Do Raiders depend on McGloin or Pryor?

By Art Spander

OAKLAND, Calif. — The reference was to education. The Raiders, the head coach, the quarterback, kept using the word “learning,” as if this season, going from bad to worse to “Please don’t use the word dreadful,” is something for which they’ll get a grade from the friendly prof down the hall.

While the Raiders are being schooled, so are the rest of us, learning first that the team probably needs a quarterback, that Matt McGloin doesn’t appear to be the man of future or the present and Terrelle Pryor doesn’t seem to be much of anything — at least in the eyes of those in charge.

Johnny Manziel, you say? Only if the Raiders can do more in the 2014 draft then they were able to do against the Kansas City Chiefs.

It was a brutal Sunday at O.co Coliseum, chilly, mortifying, at least for the majority of the 49,571 fans. Kansas City, as effective as the Raiders were inept, beat Oakland, 56-31, the Raiders allowing the most points in the history of a franchise that came into existence in 1960.

McGloin threw four interceptions and lost a fumble. Pryor, who was inserted now and then for no good reason or maybe for a very good reason, threw one interception. And there was another lost fumble on a kickoff by Taiwan Jones, making it seven turnovers for the Raiders.

Maybe they were lucky they only gave up 56 points.

“You can’t play a good team like that and turn the ball over seven times,” said Raiders coach Dennis Allen, now 4-10 in this second season of his regime. Yes you can. The implication was if you do that you’ll get buried. And the Raiders were buried.

The defense wasn’t much either. Kansas City, on a long kickoff return and a 49-yard screen pass, scored the first of its eight touchdowns just 22 seconds into the game. Running back Jamaal Charles tied a Chiefs record with five touchdowns. And he didn’t play a considerable part of the fourth quarter.

McGloin, the undrafted free agent, played most of the game. He completed half of his 36 pass attempts for 297 yards and two touchdowns. But those four picks, one returned for a touchdown, made one wonder if he has the right stuff to be a starter in the NFL.

“There are always difficult situations,” said Allen, a defensive specialist defending his two rookie quarterbacks. “But hopefully those guys can learn from those mistakes. It’s tough when you’re going through the learning process, because as the losses mount up it gets frustrating.”

The real question is whether Oakland dares depend on either McGloin, who began the season a fourth-string QB, or Pryor, the surprise starter in Game 1 but later injured, beyond this year. Do the Raiders rely either on a quarterback ignored in the draft or another who is more of a runner than a passer for the coming seasons?

Or do they start over, perhaps with one of the top college players who seemingly will be available?

Nobody in the organization will comment until the end of this season, but Allen, explaining the Pryor-for-McGloin-for-Pryor shift and juggle said, “Obviously we’ve got two guys that we want to be able to utilize, and we’ve got to find ways to get explosive plays.

“And we were able to get explosive plays today. We got a lot of balls down the field. We had a lot of explosive passes, as well as explosive penalties. We just weren’t consistent enough, and we can’t turn the ball over like we did. We have to do a better job on our red zone defense of making them have to kick field goals.”

But they were unable. They are unable. This team, glued together from bits and scraps, tormented by the salary cap, has shredded and shriveled in recent weeks.

The defense is worn and battered. The supposedly best offensive player, running back Darren McFadden, always is injured. McGloin is a notch down from the elite level. Pryor is unpolished.

“We had some good drives,” was McGloin’s analysis. “We had some poor drives. I’ll learn from it. We’ll learn from it. I’ll get better from it, and I know the rest of the guys will get better from it.”

Will he? Will they? This was the fifth game McGloin has started. It was anything but encouraging. He’s learning, but so are the opponents about McGloin. They step in front of his receivers. They chase him out of the pocket.

“I’m at a loss for words,” McGloin said of the turnovers. “It’s disappointing. But at the same time we were still in the game. It was 35-31 at one point with all the turnovers.

“There’s always passes you kind of wish you could pull back, but that’s part of the game. They did make some good plays, but some of those throws were poor decisions.”

McGloin, denying reality, insisted he isn’t auditioning for next year, when in effect, even while trying to win now, he and the other Raiders, young and older, are playing for their future.

“We’re going to learn from the poor decisions, the mistakes,” said McGloin. “As long as we know what they are, I can go away saying that the more experience I get, I’ll learn from it.”

If, indeed, it will make any difference to him or the Raiders.

Newsday (N.Y.): Raiders: We're not as bad as it looks

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

OAKLAND, Calif. — Their defensive coordinator, Jason Tarver, has a master's degree in biochemistry and molecular biology — and a penchant for making obscene gestures toward officials. Typical Raiders.

