In 2010, the Oakland Raiders made great strides to regain
their winning ways of decades ago. The question is at 8-8 can they become a
legitimate contender with Jason Campbell at quarterback and a poor defensive
line?
Offense
The offense starts with the quarterback and Jason Campbell
is running the show at this point. Will he ever be a Tom Brady? Absolutely not.
Campbell's job is to run the offense efficiently without making unnecessary
mistakes.
In 2010, he had a fairly good season with 2387 yards, 13 TD and 8
INT. Campbell's major weakness is his accuracy. He threw for 59% for the season
but at times had the open man and couldn't manage to connect. At this point in
his career after 5 years, it's time for Jason Campbell to make the move from
serviceable quarterback to one of the better quarterbacks in the game.
His
career stats of 68 TD and 46 INT (mostly
with the Washington Redskins) tell you that he's a good quarterback and in his
last year in Washington, he threw for a career high 3618 yards. He's not with
Washington anymore and he'll be approaching 30 years old on the last day of the
year in 2011. The Raiders are improving and he has a fairly good supporting
cast. It's time for Jason Campbell to make the Oakland Raiders a playoff team.
If the Raiders backtrack this season, they'll be looking for a QB in the next
draft.
One position that the Raiders have excelled at is in running
back. They rank 2nd in rushing with 155.9 yards per game. Their man go to guy
is Darren McFadden. McFadden can do it all. In just 13 games last season, he
ran for 1157 yards on 5.2 yards per carry and 7 touchdowns. McFadden also
caught 47 passes for 507 yards and 3 TD. This is an all around player and the
Raiders will go as far as this young star takes them. He has a bright future as
he's only 23 years old and will be 24 by the start of the season. The Raiders
really hit the jackpot when they selected him in the 2008 NFL draft. One weakness
to his game is fumbles. He fumbled the ball 8 times for the season and he
needs to focus on holding on to the ball.
Along with Jason Campbell who ran for over 200 yards last
season, the Raiders have another capable runner in Michael Bush. Bush carried
the ball for 655 yards and led the team with 8 TD. Bush is a legitimate runner who didn't fumble all
season but it would be in the Raiders best interest to keep Darren McFadden
healthy in order to be effective.
Oakland is very deep receiving-wise but doesn't have a
dominant receiver that Campbell can count on during crunchtime. They have one
of the best players at his respective position in tight end Zach Miller. Miller
led the Raiders in receiving with 60 receptions for 685 yards and 5 TD. Aside
from McFadden's 507 yards, the Raiders have a host of possession receivers that
they can count on. This includes Louis Murphy (609 yards, 2 TD), Jacoby Ford
(470, 2 TD), Darius Heyward-Bey (366 yards, 1 TD), and Michael Reece (333 yards
,3 TD). To sum it up, they don't lack depth, they just lack a gamebreaker. They
can't move away from the running game but QB Jason Campbell will need to do a
better job of getting players more involved.
The Raider kicking game is well intact with Sebastian
Janikowski. He made 33 of 41 field goals but can kick from great lengths. His
long for the year was a whopping 59 yards and that can make the difference
between a win and a loss.
Defense
On the defensive side of the ball. The Raiders excelled in
their pass defense, allowing just 189.2 yards per game (2nd in the league) and
were inept in rushing defense, giving up 133.6 yards per game (29th in the
league). Oakland's rushing defense allowed over 2100 yards on the ground and 14
touchdowns.
Disappointingly, the defensive line wasn't a major focus in the NFL
draft like it should've been. DeMarcus Van Dyke who is a cornerback was the
only defensive player picked by the Raiders in the draft. It's one thing to
focus on offense because it's needed but if Oakland can't stop the run, they're
going to have to win shootouts all season and that seems impossible. Poor job in
drafting. The offensive players could turn out to be stars and I'd still give
them a poor grade for missing the obvious.
Defensive end Matt Shaugnessy and defensive tackle Tommy
Kelly led the line with 7 sacks a piece. Shaugnessy had 56 tackles while Kelly
had a respectable 58 tackles. Pro-bowler Richard Seymour had 5.5 sacks while
Lamarr Houston had 5 sacks and 39 tackles. This is a veteran group of players
that really need to step it up this season in order for Oakland to have a
chance at the playoffs.
Rolando McClain had a very promising rookie season at
linebacker for the men in silver and black. He had 85 tackles with an INT. Look
for more production from McClain as he improves in his sophomore campaign.
Linebacker Kamerion Wimbley led the Raiders with 9 sacks and had 58 tackles.
Look for a possible pro bowl spot for Wimbley if he keeps this up and the
Raiders have a playoff season. You can say that you read it here.
When I mentioned picking up cornerback DeMarcus VanDyke in
the draft, I didn't mean it as a negative. The Raiders were addressing a
position. They just didn't "address" the defense enough. VanDyke
seems like a formidable foe to opposing wide receivers and we'll watch his
progression as the season plays out. Cornerback Stanford Routt is a solid
player with 55 tackles, 2 INT's and led the team with 12 passes defended.
Strong safety Tyvon Branch led the team in tackles with 103
while free safety Michael Huff had 95 tackles. Both safties each recorded 4
sacks a piece while Huff had 3 INT. These are two valuable, productive players
and make up partially for a horrible defensive line.
Summary - The weakness with this ball club is at the
defensive end position and a weak defense and strong offense is always a good sign in NFL betting when looking 'over' on the game totals . 29th in the league won't make a winner. I wouldn't
consider Jason Campbell a weakness, especially after replacing Jamarcus Russell
who was a bust, but this is a make or break year for Campbell and he controls
his own destiny with depth at the receiver position and a star running back
like Darren McFadden.
Schedule
at Denver
at Buffalo
Jets
New England
at Houston
Cleveland
Kansas City
Denver
at San Diego
at Minnesota
Chicago
at Miami
at Green Bay
Detroit
at Kansas City
San Diego
Oakland has a very tough schedule. As their record has
improved, so has their quality of opposition. I see the Raiders with a 10-6
record at best if they're nearly flawless at home and against the teams that
they should beat. 9-7 is more of a realistic prediction and if that's the case,
they would possibly need help getting into the playoffs. It seems like the
Raiders would need to pull off an upset or two against a better team to have a
legitimate chance for post season play but they're going in the right
direction. In the betting odds they are 40/1 to win the SuperBowl in 2012.