Raiders- Patriots Game 4

Raiders 19  Patriots 31

Here's what we learned from the Raider's dismal effort against the New England Patriots. 1. The Raiders will not win the Super Bowl  2. The Raiders will not win an AFC title  3. Winning the AFC West is not a given. Lowered expectations? not at all, just a realistic appraisal of what The Raiders are capable of.

What did we expect? with a rookie coach going up against the king of kings. Bill Belichick was looking for a jugular to stomp on, simply put The Hoodie, hoodwinked Hue. Tom Brady after an uncharacteristically poor outing against the Bills, chopped off his Justin Bieber locks, which should have told us something bad was headed our way.

That's what a good team does, coming off a loss they got mad and pissed in the Raider's jungle juice. The bully was bullied, The Patriots kicked sand in their faces and stole their fickle girl. This is setting up as another up and down season. That inconsistency cost The Raiders an AFC West title and a playoff spot last season.

There comes a moment in any Raider loss, when we suddenly realize that our goose is cooked. On Sunday, that moment came when Jason Campbell threw an interception to Patrick Chung. With the score 14-10 in New England's favor and The Raiders on the verge of taking the lead, Jason Campbell made a bonehead mistake that changed the tide of the game.

“I expected to be 4-0. I really did,” Hue Jackson said. “We’re going to get this thing going right. We’re going to go to work, we’re going to fix this thing, I guarantee you that." It's good to dream, I dream of these things too... I really do. The drawback to "fixing things" as you go along is that bad things tend to happen and the losses start to pile up.

Jason Campbell had his best game yet as a Raider, completing 25 of 39 passes for 344 yds. But, it was the interception that everyone was talking about. Campbell said: "That cost us, from that point on, I think it kind of stemmed the momentum." His counterpart Tom Brady had a less than spectacular day, 16-30 passing for 226 yds. with 2 tds. The real difference in the game was New England's 11 first downs rushing and 11 first downs passing, now that's what you call a balanced attack. 

The Raiders started out running the ball well, but once the Patriots went up 24-10, Oakland was forced to abandon the run. Darren McFadden finished with 74yds. rushing (he had 54 yds. on just 8 carries in the 1st. half)  The Raider running game was ineffectual in the second half  gaining  just 36 yds from scrimmage.  The Raiders gained a season-high 504 yards of offense, but six trips past the New England 30 yd. line only netted them 19 points, a season-low.

You should see their kids!

Raider Notes:

The O-line continues to protect Campbell, they've still given up just two sacks this season. A penalty on tackle Jared Veldheer, for an illegal block killed Oakland's opening drive at the New England 13 yd. line. A Janikowski field goal gave the Raiders their only lead of the game 3-0. 

The Raiders had one of those calls go against them, that only seem to happen to The Raiders. Trailing 24-10, Jacoby Ford tangled up with Patriots Db. Kyle Arrington, who was flagged for pass-interference. After a quick huddle, the officials picked up the flag and declared that no penalty was warranted. When have you ever seen a pass interference call waved off?

The Raiders now travel to Houston for a game with The Texans. Oakland hasn't fared well against the Texans, and right now they're the best team this side of the Mississippi.  After the Texas road trip the Raiders will be at home for three straight games starting with Cleveland then followed by Divisional rivals, Kansas City and Denver.

Everyone had something to say except for me and my monkey:

“There’s no excuses about it, The Patriots were better than us today. We’re not going to say it was the officials. We didn’t do enough to win.”   Richard Seymour

“They picked up the flag. They said it’s not, so it’s not, I’m not going to play into all that penalty stuff, because I don’t think it does anybody any good.”  Hue Jackson

“It was pass interference, then it wasn’t. I didn’t know you could overrule a pass-interference call. You learn something new every day.”   Jacoby Ford

Highlights: The Black Hole was feeling it, big crowd... good crowd, bad game.

Lowlights: Jason Campbell, had a Raider career day passing but his two int's killed all the joy in Mudville.  Richard Seymour, was assessed two 15 yd. penalties on New England's opening drive.

The defense, I've seen fewer missed tackles at a Pop Warner game.

The Other side: Wes Welker, Mr. Clutch had nine catches for 158 yards. Stevan Ridley  97 yds on 10 carries, including a 33-yard touchdown run.