Week 4 recap Moreau & Raiders. Blog #7

- from http://blacksundaybrand.blogspot.com/

The Oakland Raiders lost 31-24 in a game that can best be described as disappointing. Going into the game many Raider hopefuls knew realistically that the chance we would win this game would be slim to none. Throughout the game, Bruce Gradkowski showed glimpses of his ability to win a game without any semblance of a decent offensive line. He threw short passes when only a few yards were needed to convert, medium passes to take reasonable chunks of yardage out of the field, and threw a few heart pounding, adrenaline filled, nerve racking deep passes. One of these passes was  on a key drive down the field for a score that would tie the game. In a rare occurance where Gradkowski was given several seconds to search the field, he launched a pass to second year standout receiver Louis murphy. It hit him square in the chest, bounced off, and than landed right in the hands of the opposing teams corner. Mentally i could hear all of Oakland's fans clicking off their T.V's. With that one play the Raiders hammered the final nail into their coffin, with their record marred by one more lost. Hopefully the Raiders(1-3) can bounce back next week for the win.

Starting Tight End Christopher Baca

Picture Taken By: Zac DeCastro

On a different note, the Moreau Mariners won their third game to remain undefeated with a play that was just as nerve racking and heart pounding as Gradkowski's throw. With time dwindling down in the fourth quarter of the game, Moreau was down 19-20 to the John. F. Kennedy Eagles of Richmond. The game had been a struggle the whole 48 minutes. At the snap of the ball Adam Robinson took a five step drop, and surveyed the field. With a small hope he launched the ball in the direction of Chris Baca, who was covered by the opposing team's corner. The ball looked like it was destined to soar out of bounds, but Chris Baca has other things in mind. His 6'5 frame reached out and caught the ball one handed, as he reeled in the ball, evaded the defender. He sprinted into the endzone with the winning touchdown. Moreau Catholic ended up winning 27-20.

Week 4 Previews (Mariners & Raiders)

In week four of the NFL season the Oakland Raiders play against one of the current highest caliber offenses in the league, the Texans. The combination of their three stud offensive players, Matt Schaub, Arian Foster, and Andre Johnson, may be too much for the Raiders to handle at first look. Right now the Raider's defense is rated #10 in the league. Although those stats may be a little skewed since they played the Rams, who aren't really a premier team in the league right now, this still shows the improvement that the defense has had in the offseason. Hopefully Richard Seymour and the John Henderson/Tommy Kelly combination at inside Lineman will help stop the powerful running game of Arian Foster. Like last week, the league's best corner(Nnamdi Asomugha) will be playing the Texan's #1 receiver Andre Johnson, hopefully neutralizing his contribution to the game. The Raider's offensively need to pass well. Their running game is already off to a great start, and seeing as how the Texan's Corner Backs aren't anywhere near the top tier of DB's in the league, Oakland has a good chance of getting their arial attack going. Without a good passing game Oakland has little to no chance of winning this game

Moreau Catholic plays Kennedy of Richmond this saturday. Richmond on the outside looks like a brand new team compared to the program who went 0-4 before scratching the rest of their season last year. They have a large D-Line,their inside linemen weigh 335 and 305. Both of those players start on both sides of the ball, and are also the Left Tackle and Guard. Although it looks like Richmond has picked up a few better athletes, film shows that they are still the same undisciplined team. They jump offsides, they hold, and they take plays off. Overall the Kennedy team is probably faster, and bigger than Moreau's squad, but they are technically unsound, which is Moreau's strength. As well as being technically sound as a team, Moreau is much more disciplined. Moreau desperately needs to win this game, to start off their league play 1-0, and move their total record to 3-0-1

Week Three Mariner Football Recap

Week Three Recap:
Moreau played San Lorenzo last friday in a game that could possibly be one of the most exciting games they've ever played. San Lorenzo and Moreau Catholic have been long time standing rivals, ever since they had both been within the HAAL leagues. Although years have past and Moreau football has moved within the BSAL, they are still extremely competitive towards one another. When Moreau's current varsity team were the Frosh/Soph program San Lorenzo sent their freshman team out to challenge Moreau, opposed to the originally scheduled J.V. team. The Mariners had seen this as a huge disrespect at the time and went on to crush the opposing team 56-0. Now this same team that had been disrespected two years ago had hoped to show San Lorenzo how much better they really were than the past decade of Moreau football teams. Moreau was down 7-14 at the half, their only touchdown coming from a scoop and score by Defensive Nose Tackle Roman Gonzalez. The Mariner offense marched down the field on five consecutive drives against San Lorenzo, only to have a turn over within the red-zone each time. Finally Moreau started being able to score, and with around five minutes to go Moreau scored on a touchdown run by Brendan Nugent. The score was 19-20 with slightly under five minutes to go. San Lorenzo easily marched down the field and scored making it a 19-26 game with 4:23 left on the score board. In a three minute drive the Mariners pound the ball in with a halfback toss and tie the game at 26-26 when successfully going for two extra points. With less than 1:30 on the clock San Lorenzo attempts to drive the ball down the field. They kick a field goal, and it is blocked. Because it is an out of league game, there is no over time, causing Moreau and the San Lorenzo Rebels to tie.