Their quarterback (for this season, at least) was the last man drafted by the late Al Davis, who obviously knew more than those who contended that Terrelle Pryor never would be more than a part-time player.

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2013 Newsday. All rights reserved. 

Raiders have a QB, a defense and a win

By Art Spander

OAKLAND, Calif. — They can’t finish. Not the way the coach would like. But oh, the Oakland Raiders can start. And survive. If they are not yet a complete football team, one that belongs among the NFL elite, they are at least a competent football team, as well as a team in progress.

A team finally with a defense and a quarterback, the two elements absolutely necessary for success at any level.        

The Raiders defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers, 21-18, Sunday at O.co Coliseum, and if this was a Steelers team far from greatness it still had Ben Roethlisberger and Troy Polamalu, players and leaders, and certainly the residue of history.

Pittsburgh-Oakland wakes up echoes, Franco Harris and Jack Tatum, Terry Bradshaw and Ken Stabler, Chuck Noll and John Madden. Days gone by, two teams wearing black, two franchises dressed in pride. The best against the best.

If that’s no longer true, the Steelers remain an attraction, if at 2-4 perhaps for the wrong reason, an example of unmet expectations. As there is a Raider Nation, fans far from the home base, so there is a Steeler Nation, clinging to memories. In sports, nobody forgets.

Raiders coach Dennis Allen won’t forget what he saw Sunday: the way Terrelle Pryor, on the game’s first offensive play, ran 93 yards for a touchdown, apparently the farthest ever by an NFL quarterback; the way Oakland limited the Steelers to 90 yards total — and eight yards rushing — in the first half; the way the Raiders kept hanging in after mistakes when maybe a year ago they would have folded.

“I thought our defense was outstanding,” said Allen. As we know, in football, baseball, basketball and hockey, defense wins. It certainly did for the Raiders, who won for the first time in 11 games coming off their bye week.

Oakland now is 3-4 in seven games this season. The Raiders on Sunday face the Philadelphia Eagles, a team where two quarterbacks, Michael Vick and Nick Foles, are injured and a third, rookie Matt Barkley, is unprepared. It’s all there for Oakland.

Pryor isn’t fully prepared yet either, but he’s adept and learning. He’s also quick and agile. “That big run by Terrelle,” said Allen, “obviously was a huge play to be able to start off and get the type of momentum against a defense where they haven’t given up a lot of explosive plays.”

The Steelers, leaning on defense, deferred after winning the coin toss and let the Raiders make the choice. The idea was Pittsburgh would go to its strength. The plan was a bust.

“We can’t choose to defer,” said Mike Tomlin, the Steelers' coach, “and allow them to explode, and we’re spotting seven on the first play of the game . . . It was a nice play for them, and obviously a poor play for us. Over-aggressive, I guess, could be a way to describe it.”

A way to describe this game was long and wearisome. There seemed to be an officials’ review on almost every play, ref John Parry and his clique unable to make the proper calls at the proper time, dragging this baby out 3 hours and 26 minutes.

Not that a crowd announced at 52,950 seemed to mind. Nobody left early, not with the Steelers trimming a 21-3 deficit to 21-18 in the closing minutes.

“We want to make sure the fans get their money’s worth,” was the opening remark by Allen. Step aside Jay Leno and David Letterman, here come the laughs. Or the smiles. Allen, with a pencil behind his ear and a visor on his head, is more accountant than comedian.

“You still have to learn how to finish better,” insisted Allen. “You get a team 21-3 . . . now listen, we knew this is the Pittsburgh Steelers. They’re not going to throw in the towel. They’re not going to give up. But when you have that type of lead, you have to have the killer instinct, and we’ve got to be able to come out and be more effective in the second half of the football game.”

On offense that is. The Raiders had 182 yards rushing at halftime. They had 183 at the end of the third quarter. That neither team scored in that third period enabled Oakland to bumble along.

“I think we had a phenomenal first half,” Pryor observed, “and then our defense had a phenomenal second half, so at the end of the day it’s a team win.”

At the end of the day Pryor, the 2011 supplemental draft pick from Ohio State, had 106 yards and that long touchdown on nine runs and 88 yards on 10 carefully thrown completions. He also had two less carefully thrown interceptions.

“I’m very proud of the offense, the offensive line, Darren (McFadden), Marcel (Reece), the outside guys blocking,” said Pryor. “We had the run game going very good.”

In the first half, they did. In the second half they ran for only 15 yards.

“It’s just another game,” said Pryor with a figurative shrug. “Another team (to overcome) in the roadblock. I’m very proud we got the W.”

