49ers vs. Raiders recap

Somebody is going to have to remind the Raiders run defense that they are supposed to be better this year, they gave up an early 49 yard run to Frank Gore where Michael Huff, unlike last week against Matt Forte, actually hit Gore, but did not hit and wrap like you are taught to do from Pop Warner. On a total of 14 carries, the San Francisco 49ers put up 99 yards, averaging over seven yards per carry in the first half. The Raiders defense finished the second half by getting that average yards per carry down to five yards per carry but all told, they gave up a grand total of 165 yards. That is no way to win the AFC West.

The Raiders started the game off right, compiling an 81-yard drive that was capped off by a Michael Bush run on second and goal from the one yard line. The Raiders took an early 7-0 lead after their first drive. After that though, the offense went flat.

Jason Campbell left the game earlier than expected, and there’s a good chance that Mario Henderson will be doing push-ups during the team’s next practice. Henderson just let Travis LaBoy, a 49ers linebacker, go right around him and drill Campbell in the back. Campbell suffered an injury to his neck that was referred to as a re-aggravation of a prior injury, but was officially dubbed a stinger. The injury prompted Hue Jackson’s offense to bring in Bruce Gradkowski to try and convert a third-and-seventeen. But they just handed the ball off and punted.

Following that drive, the 49ers drove the field at will against some of the Raiders back-ups, including John Henderson, Jeremy Ware, and Walter McFadden. The defense did manage to get the Niners into some third and medium situations, but the Raiders could not generate any kind of threatening pass rush and the secondary’s coverage was subpar, to put it kindly.

But after starting the game with an 81-yard touchdown drive that was capped by a one-yard Michael Bush ground pound, Bruce Gradkowski decided it was time to re-energize the Coliseum. He hit a short swing pass to Darren McFadden, who simply ran out of bounds not wanting any physical contact. After that, they threw a wide receiver screen to Louis Murphy, who headed up field for a first down and refused to give up the fight for extra yardage. On that play, Mario Henderson made another crucial mistake and got called for a personal foul, unnecessary roughness. The Raiders were penalized fifteen yards back to their own 26-yard line.

That’s when Gradkowski found Louis Murphy wide open on a fade route and hit him in stride for a 74-yard touchdown pass. Gradkowski knew as soon as he saw the blitz coming from Murphy’s man in coverage that he had a touchdown. On his way down the field, he head butted Robert Gallery. Gradkowski has a way of firing up this offense, and he may still be the most influential leader on this squad.

Stanford Routt was the defensive standout player in this game, when he was on the field tonight. I thought at times that his number should be 21. He looked fantastic and I’m saying that from a ‘not a fan’ point of view. Stanford was all over the 49ers passing game tonight sniffing out anything that came near him. He tallied two pass deflections, one right handed and one left handed. Chris Johnson may be in danger of becoming a nickel cornerback before the start of the season if he doesn’t get fully healthy…and soon.

Rolando McClain has his best game thus far with six tackles and two assist. He made some nice hits in those six tackles. It’s nice to see that out of a rookie in the most important preseason game. You can tell McClain is getting comfortable in this defense and that is a good thing. Still, I wouldn’t expect him to be playing at an optimal level until later on in the season.

Darrius Heyward-Bey made some nice catches, including one where Gradkowski split two 49er defenders and DHB came back to the pass like he knew how to play football. In addition to his three catches, two of which came on the opening drive, DHB only had one drop. That stat alone is almost as impressive as his career high for catches in a game, although the drop was pretty awful.

The Raiders special teams gave up and 83-yard punt return for a touchdown after Shane Lechler outkicked his coverage. Phillip Adams just went straight up the middle of the field and Lechler never had a chance to make the stop. One of the Raiders, I couldn’t make out who it was, completely blew his lane assignment and I’m sure he will be reprimanded in the film room. The move he made to run across the field instead of staying in his lane gave the punt returner the gap he needed to break free. In my honest opinion, that was just a blown assignment by an inexperienced player.

The Raiders responded well though, when Bruce Gradkowski came back in, engineered a nice sustained drive, and eventually found Zach Miller for a 27-yard nice touchdown pass. That gave the Raiders a 21-17 lead. That’s when the Raiders back-ups hit the field.

At that point, Gradkowski was 6-9 for 143 yards and two touchdowns and his three incomplete passes were drops by DHB, Louis Murphy, and Zach Miller. He would finish the evening as probably the best looking player on the field out of both teams and accumulated a 14-22 202 yard two touchdown performance. Not to mention giving a ton of energy to his teammates and the fans who turned out to watch the game in Oakland.

The Raiders would end up losing the game, but Head Coach Tom Cable said the team learned a lot about themselves in the loss and he was glad it happened now and not a few weeks from now. “We have a chance to be a very good football team,” said Cable after the game. “But we have to do it our way. There were too many ups and downs.

“I didn’t think we tackled very well tonight,” Cable said with regards to the rushing defense. “We had plenty of guys where we needed them, but we didn’t tackle very well.”

Unfortunately for the Raiders, Jason Campbell’s stinger was not the biggest injury of the night. Defensive back Joey Thomas suffered a concussion after a killer hit by Mike Mitchell was laid on the receiver Thomas was covering. HB Michael Bush, the Raiders number one rushing threat, fractured his thumb, but played through the injury. Tom Cable said they will not know how serious the injury is until the hand is seen by a specialist. This injury could have a potential for devastation because Darren McFadden carried the ball one time for nine yards and six other times for 0 yards.

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