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Offense looked good. Defense could use some work. Always good to get a win. Thoughts?

Also have to say, the Dolphins are dog shit. As are the Browns, Jets, and Titans.

And gladly, it looks like the Chargers suck

While reading through the game thread, I was reminded as to why I very seldom post during a game.

But overall, yesterday's game did show a lot of promise when compared to how bad we were from top to bottom last year. For the most part, I thought our players performed with a sense of urgency on both sides of the ball and they should only get better as the season goes on.

My only beef is that hopefully, we'll take more deep shots in the passing game and stretch the field a bit more.

My main question though, is overall, have we truly improved as much as we hoped we would, OR instead, are the Dolphins really that bad?

Guess we'll find out when we next play a pissed off Chargers team trying to atone for yesterday's game.

raidersince63 wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2026 3:55 am While reading through the game thread, I was reminded as to why I very seldom post during a game.

But overall, yesterday's game did show a lot of promise when compared to how bad we were from top to bottom last year. For the most part, I thought our players performed with a sense of urgency on both sides of the ball and they should only get better as the season goes on.

My only beef is that hopefully, we'll take more deep shots in the passing game and stretch the field a bit more.

My main question though, is overall, have we truly improved as much as we hoped we would, OR instead, are the Dolphins really that bad?

Guess we'll find out when we next play a pissed off Chargers team trying to atone for yesterday's game.

...with pretty much new everything and including the system these guys need the reps to be able to just do without having to think about it, it is what I expected to see against a better team in the weeks ahead, and I would say that that time line appeared to have accelerated due, for the most part, to yesterdays opponent, and I would realistically expect there to be more bumps against better opponents, on the way to seeing who we really are at this point.
...in other words, some of both.

...I did expect our o line to appear to be vastly improved, not only due to the addition of the top 3 center, but also due to good coaching and play calling. ...I've said it before, but some don't seem to fully realize what rancid coaching we had last year, and in addition to players we knew, or were fairly sure could play well, with a competent scheme and coaching, draft picks that many of us liked at the time over the last few years had been coached down, though at least were able to use that time to get stronger, then with the current coaching staff, to forget everything they were told last year....

What bothered me further about Cousin's bad passes in the 4th quarter was that I don't think he was pressured on many/any of them. He was never sacked and didn't seem under duress much at all during the game.

And if you look at the breakdown on how well he did on passes 10 yards or shorter vs how poorly he did on the 10+ attempts it doesn't seem like it was his arm getting tired, it was just lack of arm strength period.

He didn't have a bad game, but now his weakness is obvious and will be schemed around and exploited. We won and he will start game 2, but I don't think he lasts much longer as a starter. Maybe, but I don't think so.

Mendoza will go through growing pains but will also open this offense up more. It also looks like we don't have a sieve OL anymore and FM is the future. I hope we see him starting soon.

powski wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2026 4:33 am What bothered me further about Cousin's bad passes in the 4th quarter was that I don't think he was pressured on many/any of them. He was never sacked and didn't seem under duress much at all during the game.

And if you look at the breakdown on how well he did on passes 10 yards or shorter vs how poorly he did on the 10+ attempts it doesn't seem like it was his arm getting tired, it was just lack of arm strength period.

He didn't have a bad game, but now his weakness is obvious and will be schemed around and exploited. We won and he will start game 2, but I don't think he lasts much longer as a starter. Maybe, but I don't think so.

Mendoza will go through growing pains but will also open this offense up more. It also looks like we don't have a sieve OL anymore and FM is the future. I hope we see him starting soon.

What I loved about Cousins' bad passes was that he wasn't pressured on them...... basically I love that it was a Cousins problem, instead of a problem with the oline or the offense in general. Because Cousins is temporary and it's encouraging for the time when Mendoza steps in.

What I like his is was willing to put the game away, he just has to make better throws, it was week 1. We will get better, I think we have much more in store for the league. When 89 gets back, our Offense will be scary! Our D can bend but not break! Can't wait!

A good scheme is in place.

Losing games because our players are outmatched is fine if a good scheme is in place.

Losing games with good players because of a bad scheme?

Big difference. Another f/a. Another draft. Another ota, mini camp, camp, preseason.

