What it do, Nation!??! !!!Good to be back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
JYEH! Welcome Seymour! I hope u were worth the trouble, sir!

I have to mention, the 2009 50th anniversary Oakland Raiders don’t look great so far, do they? Sure, there were only Pre-season games witnessed, but Raider fans wish the team showed more promise in the past few weeks.
Eh, maybe they’re saving it for the Chargers, right?? DAMN RIGHT!!!!
BTW: Anyone ever notice the “San Diego Super Charger” song would make a great theme song for a movie musical about prison sex?

Indeed, the past couple of months has been full of expectations, new prospects, ideas and hope.
The good news is:
Receivers are finally catching the ball, Jam and Bey have improved dramatically, McFadden can’t wait to be the work Horse, Quarterbacks will still stay from Nnamdi and Greg Ellis looks on target for at least 11 sacks…
we even get to sport new “Legacy” Jerseys with Ice Cube on Monday night!!

I should be more excited, but I can’t help to think about the last time it all blew up in all of our faces the last time we faced San Diego in our opener.
Sure, there were different faces, different philosophies, different coaches , etc. etc…
but you never know when we can be blindsided yet again if we don’t take this team seriously.. (see below).

Thoughts that currently come to the Dark Lord of the Sith’s mind today..
1) How can we contain/stop “The Choker” Shawn Merriman without using a Court of law?
2) How can we contain LT in the current state of our running stopping D?
3) How can we not let Phillip Rivers beat us again?
(Notice I mention the word “We” a lot. Hush, no one knows I’m the 54th man..)

Short Answers:
1) We MUST give Mario or Cornell backup blocking with our Tight Ends. Sure, he’s bound to leak through the middle as well..but hopefully, all of our Running Backs are preparing for this kind of situation. We don’t need a 5 second block (anyone see last night’s Steelers game?) just about 2 or possibly 3…
2) If we can’t improve in stopping Running backs from treading all over us, then we’re headed for high tide waves swallowing our Defense the entire year! Sure, our starters weren’t in the majority of the past couple of pres season games, but c’mon!!! If I’m Cable, I’m leaving their asses out there until they get it right! Sure, Richard Seymour can help our team considerably, bu it’s going to take a collective effort to get the job done right. I’m tired of seeing the backs running around our D like the Bulls in the streets of Barcelona..
Please, D ..MAKE IT STOP!
3) Well, the good news is D-Hall is no longer a part of the team. Thank the Force. I can still see Denver Offense tearing us to shreds last year. Chris Johnson should be a major contributor in trying to stop the Chargers passing attack. If you throw in little pressure (probably coming from Ellis AND Seymour) we might have a better chance at beating this team.

Realistically, on paper? The Raiders should lose this game. The point spread is -9 1/2, the NFL Analysts still talk shit and the entire World thinks we’re going to lose this game.
“So why do you continue supporting this team?” a friend asks.
“I want to be here when they turn this damn thing around..and when it does? I swear I might hit someone in the face out of pure enthusiasm. If you have read what I’ve read, saw what I’ve seen and know that ANY team has a chance at winning against an 8-8 team? You might feel a wee bit more dedicated too, ass”.

Here’s the post game wrap of the last time we faced the Chargers in an opener…

In his first NFL start Monday night, Rivers didn’t do much more than hand the ball off and watch his defense dominate. He didn’t have to: Tomlinson carried 31 times for 131 yards and one touchdown and the Chargers handed Oakland its second home shutout in a 27-0 victory over the Raiders on Monday night.
“It was exciting,” Rivers said. “I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time. … I’ve said before, I don’t care if I have to hand it off 50 times or throw it 50 times, as long as we win.”
With much of the focus on Rivers as he replaces Drew Brees, Chargers coach Marty Schottenheimer put the game in the hands of Tomlinson and his defense, spoiling Art Shell’s first game back as Raiders coach.
“I was shocked,” Shell said. “We didn’t play well, as you could tell. We didn’t have the intensity level that the San Diego Chargers did. I didn’t get us prepared for this game.”
San Diego beat the Raiders for the sixth straight time and shut them out for the first time in their last 90 regular-season meetings. When the Chargers won 44-0 in 1961, Al Davis was still an assistant with San Diego .
Tomlinson showed little sign of rust after sitting out the entire preseason, topping 100 yards rushing in the second quarter. He has 837 yards rushing in his last six meetings with Oakland .
“When you have a young quarterback, you run the football a lot,” Tomlinson said. “You don’t ever want to put a young quarterback in a situation to make a turnover unless you have to. We played conservative and our defense was playing well so we had to ride our defense.”
Rivers, who spent his first two seasons as a backup, went 8-for-11 for 108 yards, including a 4-yard touchdown pass to Antonio Gates in the fourth quarter that made it 20-0.
The Chargers ran the ball on 48 of 59 plays, and Rivers threw only two passes to wide receivers.
“That was dictated by the score,” Schottenheimer said. “If I had Dan Marino, I would have done the same thing. Everything he was asked to do, he did in a winning fashion.”
The Chargers’ win capped an opening weekend in the NFL in which 11 games were won by visiting teams, the most on opening weekend since 1983, when 12 teams did it. The Raiders joined Green Bay and Tampa Bay as home teams who failed to score in their openers as they had no answer for Merriman and the Chargers defense.
Merriman, last year’s top defensive rookie, had three of San Diego ’s nine sacks and the Chargers held the Raiders to 129 yards in Brooks’ first game as quarterback. Brooks, who went 6-for-14 for 68 yards, was replaced in the fourth quarter by Andrew Walter.
“It was just a tough outing. They played better than us,” Brooks said. “We’re going to get better.”

So here we are WITHOUT Art Shell, Schottenheimer, Brooks, a bed n’ breakfast Offense and more weapons this time around with an improved O-line, D-line (uh, in theory) a better QB, quality Running backs and Tights, etc. etc.
Tell me, are we truly better?

We’ll see come Monday, kids. LET’S GET IT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May the force be with us. See you all on Monday night. Take it away, Cube..
Happy Birthday, Panvadee!!