2012 gets under way tonight. What I'm looking for.

The Raiders are set to kickoff the preseason tonight against Dallas

Well a lot sure has gone on since I last blogged about 5 or 6 months ago. We hired Dennis Allen as the new HC, had our first draft without Al Davis, made some surprising cuts, and picked up a few free agents.

I've been busy since we were knocked out of the playoffs the final week of the season. While this is possibly the most provacative off-season this franchise has had in years just based on the total unknowns.

New GM for the first time in 50 years, brand new fiery rookie HC, and an entirely new system of defense leaves a whole lot to the imagination. Well tonight we get a preview to the latest chapter in this franchise's history. Here are some things I am looking for.

Allen and the new Staff's Raider debut

Little is known about Allen  to the average fan but he is respected throughout the league.

Tonight we'll get a chance to learn more about him and the new offensive and defensive coaches in a game situation. How is Knapp going to run the offense this time around? how do Tarver and Allen plan on fixing last year's shoddy D? etc.

It's always a new era of hope when a new HC and staff are brought in following a heartbreaking season and it's going to be interesting to see what type of headcoach Allen is and how the players respond.

Seeing Terrelle Pryor in action for the first time

Other than a sneak play which was nullified due to a penalty Pryor has never taken a snap for the Raiders mostly due to the NFL suspending him for an NCAA infraction. (which was ridiculous)

It will be interesting to finally see TP in a game situation  for the first time since he was the MVP of the 2011 Sugar Bowl where he rushed for 115 yards and a TD while throwing for 221 yards and 2 TD's.

I'm excited to finally see Al Davis' final draft pick suit up in the silver and black and take the field. With his pure athleticism if he can get his footwork sorted which he's been working on all off-season he can be frightening for opposing defenses.

The conerback position battle

The corner position battle promises to be intriguing all preseason. With the subtraction of Stanford Routt and Chris Johnson and addition of veterans Bartell and Spencer in the off-season. 

And with the continued development of talented second year corners Van Dyke (who has beefed up in the offseason and impressed all training camp) and Chekwa. Enter former Packers Brandon Underwood and Pat Lee. The latter passing up Chekwa (who was impressive when he was healthy last season) on the depth chart in training camp. 

All that added up gives you a competitive, talented, and diverse mix of vets and youngsters who will battle it out all preseason long to be the starting corners. What many have seen as a weakness for this team with the departure of Routt I see it as along with the D-Line the position with the most depth on the defensive side of the ball.

Well it's been a long wait. But finally we can see some Raider football. 5PM sure as hell can't come fast enough for me.

So long Hue

To say a lot has happened within Raider Nation since I last posted would be an understatement. The last time I blogged the Raiders lost to the Chargers failing to advance to the playoffs for yet another year. I sort of slipped into a football depression choosing not think about it and trying my best to avoid the playoffs to no avail.

Hue was canned moments after McKenzie was hired and just before the press conference introducing him.

I felt after the season that Hue should've got at least one more year given the circumstances this team faced in his rookie season. There were multiple injuries that crippled the offense (McFadden, Campbell, Ford, Moore) and the injuries on the defense were numerous which forced the Raiders to basically pull in guys off the street to start in the secondary.

Not to mention the mental aspect that came with losing Al. The team's owner/GM/boss. Add that to the fact that after Al passed everyone's favorite DC Bresnahan was left to his own devices with horrendous results.

All in all I thought 8-8 was good enough for Hue to keep his job given everything that had to be dealt with in one of the most bizarre seasons of recent memory.

That being said the more I sat back and thought about the situation as a whole the more I was fine with moving on and starting over again.

The team came out this season and looked like it was playoff bound then McFadden and Campbell go down in successive weeks. We make the big trade for Carson Palmer and then we suffer successive emberassing defeats at the hands of the KC and Denver and our playoff hopes looked to be dashed.

But then we come out blazing against SD and and go on a win streak once again looking like a team headed to the playoffs. But somewhere along the line it appeared Hue lost the team. The lackluster performances to close out the season say just as much.

I think Hue did a good job and he'll be a good HC somewhere someday but something had to have happened to this team in the locker room. Because in the final five weeks of the season this team looked totally flat and uninspired while fighting for it's playoff life.

So in other words. I liked Hue. I thought he was a good coach. But I am ready to move on.

A horror show ending.... But a new beginning

After a promising start to the season where it appeared we were playoff bound for the first time in years it all came crashing down in the final five weeks.

And what a horrible five weeks it was. Two back to back blowout losses, a big meltdown at home with a two score lead and seven minutes to go, a fortunate squeaker against the Cheifs and an embarassing display at home against the Chargers in a game that could've clinched the west for us.

