Author: lleonardbw

Raider report: Lack of inexperience reason for Raiders big loss in KC

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by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–The Oakland Raiders who suffered a pretty humilating defeat at the hands of their division rivals the Kansas City Chiefs this last weekend. They lost big 56-31 that is the most points the Raiders have ever given up in a football game. It was done in dramatic fashion the Chiefs jumped out to a big lead they were up 21-0 just in the first quarter.

The big story in the game it was not only the 56 points but who scored them, five of those touchdowns were scored by the Chiefs Jamal Charles the tiny running back for the Chiefs and four of them on receptions. He became the first running back in NFL history to catch four touchdown passes in a game.

Scoring five touchdowns puts him in pretty rare company as well, five touchdowns is a huge accomplishment no matter what and at the NFL level it’s very, very rare and only three people have scored six touchdowns n a game and Charles might have had a shot at that becuase he had five touchdowns with 12 minutes left in the game he had a shot at it but he mostly sat on the bench from that point on.

Charles sat because the Chiefs were up by so much looking at it from the Raiders side this was a rough, rough loss, they were out of this one from the very beginning they really had no chance and what we’ve seen in the last few weeks is that the Raiders are falling apart on the defensive side of the football.

The Raiders have had a real tough time of it not only did they lose this game to the Chiefs last week they got hammered by a very bad New York Jets team they gave up 37 points to a Jets team that have had one of the worse offenses in the league. They lost to Dallas, Tennessee, you have to go all the way back to week 11 when they beat Houston and as we all know now is probably the team that’s going to get the number one pick in the draft that’s how bad they are.

The Raiders have had a really rough run it’s kind of disappointing their defense played really well in the first half of the season it was surprising and one of the reasons why everybody had low expectations for the Raiders was their defense. They’ve had a lot of new guys on the team and not necessarily all new but they had a lot of inexperienced guys some of them were rookies.

These were guys on the Raiders that have really never been starters at this top level and the Raiders had so little room under the cap they had to get what they could and for the most part that meant bargain basement shopping and early in the season they did a good job of motivating these guys in keeping offenses on their toes, the defense was surprising.

The Raiders face the San Diego Chargers on Sunday the 29th for their next game with a 1:25 PM kickoff at Qualcomm.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportstalk Radio

Larry Leavitt on Pro Hockey

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by Larry Levitt

DALY CITY–The San Francisco Bulls last Friday night took the lead early 1-0 lead against the Ontario Reign and in that first period they played pretty good hockey. The advantage the Bulls had was the Ontario goalie was the back up to the back up so San Francisco could have really taken advantage of the situation. The Bulls ran into big problems on the power play they went 0-8.

In the second period when the Bulls got into penalty trouble the Reign scored all three of their goals on the power play. So they couldn’t capitalize on the power play and they couldn’t hold the penalty kill and keep the game close and that was the tale of the two cities right there.

The Bulls have a lot of fire power on this club right now and if they can really get going they’d be fine and the biggest problem is that their shooting wide at the net and not getting the breaks. On Friday night the power play was very tough getting them set up and they finally got set up in three or four passes instead of shooting the pass would get interupted and they would have to go back and start all over again. The Bulls who went 0-8 on the power play you have to say there’s a problem there and you got focus on that and get that fixed.

On Saturday night the Bulls won it against Stockton and on Friday they lost to Ontario, on Friday night the difference of the two games was Ontario is a pretty well rounded team other than the back up goalie they pretty much played the puck pretty well. Saturday night against the Stockton Thunder was a great comeback game for the Bulls and that come back should give them a lot of confidence.

The Bulls were behind quite a bit for a large part of the game and they were playing from behind and they really rallied to win. At one point near the end of the game they actually took the lead only to give up the tying goal with 2:30 left and it forced overtime and then the shootout and of course the Bulls won it in the skills competition.

San Jose Sharks update: The Sharks who have lost five of their last six games are not panicking and there are no plans to make changes on the team. They’ve just hit a bump in the road no team in the NHL is going to play 100 percent all of the time. No team will be able to walk through any NHL team.

The Sharks know they have problems, they know they have to regroup and look at their system, they know they have to work on the work ethic but it’s not going on the ice and planning to lay an egg. The game in Nashville they had a very slow start on Saturday night and the Sharks were not playing to their speed.

Nashville is a slow methodical defense team they don’t give you a lot of time and a lot of space the Preds lock you down and don’t allow you to do much. They don’t have one player per say who rules the ice. This game was sure to be a tight battle and sure enough it was and it ended up being 3-2 Nashville.