We have a sceme. We saw the formations and I loved the speed that the offense operated at.

We can get better players for the point of attack in time. Excited to see the future players they bring in to advance team wins.

The Fins weren't the worst team in football last year. We were and it doesn't esn't seem to be the case this year.

We're going to play teams with better rosters but we wont be out coached every week. Most important imo.

We all saw the formations, movement on offense and the urgency they got the ball snapped. This wont change but will get faster with time as the players get more familiar with the system.

Its a great start to this new Raiders era.

Defensively we played well.
Yes we could use more fire power but that will need to wait till next year.

A young defensive backfield will, with time and coaching get tighter.

Replacing 2nd string starters like Koonce and Booker will improve things.
The need of a stud DT would work wonders. Takes time.

The D had 5 sacks and we gave up 0.
The turnover battle was even.

Rob Leonard was aggressive at the right times. Didn't have the best firepower but again, time, maturity and better players.

The maturity goes for our first time DC as well as our first time HC and it seems we have exceptional coaching in place.

Please Tom, stop Mark from firing the lot of them whwn things turn sour for a period while we grow as a team.

Most encouraging thing I saw was the performance of the offensive line. The holes opened up in the running game and time in the pocket Cousins had. Even if you allow for the fact it was week one of the season against a team that's going to be in the mix for first overall pick in the draft, it showed that this team is much better coached and prepared than last season. Otherwise it was a workmanlike effort against a pretty bad team as nothing else really jumped off the screen. Only concern is how limited Cousins is at throwing the ball downfield so it's going to be interesting to see how he fares against better teams and situations where the Raiders are playing from behind and have to move the ball down the field in big chunks. I get the feeling that we may see Mendoza sooner than I originally anticipated as Cousins looks pretty limited.

Raidersman321 wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2026 3:28 am Also have to say, the Dolphins are dog shit. As are the Browns, Jets, and Titans.

And gladly, it looks like the Chargers suck

the jets are 1-0 just like us, so a winner among dogshit teams lol

very encouraged with our coaching staff, we finally look like a football team with a plan

offense looked good, oline looked good,running games was nearly unstoppable running thru huge holes...our receiving remains weak, defense was avg vs a dogshit dolphins team and offense under a crap qb

KillerRaider30 wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2026 6:00 am Defensively we played well.
Yes we could use more fire power but that will need to wait till next year.

A young defensive backfield will, with time and coaching get tighter.

Replacing 2nd string starters like Koonce and Booker will improve things.
The need of a stud DT would work wonders. Takes time.

The D had 5 sacks and we gave up 0.
The turnover battle was even.

Rob Leonard was aggressive at the right times. Didn't have the best firepower but again, time, maturity and better players.

The maturity goes for our first time DC as well as our first time HC and it seems we have exceptional coaching in place.

Please Tom, stop Mark from firing the lot of them whwn things turn sour for a period while we grow as a team.

agree with post

dont see mark doing anything with this coaching staff, very obvious coaching and game plan was the difference in our win plus mark is in control only in name these days with egon majority owner

chucker wrote: Mon Sep 14, 2026 5:02 am What I loved about Cousins' bad passes was that he wasn't pressured on them...... basically I love that it was a Cousins problem, instead of a problem with the oline or the offense in general. Because Cousins is temporary and it's encouraging for the time when Mendoza steps in.

camt wait for fernando taking over...popgun arm is a problem in the n.f.l

Crosby's snap count
46/56 82%

Get over it Maxx. You dont need to play 100% of the snaps. We need your legs fresh to finish games also.

Good job coaches keeping him on a pitch count coming off injury.

Ghoul wrote: Sun Sep 13, 2026 10:54 pm Yeah, I forgot about that, my bad. Then I don't know why the running game was shut down in the latter part of this game. When Cousins started throwing those long incompletions I felt like the win was being fumbled.

The other team adjusts, your other point of possibly being gassed is possible, it's just that teams usually don't swap lineman that way. It doesn't take too many breakdowns/misses to lead to punt. I find it hard to just count on running always being a positive thing because we should be that good, if that was achievable you wouldn't pass, no modern team has ever achieved this.