Sick of reading about "72 sacks allowed"

As someone who attended every Raiders home game last year (and all but 2 since they Returned to Oaktown), and watched every game on TV last season, I'm really sick and tired of the media harping on the woefulness of the Raiders' offensive line. There's a time when a statistic is a statistic (the baseball home run record for example... uh, perhaps not a good example. Heh.), and a time when statistics just don't show the entire truth. "72 sacks" is one of those misleading stats.

I know what you're thinking before you think it. Yes, our line was horrible last year (Gallery in particular was getting blown off the line in nearly every game), but not all those sacks can be directly attributed to poor line play. A fair number of those sacks were caused by Andrew Walter running out of bounds on the sideline without throwing the ball into the 4th row. (I wish the stat gurus at NFL.com would be accurate on tracking this.) Sadly, when a QB runs out of bounds short of the line of scrimmage, it's considered a "sack". Walter was so green last year that he probably didn't realize that once he was outside of the pocket, he could just chuck the ball out of bounds to avoid taking a loss. That's one of the critical mistakes a rookie QB can make (what Walter was, essentially, last year).

You wouldn't have seen Gannon, Hoss, or probably even the reviled Collins make that mistake because of their experience. It just goes to show that even our line play may have been bad, it really wasn't that bad. With the addition of Cooper Carlisle and another year under McQuistan and Boothe, we should cut the "72 sacks" figure in half or so.

Desperately seeking Peninsula sports bars!

The East Bay has Ricky's (of course), the Sports Edition Bar (at the Hilton off Hegenberger), and even the Golden Bear in Oakland. What does the Peninsula have for the Loyal Raider Fan?

Bupkis.

It's a wasteland over here. And while most Peninsula sports bars won't kick you out for wearing The Colors, you'll sure get some dirty looks (at least) from the 9er-loving folks that inhabit the West Bay.

So, I put this forth... if you know a bar on the Peninsula (north of Mountain View, south of Millbrae), be it biker bar, dive shack, cardboard box, whatever, let me know. Away games just aren't the same without the comforting chant of Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiders!

Latest moves a bit surprising

While releasing Jarod Cooper wasn't too much of a shock (a 4-game suspension for a special teams player = cut city), the slash and burn mentality on Darnell Bing and Courtney Anderson was a bit more surprising. Granted, our secondary is jam-packed with safeties (even with Cooper and Bing gone, we still have a whopping 7), but considering Kiffin is a USC guy, I thought Bing would get more of a chance. Guess with the Darius signing, Coach did the right thing and let Darnell try to catch on to another team (the hated 9ers) early in the process.

And, while Anderson wasn't the best blocker in the world, he did have some decent hands (when someone could get him the ball). This really opens up the door for 2nd round pick Zach Miller and perhaps last year's surprise John Madsen to come in and really make the TE a part of the passing game (which it really hasn't been since the Return to Oakland™ — please don't talk to me about the Rickey DUDley days. Ugh.).

The release of Treu was surprising only because of his longevity with the team. His salary cap figure was just too high to keep around a spot-duty specialist.

It defintely seems that Big Al is giving Kiffin a lot of leash to put together his team. That should pay serious dividends, giving the veterans the impression that no one is safe.