Ah yes. Just win, baby. Against the rival Steelers, the Raiders did just that.

Why Raiders’ Matt Flynn is a backup

By Art Spander 

OAKLAND — He’s a backup, and there’s a reason. Matt Flynn has been an NFL quarterback more than five seasons now — this is his sixth — and through a varying set of circumstances, he rarely has been first-string.

Maybe wrong team, wrong place. Green Bay behind Aaron Rodgers, Seattle behind Russell Wilson.

More likely an inability to take control, to win games.

Going from nowhere to stardom is fantasy. If you can do the job in the NFL, you’ll get the job. The GMs and managers know who can play the most important position in football, and if they don’t they learn quickly enough.

What we learned, or relearned, is that Flynn doesn’t have the right stuff, although Raiders management didn’t realize that until acquiring him in a trade from the Seahawks.

Flynn works hard. Flynn is cooperative in interviews, including painful ones such as the one he had to undergo Sunday when, given the opportunity to lead the Raiders to a win, he couldn’t.

It began so well for Flynn and Oakland, a quick 14-0 lead, in part because of a rare blocked punt, in part because of an 18-yard Flynn pass to Mychal Rivera. Then the jolt back to reality, an interception returned 45 yards for a touchdown — the sequence known euphemistically as a “pick six” — and the seven sacks.

Before Sunday was over at the O.co Coliseum, the Washington Redskins had beaten the Raiders, 24-14.

A day and a half earlier, Terrelle Pryor was listed as the Raiders quarterback. Sure, he had incurred a concussion Monday night at Denver. And sure, Flynn, who had started only two other games in five years, had been preparing himself just in case. But as the week progressed so, we were told, had Pryor progressed.

“Pryor will start . . . according to league sources,” said one printed report Sunday morning.

Pryor, whose mobility and speed give the Raiders another dimension, another weapon.

Pryor, who Oakland coach Dennis Allen called upon out of desperation in the last preseason game when it became apparent Flynn could not perform behind a less-than-effective offensive line.

But a man’s health is more important than the result of any game. Saturday night, the Raiders told Flynn he would start. “We didn’t feel good about letting (Pryor) play,” Allen explained. “We were ready to go with him, but the doctors saw him one more time. We felt it wasn’t the right thing to do. ”

Good for the Raiders. Take no chances with concussions. The Raiders’ diligence seemed to have been rewarded, when with fewer than five minutes gone Rashad Jennings blocked a Washington punt and Jeremy Stewart grabbed the ball in the end zone. Not long later, Flynn hit Rivera for another touchdown.

“We were executing,” said Flynn, “doing the things we needed to do. They made some adjustments on defense. After that we just weren’t converting on third downs, and that obviously was the big issue.”

So was the interception, which came in the second quarter with the Raiders in front, 14-3. Flynn fired to Denarius Moore, but David Amerson popped into view — if not Flynn’s view — and after the pick and 45-yard return, it was 14-10.

The Raiders were headed to a 1-3 record. So were the Redskins.

“I thought we had a good play,” Flynn would say later. “They were in man-to-man coverage. We have to clean up the execution of that, all 11 of us.”

It was Flynn who threw the ball.

Flynn didn’t have a great deal of help. Running back Darren McFadden, who’s always getting hurt, pulled a hamstring early on and never returned. Fullback Marcel Reece hurt his knee, also before the half. That meant, with Pryor missing, the entire backfield was substitutes.

“No question,” Flynn said afterward, “those two guys (Reece, McFadden) are the heart and soul of the offense.”

So, we now comprehend, is Terrelle Pryor.

“I don’t think (Flynn) saw the field very well,” said Allen, the coach. “I think he was obviously part of the sacks we gave up in the game. It was a tough situation for him to come into, and obviously with the loss of McFadden and Reece, that didn’t help. Offensively we didn’t get it done, and that’s the bottom line.”

In the fourth quarter, the Raiders gained 28 yards total. In the final three quarters, the Raiders scored zero points total.

“Really it’s about seeing the field,” said Allen when asked about Flynn’s pocket presence, “and what I talk about is seeing coverage and being able to deliver the ball. So some of those sacks are partly on him and partly on protection.”

And about that interception turned into a touchdown?

“We had the momentum in the game,” Allen insisted, “and they were able to snatch it from us a little bit.”

With Matt Flynn, perennial backup as quarterback, the Raiders unfortunately never could snatch it back.

These Raiders may have a future

By Art Spander

OAKLAND — The other team is awful. Really awful. That’s not the Raiders' fault. They’ve been there, been the foil, been the butt of jokes, the zingers by Jay Leno on national TV. There’s no sympathy, no apologies — just, for a few hours, satisfaction.

