Official 2008-09 NFL thread

**Ramses II CP** · 09-21-2008, 19:43

Beware halftime bragging!

The Raiders are up 9-7, but you won't hear me crowing about it until it's all the way in the W column.

**GeneralHankerchief** · 09-21-2008, 20:49

Holy crap, the Dolphins are destroying the Patriots!

That owner needs to give Parcells a raise. I don't think Brady would have made a difference in this one.

**m52nickerson** · 09-21-2008, 21:24

Originally Posted by Ramses II CP

Beware halftime bragging!

The Raiders are up 9-7, but you won't hear me crowing about it until it's all the way in the W column.

Sorry man not today. The Bills pulled it off in the last 3 secs to go 3-0.

**Sasaki Kojiro** · 09-21-2008, 21:26

Originally Posted by Ramses II CP

Beware halftime bragging!

The Raiders are up 9-7, but you won't hear me crowing about it until it's all the way in the W column.

Eh, I'm just happy we're playing like a decent team. Now, if the nfl would give us back our reciever and if we could get a couple of players back who were missing in our secondary we'd have a winning team.

I mean, today we were missing the guy who was our leading point scorer with over half of the teams points...

**Hosakawa Tito** · 09-21-2008, 22:02

The reason the Raiders lost is because I bet (loser buys lunch tomorrow) with a good friend at work, a big Raider fan, that the Bills would win. He kept calling me during the game to brag & talk smack. For some reason I haven't heard from him after the game ended.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

The Raiders played well enough to win, but were too conservative & predictable on offense when trying to kill the clock at the end.

**Strike For The South** · 09-21-2008, 22:07

The Bills are 3-0...oh my

**Marshal Murat** · 09-21-2008, 22:11

I can't believe that Miami (with a 20 game regular season losing streak?) has defeated the perennial Patriot team (who last lost to Miami in 2006).
I am flabbergasted.

Then the Bucs' get an OT win over Chicago?

A good day for Florida. So far.

**Decker** · 09-21-2008, 22:22

Well... uhhh.... *looks around* HOW 'BOUT DEM DOLPHINS!!!

So as some of you have seen... how NOT to win a football game. First off, we can't seem to do much on offense. Russel can't seem to quarterback when needed, let alone calling the right plays at the right time (Kiffin) instead of running on 2&12 with under 4 minutes left in the game and leading by 2

. As for Ryan, our defensive coach, what the heck kinda 4th quarter game plan was that

!!? Prevent defense never works unless it's hail mary time. Almost no blitzing in that entire second half completely blew the game. And as for Hall. Since when was man-to-man marking meant standing almost 10 full yards away from your man?!

On both touchdown scoring drives, the Bills threw against him for the easy gain and first down on 3 and 10+ yards to go... way to go. Last I checked this was professional football and not high school football. As for the ending with Kiffin not calling a T.O. I'd agree with him, though... he made me feel uneasy when he basically put no trust in a defense that kept the Raiders in the game and him in a possible job

We'll see what happens monday in the paper...

**Ramses II CP** · 09-21-2008, 23:11

It's a classic sign of immaturity (And here I'm talking about the Raiders as a whole) for a team to let up once they have the lead. Edwards had nothing going in the first half because he was scared. Even when he managed a completition somebody was putting a hat or a hand on him, but in the second half all that push went out of the defense. And a big part of the problem was that Ryan didn't have the confidence to stick with his game plan from the first half, and that trickled all the way down onto the field. So credit the Bills, they kept their heads and played right to the end to earn their win, but if the Raiders were a confident team, a mature team, they would've put that game away and never looked back.

I think the Bills were playing our game all the way through the first half, the game was right where we wanted it at halftime, and we came out and gave it away. There was no confidence in the blitz, no confidence in the outside running game, and obviously no confidence in Russel in the second half. Can't blame them for that last one, but that 80 yarder was maybe a sign of what could be someday.

Anyway, it wasn't pretty, but it was a close game. Maybe it was a learning experience for the players. Well, the ones that belong on the field (Hint: Hall isn't one of them. Release him and put in a rook who at least has a chance to get better.).