MVN: Most Valuable Network

The Raiders' defense was able to abuse the Carolina offense for most of the day.  Jake Delhomme completed only seven of 27 passes attempted for only 72 yards and four interceptions.  The last time the Raiders defense was this impressive, they won a game on a Chris Carr 99-yard interception return for a touchdown.

Walter will wish for a couple
of do-overs by Tuesday.

The secondary can be credited for the good defense, but not without giving credit to a defensive line that was able to put pressure on Delhomme and stuff the run on all except for two running plays.  Steve Smith and Muhsin Muhammad combined for four catches and 47 yards.  By all previous predictions, there was no way the Raiders would be able to do something like that, but they did.

It stands to reason that the Raiders must have played worse when they had the ball, right?  Wrong.  The Raiders loss isn't attributed to poor play, but instead it was poor execution and a lack of focus that will mar what could've and should've been an unlikely victory.

First of all, being put in a hole by Johnnie Lee Higgins on the first play of the day isn't going to help.  Higgins took the opening kickoff out of the endzone, when he shouldn't have, and brought it to around the 15-yard line before fumbling the ball.

To me, you gotta' sit Johnnie Lee Higgins down.  This is week after week, he's fumbled the ball.  You know, no one pays attention to special teams, until something like that happens and then, right out the gate it's seven to zero.  So, sit Johnnie Lee Higgins down, try somebody else.  I don't know, anybody else, and you gotta' get better than that.  There's no, almost no return yards as well, so, you didn't even compete on special teams today.
- Jarrod Cooper on the special teams against the Panthers

The Raiders could've used Cooper on Sunday.  On the Panthers' one kickoff return, Mark Jackson returned it 59 yards.  He also averaged an astounding 17.6 yards-per-return on punts for 123 yards.  Higgins averaged 2.4 yards per punt on his seven opportunities and 18 yards per kickoff on four tries, with a long of 24 yards.

Someone like myself, who has never played special teams in the NFL, can't make the claim that a lack of a return game is all the fault of Higgins.  Like most in the Raider Nation, I could 'think' that, but until you hear a special teams ace like Jarrod Cooper tell it the way he did, you couldn't know for sure that the brunt of the blame should fall squarely on the second-year receiver's shoulders.

When it comes to the return coverage, it's amazing that the Raiders couldn't win this battle.  Having strong-legged kickers Sebastian Janikowski and Shane Lechler kicking the ball deep should be enough to ensure that the coverage will be better than average.

In a game of defense, your special teams have to play a big role in the outcome of the game.  In the Raiders' case, they did play a role, just not the correct one.

Say what you want about Andrew Walter, but when you manage a game where you're able to control the ball for over 37 minutes in a game, you've done at least a decent job.  The Raiders offensive line was very good about erasing the good that Walter did by getting called for holding and false starts frequently.  When they weren't making mistakes like that, they were usually allowing Julius Peppers to have his way with them.  The Panthers recorded five sacks on the day, while the Raiders committed 10 penalties for 83 yards.

Nobody is going to convert third downs effectively when they are usually trying to get seven or more to do it.  Unfortunately for Walter and the Raiders, most of their third downs weren't just long, they were extremely long.  There were a couple of third down and 25+ plays that the Raiders attempted.  On one third and 26 from their own 15-yard line, they were called for a holding that was declined.

The bottom line is, to win games against a team as good as Carolina is, you can't have 10 penalties and you gotta' cover kicks better than what we just did.
- Tom Cable on the Raiders penalties and kick coverage

The other problem that the Raiders had was tackling.  A DeAngelo Williams 69-yard scamper for a touchdown was the result of him breaking free from two tacklers up the middle of the field.  What's worse about that play is that one player had both arms around him while another came in for a good hit, but the defender bounced off of Williams while the other was thrown off.

Williams gained 140 yards on only 19 carries.  Take away the 69 yard touchdown and a critical 13 yard run where he broke six tackles after being met behind the line and Williams rushed 17 times for 58 yards - a 3.4 yards-per-carry average.

So what can the Raiders do about fixing this?  We've heard quite a bit about players being unhappy this past week with the relese of DeAngelo Hall, but according to Cooper, the only people the players should be unhappy with is the guy staring them back in the mirror:

Yeah, you know what?  When you have missed tackles and penalties, you can't say one thing to the coach.  The coach didn't get a penalty, the coach didn't miss a tackle, that goes straight on the players.  So, I mean you can't say anthing to these coaches today.  The playcalling was good - just didn't execute it.
- Jarrod Cooper

Judging by what has been going on over the past week and by what Cable has been saying about making changes, it's not a stretch to think that Johnnie Lee Higgins and some other players may be watching from the sidelines next week.  If Cable is consistent, he'll have to give Andrew Walter another start as well.

Despite the two interceptions that he threw, you could make a case that the offense moved much better against the Panthers than it had since the overtime drive against the Jets.  All of the blame shouldn't be put on JaMarcus Russell's shoulders for that stagnation, but until Walter can prove one way or the other where he belongs, it may be better to give Russell's ailing knee another week of rest.

This philosophy paid off somewhat with Rahad Baker coming in for two interceptions and Sam Williams also getting one too.

Last week, Nnamdi Asomugha was quoted saying that players don't play as well when they're worried about getting pulled or cut when they make a bad play.  While I can understand and agree to a certain extent, isn't it better to get 11 men on each team that handle that type of pressure by playing better?  If you can handle that, then when the game is on the line you'll be able to handle that pressure as well.

That's what's meant by the saying, "Big-time players make big-time plays."  The first play of the game, big-time fumble forced.  Soon after, that fumble was turned into a big-time touchdown.  Later, a big-time run scored another touchdown.  That was after a big-time interception by the Panthers in the end zone.  Walter felt plenty of big-time hits on the day and the Raiders were big-timed in their own house.

53 'big-time' players are exactly what the Raiders need, but I'm sure that they'll settle for half of that.