a game with poor officiating and atrocious redzone efficiency, the Raiders found themselves on the losing side of a low scoring game. This preseason game was very similar to the Raiders regular season game against the 49ers last year, when the Raiders lost 9 to 17 and failed to get things going defensively. The game was very slow paced in which the 49ers controlled most of the time of possession because they ran the ball successfully.
Poor Officiating:
The one thing I noticed about this game was all the holding calls that weren't called on the 49ers. Raider offensive linemen were called for holding, but the 49er players were never called for it. If you have a chance to watch the game again, look for 49er LG Mike Iupati, who consistently HELD DT Richard Seymour and other Raider defensive linemen on the first two 49er possessions of the game. He would constantly put his arm across Raider defender chest and hold their shoulder pads. The officials must've been blind because it was very obvious.
Some other Pass Interference penalties were not called. Raiders rookie CB Sterling Moore tackled a 49er receiver well before the ball got there and it wasn't called. Also, 49er's WR Braylon Edwards pushed off Raider CB Demarcus Van Dyke on a 10 yard comeback route that led to a first down and wasn't called.
It appears the players aren't the only ones negatively affected by the lockout....the officials also need to do their job better.
I'm not making excuses though, the Raider defense was awful stopping the run and failed to do so throughout the game. Poor tackling and poor angles by all the Raider defenders led to some long runs for the 49ers.
PLAYER NOTES:
Positives:
+ WR Denarius Moore again was spectacular. He had 2 catches for 28 yards (back to back completions) and almost returned a kickoff for a TD.
+ Darrius Heyward-Bey looks to be ready for a breakout season. He had another nice game especially making a catch in double coverage downfield.
+ CB Stanford Routt has yet to allow a completion in Preseason. The one pass thrown his way in the game was incomplete. Look for him to continue his strong play into the regular season. I can tell he's learned alot in his time playing with all-pro CB Nnamdi Asomugha.
+ WR Derrick Hagan ran some nice routes and made some nice catches. Likely to make the team with all the Raider injuries.
+ DT Richard Seymour consistently pushed 49er linemen into the backfield and nearly stopped some rushing plays just by himself.
+ QB Jason Campbell made nice passes and had the offense moving until he suffered yet another stinger just like last year's preseason game against the 49ers.
Negatives:
- CB Walter McFadden sucked yet again. I hope he gets cut.
- OLB Quentin Groves has no business starting for the Raiders. Took horrible angles and missed plenty of tackles. Can we sign Free Agent OLB Lofa Totupu already?
-Pretty much all the backups on both sides of the ball were awful. 2nd team D-Line was awful, and 2nd team O-line couldn't pass protect well.
-QB Trent Edwards and QB Kyle Boller did not play well after coming in for Jason Campbell. They both threw embarrassing interceptions right to defenders. Other than that they weren't too bad, but those interceptions really killed drives.
-Penalties: I gave some blame to the officials, but the Raiders O-line had a bunch of penalties that killed drives. RT Khalif Barnes had two false start penalties...
-Play Calling in the Redzone: We had 1st and goal on the 2 after a nice catch by Darrius Heyward-Bey, and then we call a playaction on 1st down and end up losing a yard. Even though Campbell missed a wide open TE Kevin Boss for a TD, we should've just tried to run it in, because that has always been our strength. And then on 4th and goal from the 3, we come out in a shotgun formation... are you kidding me? Of course that lead to a sack and turnover.
Hopefully the Raiders learned alot from this frustrating loss and improve on those aspects for next week's game against the Saints. We need to be in good shape for the 1st week of the season.
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