Donkasaurus Post

For those who may remember, in week three of last season, when the Bills were still good, the Raiders –then still under Lane Kiffin (who was replaced later in the season by then “interim” and now current head coach Tom Cable) — at Buffalo,  had essentially controlled Buffalo’s offense for close to 54 minutes.

Then, with a little over six minutes or so remaining, up by two scores and fully in control of the game, Oakland, fortunately for Bills fans, went into serious ”prevent” mode, and literally handed the game over to the Bills (as if they were handing over the keys to a new car), who otherwise had not been able to move the ball on Oakland very much all day long. 

Buffalo, taking advantage of the new, softer, “prevent” type coverage, merely proceeded, with the ease of having essentially been “given” the underneath plays, to move down the field twice in a row and pull out a game, 24-23, that had, essentially, been over.

Announcer Mike Golic – who is highly entertaining, and provides an excellent fit with co announcers Steve Young and Mike Greenberg — around the conclusion of this past Monday Night Season opener for the Raiders, spoke of how good their defense looked, and how it has otherwise been awful “since their Super Bowl” year.  In fact, although they have been rather abysmal as a team, the Raiders defense — particularly in light of how much it has been on the field the past few years since the offense has been dreadful — has been good the past several years. At times, very good. 

But since they have been awful as a team, this has been missed by some.  Monday night, their offense looked better as well, and they should have won the game. Goff may have also forgotten that last season, at home against these same Chargers — one game after that Bills game, who have now beaten the Raiders 12 straight games in a row (the longest such streak in the NFL, tied with the Patriots, against those same Buffalo Bills, who also blew a game they should have won against those same Patriots Monday night just a few hours before) — the Raiders were also comfortably in the lead: Up by a score of 15-3, after three quarters.  They wound up blowing the game, badly, and lost 28-18.

With two minutes and change to go, this Monday Night, “Redemption,” in the words of superstar cornerback Nmandi Asomugha, was close at hand. That is, redemption not necessarily for that home game loss to the Chargers last season, but for later in the season, when the Raiders fell completely apart and lost at San Diego 34-7.  And apparently lost any decent winning attitude they had, as well:  During a question and answer session with Asomugha by the press, Oakland players, apparently unfazed by the thrashing they had just received, were laughing and carrying on so loudly in the background that a not very happy Asomugha actually had to raise his voice to be heard over them.

But this season, for an apparently changed Oakland –which did appear to play hard, and with heart, as a team for the entire 60 minutes — and for perhaps the game’s best cornerback in Asomugha,  redemption was not to be had.

What happened?

Philip Rivers is one of the best quarterbacks in football, and somewhat underrated. (Not as underrated, however, as consistent champion, battler, and clutch player extraordinaire Ben Roethlisberger).  Rivers moved the Chargers, 89 yards down the field quite easily, and, with Darren Sproles taking it in from the five, helped take them in for an easy go ahead touchdown with  18 seconds left.

Poor Nnamdi.

The Oakland defense had played extremely well, against a team that has perennially been an offensive powerhouse, and which had finished up last season exceptionally strong:  Making the playoffs thanks to a near incalculable collapse by the then Mike Shanahan coached Denver Broncos, and upsetting the also red hot, Peyton Manning led Indianapolis Colts in the playoffs before losing to the eventual champion Steelers (whom they had also lost to earlier in the season, 11-10, in one of the more bizarre, and interesting ends to an NFl game in recent seasons; video here). 

So how did Oakland lose?  Had they engaged in some form of the same “prevent” defense which had absolutely doomed them in a game that was all but won the season before? Had they gotten soft against the same team whom, last season, they had been leading, 15-3, after three quarters, and wound up losing to 28-18, and getting thrashed by, 34-7, later in the season?

Apparently, they had. Coach Tom Cable said his team was in “prevent” mode.

George Carlin, famously, used to have a list of the “7″ dirty words. The words that, at least at that time, could not or should not be said on the air.  Many other words in our vernacular have potentially offensive, or overly edgy, meanings.  But in the world of football, the word “prevent” should take on the same air as those forbidden seven.  Not only should it not be uttered, it should never be engaged in.

There is playing smart — which means accomodating for the situation a team finds itself in — and then there is “prevent” mode, which does no such thing.

But wait. Wait just a minute.  According to new Defensive Coordinator John Marshall, the Raiders were not, in fact, playing a “prevent” defense!

Jerry MacDonald, NFL writer, reports:

Absolutley not. NO, no, no, no.  …We ..couldn’t. And the players knew…. But they just softened the underneath part of the coverage, and eventually it hurt us.

John, here’s news for you. At the end of the game, when your team is down by one score, or near the end of a game, when your team is down by two scores, with enough time for the other team to reasonably march down the field once, or twice, respectively, playing “soft” underneath is in fact playing a form of prevent defense.

It loses more games in the NFL, than every other possible ”strategy adjustment,” combined.