The season seemed to be derailed when first starting QB Campbell goes down in the first half against the Browns. And just a week later McFadden sprains his foot in the first quarter against the Chiefs. What followed was two straight embarrassing losses to division foes. But then Palmer showed signs of life and Bush appeared to be able to carry the heavy load on offense with consecutive wins at San Diego, at Minnesota, and then at home against Chicago.

Although all three wins were ugly and not impressive by any stretch it appeared the Raiders were on the fast track to the playoffs with San Diego collapsing, Kansas City free falling, and Denver being mediocre at best. But what followed that three game stretch just totally crushed any dreams of a division title. It was possibly the worst 5 weeks I've ever experienced as a Raider fan. Nothing more to be said than it was just a pathetic showing really and an embarrassing collapse.

But yesterday the Raiders interviewed Packers exec and former Raider Reggie McKenzie and this morning have reportedly hired him as the new GM. Reggie comes from a great system of drafting and developing players in contrast to a team who over the past decade or so relied heavily on trading for and acquiring free-agent veterans while filling gaps with rookies.

There's many questions to be asked. Will Reggie be hands on with the coach or let Hue make the decisions himself? Does he even keep Hue around or find a new hand picked head coach? And the QB situation. Does he let Campbell go? Or does he bring him back and have an open competition for the QB spot with Palmer?

There's many things to be done including making decisions on important upcoming free agents such as Bush and Branch. This will probably the most interesting off-season in decades. That's for sure.

Massacre on South Beach

Not much to be said about last weeks game. Just pure utter destruction at the hands of the Dolphins. The Raiders were completely dominated in every facet of the game.

The offense was terrible. Bush couldn't get anything started and they only rushed for 46 on the ground. Palmer had one of his worst games as a Raider completing less than half his passes throwing a pick and his TD's and big completions coming when the game was already decided.

The receivers and TE's dropped some passes at critical moments. While the line failed to open up holes for Bush and protect Palmer. The team was also 2 of 11 on 3rd downs and that just isn't going to cut it.

The defense was torched by the run. Making Reggie Bush look like the perennial pro-bowler he was supposed to be coming out of USC. While Daniel Thomas had his absolute best day as a pro against our soft D. The defense couldn't get a stop on 3rd down to save it's life. And logic says if you can't stop a team on 3rd down while not being able to convert then you're definitely going to lose the game and the Raiders were destroyed.

There's not much to be said about this game other than it was a total disaster and it's apparent that all these injuries are starting to hurt this team.

Thank god for special teams.

Well it wasn't the prettiest of games but it was a win. And there were three things Raider fans could be proud of at the end of the day.

One special teams was flawless Jano 6 for 6, Lechler was Lechler, and Hester didn't have a chance to be Hester. Two the defense was strong all day save for the last couple minutes of the game. Three and maybe the most important of all: Actual discipline and a limited amount of boneheaded penalties.

The offense struggled all game. And Palmer had a bad game but with two explosive weapons from the receiving corps out in Moore and Ford things should improve in that department so I'm not all too worried about that.

What was surprising was our inability to run the ball. It was clear that the Bears game planned to shutdown Bush and make the Raiders beat them in the air and they accomplished that. Bush averaged just a bit under 3 a carry and was held under 100 yards for the first time in a month.

The offensive line definitely didn't have their best game. Palmer was sacked a few times and they couldn't open many holes for Bush. They pretty much got pushed around by the Bears D-line all game. They have definitely got to get back to how they were playing before.

But at the end of the day Raiders scored the W and played a disciplined game penalty-wise. And as long as they keep racking up the wins then that's good enough for me.

A tale of two halves...... Again

Raiders picked up a second straight win on the road in Minnesota. And for the second week in a row the Raiders almost blew a lead and failed to put away a game that should most definitely have been a laugher. Obviously this needs to change and quick.

The first half started slow. We had a three and out and let the Bears march down the field (With a referee escort of course but I'll get to that later) to Adrian Peterson untouched TD. But the D and the run game picked up the pace. A couple turnovers and scores later the Raiders were going into half time with a 24-7 lead.

With the beginning of the second half the game looked to be on it's way to being a complete rout but once again dumb penalties, mental lapses, and a few bad calls made this a game when it really should've never been one.

All the stupid penalties week after week is just killing me. I'll talk about the bad calls a little later on but we commit enough dumb penalties on our own to shoot ourselves in the foot. Nearly half of the Vikes first downs came out of Raider penalties. That is unacceptable no matter which way you look at it. In the past we've had great teams that could overcome all the penalties but this year we're just way too short handed due to injury to have that sort of margin for error. Basically these players need to clean it up or the best scenario I can see for us is a one and done playoff appearance.