It’s not the Raiders’ fault the Jacksonville Jaguars are so bad. “We won a football game,” said Dennis Allen, the second-year head coach. “That’s all we can do week in and week out, and play the schedule.”

This week, this coming Sunday, it will be the Denver Broncos, who are the polar opposite of the Jaguars, the team the Raiders on Sunday figured to beat, and because of a defense that has improved and a kicker, Sebastian Janikowski, who doesn’t have to improve, defeated Jacksonville, 19-9.

Ninety percent of America didn’t see the Raiders’ first win of the season. At the same hour, starting at 1:25 p.m. Pacific or 4:25 p.m. Eastern, the Broncos were facing the New York Giants at Met Life Stadium in New Jersey, Peyton Manning against younger brother Eli, the so-called Manning bowl.

CBS-TV is in business to draw viewers. You think anyone wanted to watch the 0-1 Raiders against the 0-1 Jags? Even in Orlando, that was an easy answer, “No,” but by regulations, contractual agreements, Orlando — with the local station begging for forgiveness — showed Jacksonville-Oakland.

Showed the so-called hometown team (140 miles away), which scored only 2 points a week ago and this game had just 3 points until the final 2 minutes 53 seconds. You think Dennis Allen cared? Not a chance.

Allen and the Raiders are a socially acceptable 1-1 for the next few days, which is the same as the Green Bay Packers and better than the Washington Redskins.

Nobody around the O.co Coliseum, where the crowd was announced as 49,400, is complaining about that. Or the competent performance of Oakland quarterback Terrelle Pryor.

“I’m excited and happy we won,” said Allen. “I thought we did some good things.”

One of them was controlling the football, 31 minutes 48 seconds out of 60. Another was holding Jacksonville to 34 yards net rushing, a total to which one can add the footnote, “Hey when you’re in a hole, you’re not climbing out on fullback plunge. You’re throwing.”

More touchdowns would have been acceptable for Oakland, which was limited to one. The man known as Seabass was obligated to end drives with field goals, and he hit on fielders of 46, 30, 29 and 29, while missing a 35-yarder. That’s usually not the way to win football games, unless you’re facing the Jaguars.

The Raiders, behind in last week’s opener at Indianapolis and in all the four preseason games, scored early, if not often against Jax. They were playing downhill, as the cliché goes. They were in front at the virtual start, less than five minutes after kickoff, and they stayed there.

“I thought it was huge,” said Allen, a man of few words, about Oakland scoring on its first possession. “I think our defense going out there and stepping up and forcing a three-and-out on the first series of the game, and then we come back and get the punt return (30 yards by Phillip Adams) that set us up in good position.”

The Raiders got the runs from Darren McFadden they hoped to get when they drafted him fourth overall six seasons ago, bursts that gave him a total of 129 yards on 19 carries, one of those runs good for 30 yards. Too often the man called DMC has been injured, but now he is healthy, and now the Raiders are beneficiaries.

McFadden fumbled — “That’s something that can’t happen,” insisted Allen, after it did happen — yet Allen and everyone else knew McFadden was excellent. So was Pryor, the kid at quarterback who in his second start grew into a man.

He didn’t look like a runner who passes. He was a passer, poised, patient, who can run. The coach said he would have to look at the tape to analyze Pryor’s decision making, but the assessment could be determined from the final score. When a team wins, the quarterback is successful.

“Every snap,” reminded Allen of Pryor, “is a learning experience for him.” As it is for every quarterback, whether, as Pryor, he was chosen in the supplementary draft of August 2011 after leaving (fleeing?) Ohio State following accusations of improper benefits.

The man is great athlete, who was as fine a basketball player in high school as a football player. That he has the skills and leadership qualities is understood.

“I feel like I did my job,” Pryor said after doing his job. He was 15 of 24 passing for 126 yards. He carried 9 times for 50 yards. He very well could be the next Russell Wilson, Colin Kaepernick or RGIII. He very well could be better.

“I got us a W,” he affirmed.

He, McFadden and the defense. Maybe these Raiders have a future.

This Raider coach remembers the nasty days

By Art Spander
  
ALAMEDA, Calif. — The image survives, which is both a blessing and a curse. The Oakland Raiders were tough, evil but also wildly successful.
   
Al Davis said he relished playing on the road, in Kansas City or Denver, against division opponents the Raiders dominated, and, in his words sensing fear in the fans and the opponents. Pure Machiavellian joy.
   
But the new Raiders, the team unsure of its quarterback, the team down the list in defense, are feared by nobody. Memories don’t tackle. Recollections can’t block.
  