Moreau is 2-0-1 going into their first League game. This saturday at 1:30 they play Kennedy of Richmond in what looks to be a competitive game. With the aspirations of being the first Moreau team in over ten years to make NCS playoffs, and the first Moreau football team to ever win a playoff game, they tremendously need to win this game.

Second Week of Football

This week the Oakland Raiders play the St. Louis Rams. Only a few teams could be called "worse" then the Raiders the last few years. Among those are the Rams. Rookie Sam Bradford leads the attack, but as is common with rookies, he makes a fair share of mistakes. Winning this game is a must for the Raiders. They started off the year losing to the Tennessee Titans who really are a much better team than the Raiders. A lost to the Titans, an established team in the last few years, is understandable. A lost to the Rams, a team who is worse than the Raiders at many fronts, a team who has been considered a even bigger joke to the NFL within the last few years, is unacceptable. The Raider's team motto is a commitment to excellence. They need to start living by that motto, and the sooner the better. Hopefully they blow the Rams out of the water. I'll post a game recap on the next post

Although its the second week in professional football it is also the second week in Moreau Catholic High School football. Moreau won 27-14 in a game that should have been alot less closer than the ending score showed (accidently saved this in drafts instead of posting it straight to blogger)

Week Three of the NFL

At the close of the third week of the NFL the oakland Raiders have one win and two losses. Last sunday they suffered a heart breaking loss to the Arizona Cardinals. Sebastian Janikowski, the Raider's place kicker, missed the winning field goal wide to the left. After a fantastic performance with the new starting quarterback Bruce Gradkowski, and Darren Mcfadden at the helm, it came down to their kicker. If Sebass(as many fans refer to him) would have made a one out of the three field goals he missed that day, the Raiders would have came out 2-1.

Bruce Gradkowski recently replaced Jason Campbell as the starting quarterback for the Raiders. In Week 2 of the season, when the Raiders played and beat the Rams, Jason Campbell started the first half. By the end of the half the crowd was fervently chanting "Bruce...Bruce...Bruce...Bruce." It was obvious that the crowd wanted him to play. I think that this, in combination to Jason's lack of offensive production and energy, is why the Raiders ended up starting Gradkowski for the second half of the game. When Gradkowski enters the huddle you can tell that he demands respect from all his teammates in the game. He plays with a passion to win. Somehow he seems to make the rest of the players on the team look like pro-bowl caliber athletes. Hopefully going into weeks 4 and further through the season he continues to inspire and lead this team. With Gradkowski at the helm, i believe the Raiders can work their way back to respectability, which is essentially an 8-8 season

Raiders Flattened by Titains

Unfortunately the Oakland Raiders lost to the Tennessee Titans 13-38 this weekend in their opening game. The Raiders had extremely high expectations for this year. The addition of Jason Campbell to the team was suppose to be a miracle quick fix. Although for the most part the Raiders had a horrible offensive attack this game, Darren Mcfadden was a lone bright spot. It's nice to seem him do decent after practically all "professional" reporters calling him a bust before his third NFL year.

 Some Raider fans(myself not included) have been talking about playoffs for this Raider team. How can you expect a team with practically no offensive line, and no receivers to even go 8-8 on the season let alone go to playoffs. As much as i love the Raiders, they have a lot of work to do to still to be playoff contenders. For this team to be truly successful Al Davis needs to let the head coach do his job. As well as hiring a G.M. You can only expect so much in one year though. The Raider's are 0-1 after sunday, hopefully next week against the Ram's they can put a W

Mairner's First Game/NFL rosters

September 12, this Friday,  is Moreau Catholic High School's first football game. Many of the players(myself included) have been training since the around January  for possibly only 10 weeks of football. The excitement in the locker room is almost palpable, this is what we have been training every day for. On Friday we play Brannon High from San Jose. Moreau already had a bye this last week, while Brannon lost 44-0 to Sequoia. Maybe i'm just a little too confident, but i think friday's game is going to be worth watching.

In other news the NFL made its final roster cuts this weekend. Some of the big suprises being that Matt Lienhart got cut from the Cardinals and that T.J. Houshmandzadeh got cut by the Seahawks, and than signed with the Ravens. Like many other raider fans i was hoping we[raiders] would sign T.J. Instead the rich get richer and the Ravens took him adding to their blossoming core or receivers. Several reports had him going to the raiders, but they were all apparently wrong. Well i guess we'll have to deal with what we have,  hopefully it will be enough. I'm extremely excited for the football season, both high school and pro, to kick off. Well thats it for this post, I'll have another one after the Mainer's first game and the Raider's