Now about Hue's post game comments following the game: He definitely made some good points there were some terrible calls in the game and not only this game it's been going on for years.

The first one on Kelly was a joke. He was being blocked into the QB and had one hand free and brought down the QB without grabbing the face mask. Why that was a penalty I'll never know. Then that legal hit Curry put on that guy was deemed a personal foul hitting a "defenseless receiver" even though the guy turned around took a step and made a football move. And that face mask call on Branch was a joke. I've watched the replay numerous times and not once did Tyvon grab the guys face.

But when they flagged Bryant when he jumped on a Viking while he was being brought down that just took the cake for me. Especially when you take into account that Jared Allen did the exact same thing to Palmer early on with no flags thrown. If it was a personal foul then how was it not when the same happened to Carson? These refs are a complete joke and they never seem to hide their bias in any given game they officiate. That being said we committed more than enough dumb penalties on our own without any help from the officials.

The defense played well and won this game. Lito has been great coming in off the street to step in the starting role. He took great angles on balls and made things happen. I have a feeling when he knocks some of the rust off some of those tipped passes are going to turn into picks. And you gotta love those rushing stops he's made. The pass rush was strong bringing down Ponder 5 times and keeping the pressure all game. And my favorite whipping boy Giordano went out and had himself a game.

The offense was great in the first half, but slowed down as they got conservative in the second. Palmer has continued to improve going 17 of 23 with a TD to Schilens. Bush was consistent and was a dependable workhorse all game haveing another 100+ yard rushing game and pounding one across the goaline right through a Viking defender. The offense is still a work in progress but should be absolutely explosive when the weapons start coming back from the injured list.

Bottom line though the Raiders have got to address their penalty problem. I'm not talking about suing the league I'm talking about rectifying the ones they have control over and that's a whole lot. It's become the Raider way to have the league screw you but the last thing this team needs is to continue to screw themselves like they have. Until they address that problem they will not be a true contender for a championship. The talent is definitely there but the discipline needs to be enforced ASAP.

Much better.... But not there yet

In a much improved showing across the board over the past few weeks the Raiders still showed their flaws. In a game that should have ended up being a blowout the Raiders made mistakes to keep the Chargers in the game. But the team seemed to get back on the path it was traveling following the unfortunate Campbell injury.

The biggest reason was our gameplan and return to the power running game. Michael Bush absolutely lit SD up and had a monster game on the ground and a big day receiving. I never understood why we got away from the run game which was our bread and butter all season. Sure we lost McFadden but the fact that we had a QB learning the offense and the best #2 back in the league in Bush we should've been pounding the ball the past few weeks. But it's over with we went back to playing towards our strengths and it payed dividends.

Carson Palmer continues to improve and he had a great day leading the offense. I felt he was impressive last week given that he's only been with the team a limited time but this week he was extremely good. Incredible when you take into account he's only been with the team for three weeks. He's really starting to show what he's going to be able to bring to this team for the next few years and I can't wait to see him next week.

We had another injury blow to our offense with Ford going down in the first quarter but Denarius Moore seemed to pick up where he left off back in week 2 and 3. He had a huge day catching five for 123 with two scores. He seemed to completely dissappear after the New England game but he had a solid week last week and kicked open the door this week. He has tons of talent and he's one of the best rookie WR's in the league at the moment.

The defense was hit and miss. While they looked much better with McClain back even though he looked like he was still hurting and tentative out there they were dominant at moments and at times looked clueless. More of the same I guess from what we've been seeing from this defense all year. At one moment they're locking down guys, pushing around the o-line, and harassing the QB while other times they're blowing coverages, over committing, and committing stupid penalties at inopportune moments.

They got to Rivers six times with Wimbley having a big day with 4 sacks while the front four brought the pressure all game making him look extremely uncomfortable all game. The corners played well enough especially considering all the injuries. But again the penalties kepte SD in the game and the LB's and safeties were a weakness at times.

But I was glad to see us commit to the run like we have for most of the season with success. The run game is this teams biggest strength whether it's DMC with his explosiveness or Bush with his strength. For this team to win we are going to have to make the run game our priority because when we can run the ball we win the game. It's as simple as that. I'm happy with the win and happy we're sitting on top of the AFC West but we're going to have to learn how to put teams away when we have them on the ropes and to pick our spots with the penalties if we have any ambitions of going anywhere this year. That being said I'm looking forward to seeing this team improve the rest of the year.