For defensive coordinator Jason Tarver, however, they do provide a link from past to present. “I grew up a Raider fan,” Tarver said Tuesday. “I’ve been watching. I sat in the Black Hole.
  
“It’s one of the reasons I took the job. I know what that black jersey means. Nasty. The Raiders, Ted Hendricks, played with stuff hanging from their arms. That’s my image of defense.”
   
Tarver, who turns 39 Wednesday, is from Pleasanton, Raider country indeed. He has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Santa Clara, a master’s in biochemistry and molecular biology from UCLA. No remarks that you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to stop the San Diego Chargers. What you do need are defensive linemen.
  
“You got to want to knock someone around,” said Tarver. “Nasty, swarming, getting the ball back on downs.”
  
The focus has been on the other side of the ball for a reason. The Raiders are starting Terrelle Pryor at quarterback against Seattle in their last preseason game. You don’t have a chance in the NFL without a quarterback.
  
Or without a defense, because if you can’t stop the other team, your quarterback rarely handles the ball. Either, in the case of Darren McFadden, does your prize running back.
    
“Let’s see McFadden run,” said Tarver, “not the other team.”
    
The Raiders were 4-12 in 2012, the first year in the reign of GM Reggie McKenzie and head coach Dennis Allen. No fear, but perhaps some progress. Perhaps.
   
Oakland was in a 27-3 hole Friday night against the Chicago Bears in the third preseason game before losing 34-26. “We’ve got to play better defense,” agreed Allen. But he also said the Raiders were holding back on tactics, not wishing to show what they could. “Vanilla,” he phrased it.
   
Across the Bay, the 49ers, who made it to the Super Bowl, are a known entity. They are set. The Raiders are still using figurative training wheels.
  
Does Pryor replace Matt Flynn and give Oakland the read-option QB that the Niners have in Colin Kaepernick? Does rookie cornerback D.J. Hayden reach the potential that so many say he has?
   
No less importantly, when will the Raiders once more be respectable?
  
They’re still Oakland’s team, San Leandro’s team, Contra Costa’s team, the team of the working man. That familiar black shield decal, with the player in the eye patch and the twin pirate cutlasses, is pasted on so many back windows of pickup trucks and vans. It’s a symbol of individual pride.
   
So many changes in the organization, the death of Davis, the departure of his longtime chief executive Amy Trask, the assumption of power by Al’s son, Mark. Where does the franchise go? How long does it take to get there?
   
Pro football is a sport of adaptation, in the front office and on the field. “It’s a copycat league,” said Greg Olson, the Raiders’ offensive coordinator. Absolutely. If something works, give it a try. If it doesn’t, give a new head coach a try.
   
The long-held belief in the NFL was that quarterbacks who run are quarterbacks who, because of injuries, have short careers. And Redskins rookie Robert Griffin III did undergo surgery after he incurred a serious knee injury late last season. But Olson said that the trend has begun.
   
“These collegiate quarterbacks are coming out ready to shoulder the load,” he explained. “I heard RGIII will be more careful this year. He’ll slide when he has to and choose when to take his hits.
  
“Terrelle’s got kind of a dual role: be an athletic quarterback as well as a passer. But for any quarterback, you’re always talking about lessening the free hits, the ones (when offensive linemen) get beat.”
    
Olson defended Matt Flynn, who had a mediocre game against the Bears, saying, “There were different reasons he struggled. Some of it was bad luck, an illegal formation, that took away a first down. Some of it was protection. Maybe his confidence got rattled.”
   
Pryor is not easily rattled nor easily tackled.
   
“Just his speed,” Olson said of Pryor. “He just looks faster. He has the ability to make plays, and right now we’re looking for playmakers.”

On defense and offense.

RealClearSports: Ailing Al Davis Still Calling Shots

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND — You asked if Al Davis still was calling the shots for the Oakland Raiders? Now you know. Terrelle Pryor is your answer, even if he never becomes the answer to the team's future quarterback questions.

Who cares if Terrelle's a disappointment — the word 'bust' is reserved for JaMarcus Russell — when Pryor gets you to the top of the USA Today sports section as he did Tuesday.



Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

RealClearSports: Terrelle Pryor Proves He's a Quarterback

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

PASADENA -­- Isn't this what he was supposed to do? Wasn't Terrelle Pryor rated the best prep football player in the land a couple of seasons ago? Didn't everyone contend when Ohio State picked up Pryor it picked up a national championship? Or at the least a BCS bowl game win?

It hadn't worked that way. Until Friday night. Until the first evening of 2010.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2010