Raiders coach Tom Cable addressed the media Monday in his weekly press briefing and made some of the following observations:
– Place kicker Sebastian Janikowski was at the facility early and kicking, attempting to rectify whatever went wrong with three misses in a 24-23 loss to the Arizona Cardinals Sunday. Cable said he told Janikowski the Raiders would need him and that he expected him to win a couple of games down the road.
– Red zone offense and play on third down will be heavily scrutinized within the next 48 hours in terms of personnel, execution and play selection Cable said there were plays to be made in close that weren’t being made.
– Cable was generally pleased with the play of the offensive line, noting the handful of times Gradkowski had ample time to throw. He said he has seen improvement and as far as holding the line responsible for the loss “I wouldn’t put that on them at all.” He thought alternating left tackles Mario Henderson and Jared Veldheer were up and down but showing progress.
– Penalties are being committed because of a lack of discipline when players are getting caught up in the competitive moment.
Cable said the delay of game penalty at the 1-yard line by quarterback Bruce Gradkowski came when the quarterback simply ran out of time and Cable wasn’t able to get officials to recognized his request for a time out.
The same thing happened during Week 1 with Jason Campbell, when Cable couldn’t get a time out called when the Raiders had the wrong personnel in the game for the play that was called.
– The insertion of Mike Mitchell into the base defense for a time at strong safety came after Walter McFadden aggravated a hamstring, with Michael Huff forced to play some corner and Tyvon Branch moving to free safety.
– Defensive tackle Richard Seymour said during the open locker room session he was at less than 100 percent and was bothered by his hamstring injury, but opted to play through it. That situation, Cable said, will be watched closely this week at practice.
– The workload of running back Michael Bush should increase this week after getting his first game time in more than a month.
Note: I’ll check in later, but am spending most of my day working on an obituary for George Blanda, who died Monday at age 83.
