Maryland

I just assumed you mangled the spelling of his name in the title, but there it is lol

It might depend on if they lose someone of greater importance between now and then, since the earliest he can return is week 9, and you never know who gets injured between now and then. On the other hand, if Weddle or Webb get IR'd for some reason, you can almost guarantee he makes the active roster. I think it's safe to think he wouldn't be any worse than Kendrick Lewis.

Trestman should have had someone chipping on Mack and Irvin. It seemed like poor game-planning to think Hurst would hold-up against either one without help. Ironically, it was Wagner who gave up the sack to Mack, however.

He really needs to fix his footwork, but it's probably so ingrained at this point that there's no fixing it. He does this even when he has time to make a good throw, like on that pass to Pitta that he skipped on the final set of downs. Maybe they need to look for a new QB coach in the offseason, since Marty Morhinhweg hasn't helped.

West did pretty good today. Buck Allen is a noticeable improvement over Forsett, especially in the passing game. I kind of expect Forsett to be released if they want to keep Waller on the roster.

Looking forward to a healthy Stanley, Lewis, and Dixon, I hope. Also would like to see them keep Judon active, since he is arguably our best pure pass-rusher, at least until Za'Darius and Dumervil get healthy.

Good: defense actually did pretty well, considering Raiders have a top-line offense. Wright is still bad, and Lewis is obviously someone you never want to see at safety (as soon as he came in for Webb they scored a TD on him), but everyone else either did good or average. Correa seems to get washed-out of plays waaay too easily, which was the concern coming out of college. I think Orr might actually be outplaying Mosley; he is all over the field. Bad: OL- we knew it was going to be bad going in, but the penalties were the biggest drive-killers. Aiken was very bad on special teams, missing a tackle while going for the big hit (which allowed for a punt return inside our 10). I'm blanking on the other ST mistake Aiken had, but he also had that OPI and the drop at the end there (a very difficult catch though) Trestman has to run at least once there on the final set of downs, considering West was hauling butt late in the quarter. Moore's drops may be what makes him fail in the pros. He has the physical talent to get separation and make some nice hand catches, but he drops too many balls--you can't depend on him. He had the same problem in college. Harbaugh's decision to decline the penalty was pretty dumb, and not just in retrospect, but in the moment. You don't give a team like Oakland a second chance at getting a first down. Of course, they might have gotten off scott-free if not for the defense jumping off-sides, which is the one thing you can't do in that situation, and they should all know this, especially Suggs. Joe seemed to be shell-shocked a bit or something, since he wasn't stepping into his throws even when he has the ability to do so. Wallace was dumb for his penalty--you can't give them good field position at that point in the game.

I have to say, those Forsett dump-off passes are remarkably ineffective. Even an average pass-catching RB gets you at least a few yards.

I like the thought of Dumervil going against an emergency depth RT, so that's my pick on defense On offense, I like the thought of Perriman finally exploding for 100 yds, so I'll go with that.

Part of me actually wouldn't be upset to see Jensen play LG at the expense of Lewis sitting-out a game. It might finally settle the debate on how talented he truly is.

Please football injury gods, allow Stanley to heal miraculously between now and Sunday. No one in Baltimore wants to see Hurst protect Joe's blindside again...

It sounds like the Raiders will be down to their 3rd string RT, since Menelik (sp) Watson and Austin Howard are likely to be out. I think their center was dealing with an injury too, but will play.

According to Rapoport, he's targeting a week 5 return.

Well, let's look at it this way: KO apparently really wanted to stay in Baltimore, otherwise he wouldn't be complaining about leaving. Take that as a compliment. He knows full-well we aren't going to be able to compete with other teams in a bidding war. It's not our fault he took the biggest contract available to play for a non-contender--that was KO's decision, and he has to live with it--pouting isn't going to change anything.

I expect him to be pretty rusty, but hopefully he makes a difference on obvious passing downs. ZDS didn't look too good rushing the passer last week, since his ankle seems to be bothering him.

Raiders have been one of the worst teams in the league over that span, so I don't really put much stock into that statistic: they were losing most of their home games too. Besides, what does the performance of a 2010 Raiders team tell you about this coming game? Nothing. Doubt there are even 5 players on that 2010 team who are on their current roster. Their coaching staff is different too.

He's a bust man, a bust of similar proportion to Justin Gilbert.

Damn Rapoport raining on our parade. I'm still going to hold out hope that Dixon is a surprise active for this week.

Hopefully it's not a bad Aiken sighting, since he lost a fumble inside our 20 last time we played the Raiders.

The chase system has ruined many a man. I prefer to lose the old-fashioned way by just being wrong about my feelings for a game lol.

I'm growing to enjoy everyone trashing the Ravens for their strength of schedule so far. It's the best of both worlds: you get to fly under the radar while still winning games.

It's possible we go 19-0 I don't really like looking ahead too far or counting a win before the game is even played. Kind of disconcerting when prognosticators are talking about us going 5-0, since it just reeks of jinxing--not that I'm a superstitious man or anything; I'm just worried about our coaching staff taking a team too lightly. I don't think that happens this week though, since it's not like we're looking ahead to a divisional game the following week or anything.

Kenneth Dixon Elvis Dumervil

That Saints defense is one of the worst I've ever seen--that was my main takeaway from that game. Shanahan is a good OC, but he's not some mastermind; once you establish the run like they did, the playcalling is cake.

Bad run-blocking Underwhelming RBs Can't setup play-action (though it could be used more often at certain times) Some pass plays get uncreative because you have to start "running" through your pass game /w little dinks and dunks How innovative can you really be in this day and age? Nearly everything has been done; it's just a matter of making plays unpredictable, which is hard to do with no run game and no play-action.