Post by TheShadow on Aug 24, 2013 3:42:33 GMT -5
www.insidebayarea.com/
By Tim Kawakami
OAKLAND -- It's a distraction the Raiders don't want, but maybe they could use a full-fledged Matt Flynn-Terrelle Pryor quarterback controversy right about now.
Just to distract attention from what they really are, basically, and how tough this season is almost certainly going to be.
And possibly to distract themselves from those inevitable conclusions, too.
That's how badly the Raiders played for much of Friday night's 34-26 exhibition loss to the Chicago Bears at O.co Coliseum, that's how poorly every facet of the starting units performed.
That's how much better Pryor was than Flynn, too.
And that's the massive task facing coach Dennis Allen, who has his hands full and now has to do some hard thinking about his quarterback situation, too.
Pryor vs. Flynn? That's better than fixating on the Raiders' team vs. Anybody Else right now.
"I think obviously we've got to look at it," Allen said after the game when asked directly if Pryor has possibly moved ahead of Flynn. "I don't think Matt played well in this game. Obviously I felt Terrelle came in, gave us a spark and played well.
"I think that's something we've got to go and look at. I'm not going to make any decisions on anything, obviously, tonight ... but it's obvious Terrelle gave us a little bit of a spark."
Yes, on the night first-round pick D.J. Hayden made his much-anticipated game-action debut, he was only a tiny footnote.
Hayden -- who hadn't played in a game since November -- looked very, very rusty at cornerback, got walloped by a couple of run blocks, and gave up a few big gainers.
But Hayden also stuck his nose into traffic to make a few tackles and generally wasn't at all the worst or most passive Raider out there.
Who looked the worst? Well, that'd be anybody on the Raiders' first-team offense, most especially Flynn.
The presumptive starting quarterback threw two awful interceptions and couldn't move the team in four listless first-half possessions.
Or it could've been almost anybody on the Raiders' first-unit defense, which gave up three touchdowns and a field goal in the Bears' first four drives.
Before the Raiders could catch a breath or a break, Chicago had a 27-0 lead.
"We've got to play better," Allen said. "We've got to execute better, we've got to play better. That's really the bottom line."
All that, of course, got the Coliseum crowd grumbling, and eventually bellowing for "PRY-OR!"
Guess who looked the best on this night? That'd be the putative backup quarterback, a guy I presumed couldn't seriously compete for the starting job because he wasn't ready.
Well, if the whole team isn't ready, maybe Pryor is the right guy, after all. He seems to flourish when everything else is sort of messed up, including his own offensive scheme.
If everything is going to be scattered, and if Flynn can't hold up in the middle of it, then Pryor might be, at the least, an entertaining feature on a shaky team.
When Flynn was replaced by Pryor near the end of the first half, the fans roared. But Pryor immediately was thrown for a 5-yard loss and almost threw an interception on his first pass.
Then the Pryor play-making started to happen: He drove the Raiders down the field to set up a long field goal by Sebastian Janikowski to close the first half and give the Raiders their first score.
In the second half, Pryor scored on a blazing 25-yard touchdown run, then set up another field goal and threw a 19-yard touchdown pass before his night was done.
Is that the same as doing it in a real game against a first-team defense geared up to stop him? No, it's probably not even close.
But Pryor (who completed 7 of his 9 pass attempts for 93 yards and ran for 37 more) showed that he's a live-wire on a team that's otherwise trending toward comatose.
Pryor's electric play-making plus Flynn's flat-line Friday should make the quarterback decision a lot more complicated.
It could be a big distraction, especially if Allen goes with the established veteran instead of the young wild-card.
Either way, it's a necessary distraction. If you're fixated on the strengths and weaknesses of the quarterbacks, you don't have to look at the other positions nearly as much.
By Tim Kawakami
OAKLAND -- It's a distraction the Raiders don't want, but maybe they could use a full-fledged Matt Flynn-Terrelle Pryor quarterback controversy right about now.
Just to distract attention from what they really are, basically, and how tough this season is almost certainly going to be.
And possibly to distract themselves from those inevitable conclusions, too.
That's how badly the Raiders played for much of Friday night's 34-26 exhibition loss to the Chicago Bears at O.co Coliseum, that's how poorly every facet of the starting units performed.
That's how much better Pryor was than Flynn, too.
And that's the massive task facing coach Dennis Allen, who has his hands full and now has to do some hard thinking about his quarterback situation, too.
Pryor vs. Flynn? That's better than fixating on the Raiders' team vs. Anybody Else right now.
"I think obviously we've got to look at it," Allen said after the game when asked directly if Pryor has possibly moved ahead of Flynn. "I don't think Matt played well in this game. Obviously I felt Terrelle came in, gave us a spark and played well.
"I think that's something we've got to go and look at. I'm not going to make any decisions on anything, obviously, tonight ... but it's obvious Terrelle gave us a little bit of a spark."
Yes, on the night first-round pick D.J. Hayden made his much-anticipated game-action debut, he was only a tiny footnote.
Hayden -- who hadn't played in a game since November -- looked very, very rusty at cornerback, got walloped by a couple of run blocks, and gave up a few big gainers.
But Hayden also stuck his nose into traffic to make a few tackles and generally wasn't at all the worst or most passive Raider out there.
Who looked the worst? Well, that'd be anybody on the Raiders' first-team offense, most especially Flynn.
The presumptive starting quarterback threw two awful interceptions and couldn't move the team in four listless first-half possessions.
Or it could've been almost anybody on the Raiders' first-unit defense, which gave up three touchdowns and a field goal in the Bears' first four drives.
Before the Raiders could catch a breath or a break, Chicago had a 27-0 lead.
"We've got to play better," Allen said. "We've got to execute better, we've got to play better. That's really the bottom line."
All that, of course, got the Coliseum crowd grumbling, and eventually bellowing for "PRY-OR!"
Guess who looked the best on this night? That'd be the putative backup quarterback, a guy I presumed couldn't seriously compete for the starting job because he wasn't ready.
Well, if the whole team isn't ready, maybe Pryor is the right guy, after all. He seems to flourish when everything else is sort of messed up, including his own offensive scheme.
If everything is going to be scattered, and if Flynn can't hold up in the middle of it, then Pryor might be, at the least, an entertaining feature on a shaky team.
When Flynn was replaced by Pryor near the end of the first half, the fans roared. But Pryor immediately was thrown for a 5-yard loss and almost threw an interception on his first pass.
Then the Pryor play-making started to happen: He drove the Raiders down the field to set up a long field goal by Sebastian Janikowski to close the first half and give the Raiders their first score.
In the second half, Pryor scored on a blazing 25-yard touchdown run, then set up another field goal and threw a 19-yard touchdown pass before his night was done.
Is that the same as doing it in a real game against a first-team defense geared up to stop him? No, it's probably not even close.
But Pryor (who completed 7 of his 9 pass attempts for 93 yards and ran for 37 more) showed that he's a live-wire on a team that's otherwise trending toward comatose.
Pryor's electric play-making plus Flynn's flat-line Friday should make the quarterback decision a lot more complicated.
It could be a big distraction, especially if Allen goes with the established veteran instead of the young wild-card.
Either way, it's a necessary distraction. If you're fixated on the strengths and weaknesses of the quarterbacks, you don't have to look at the other positions nearly as much.