The Sharks tried to come back at the end but they did make a game of it. The Sharks now move onto St.Louis and Los Angeles two tough contenders.

Larry Levitt does Pro Hockey commentary on the Sharks and the Bulls each week for Sportstalk radio

After 53 years Cuba rejoining the Carribean series

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That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary

The Elefantes del Cienfuegos ( Cienfuegos Elephants)in 1960-61 were the last Cuban champions to play in the Caribbean Series in 1960.

Since the first Caribbean Series, which took place in Cuba in 1949, Cuba was the team to beat and won the Series, 7 to 4 for Puerto Rico and one for Panamá . As a matter of fact Cuba they won the last five Caribbean Series in which they participated.

Cuba was undefeated in the 1960 Caribbean Series, which took place February 10 to 15, in Panamá . Their manager was Tony Castaño .

Earlier that year in Cuba, Castro’s communist system has been established, and that would be the last Caribbean Series for Cuba, as Castro banned all professional sports in the country.

The champion Cienfuegos team of Cuba was a powerhouse and they won it in undefeated fashion. Cuba’s Cienfuegos team beat twice each of their rivals: Puerto Rico, Panamá and Venezuela.
Rosters of the teams that participated in that last Caribbean Series in 1960 in which Cuba won for the last time. If you are a real baseball fan for the ages, you will surely recognize some of the names. Until 1960 Cuba was “the place”for American players to play in the winter, not only because Cuba’s proximity to the US,(90 miles)but because it was the best caliber of baseball and the best pay in the Caribbean.

CIENFUEGOS (CUBA):
MANAGER:
Tony Castaño .
PITCHERS
Camilo Pascual (15-5), Pedro Ramos (12-5), Raúl Sánchez (12-4), Ted Wieand
(4-4), Tony Díaz (3-1), Héctor Maestri (1-0), Pedro Carrillo (1-1), Walter
Craddock (0-1), Dagoberto Concepción (0-0), Roberto Tano , quien también
jugó en los jardines (0-0). Orlando Peña (10-9).
CATCHERS
Dutch Dotterer (.212), José Azcue (.264), Rafael “Son” Noble (.222),
Arturo Suárez (.333).
INFIELDERS:
George Altman, 1B (.251,14,32), Ossie Álvarez , 2B (.260), Octavio “Cookie”
Rojas, 2B (.204), Don Eaddy , 3B (.256), Leonardo Cárdenas , SS
(.279,11,34), Hiraldo (Chico Ruiz) Sablón (.214).
OUTFIELDERS
Román Mejías (.281,5,28), Tony ” Haitiano ” González (.310,10,35), Rogelio
” Borrego ” Álvarez (.248,12,36), Dan Dobbeck (.236), Ultus Álvarez (.208),
Roberto Tano (.214).
Del grupo no fueron Arturo Suárez , Ted Wieand y Walter Craddock . Orlando
Peña asistió como refuerzo .
CAGUAS ( PUERTO RICO):
MANAGER:
Victor Pellot Power.
PITCHERS
Juan ‘Term ” Pizarro, Earl Wilson, George Brunei, José ” Pantalones ”
Santiago, Julio Navarro, Bob Guigie , Ray Ripplemayer .
CATCHERS
Hector Valle, Frank Rivera.
INFIELDERS
Victor Pellot Power (1B), José Pagan (2B), Elwood Huycke (3B), Félix
Torres (SS).
OUTFIELDERS
Orlando Cepeda ( también jugo primera ), José García , Félix Mantilla, Tommy
Davis, Herminio Cortez , Herman Davis. Igualmente figuraron Roberto Vásquez ,
Luis De León , George Figueroa, Genito Toman .
MARLBORO (PANAMA):
MANAGER:
Welmer Shantz .
PITCHERS
Bob Milo, William Kirk, Humberto Robinson, Robert Waltz, Stan Pitula ,
Leonardo Martinez Ferguson, Julio Borbón , José Lisondro , Vibert Clarke, Ken
Rowe.
CATCHERS
Welmer Shantz , Marcos Cobos , Abdiel Flyn .
INFIELDERS:
Jim Gentile (1B), Elias Osorio (1B), Pablo Bernard (2B), Héctor López
(3B), Lee Tate (SS), Alonso Brathwaite , Eugenio Houradou and rookie Ruthford
“Chico” Salmón .
OUTFIELDERS:
Stan Palys ( also played first base ), Henry Mitchell, Bob Perry, Eddie
Napoleón , Joe Caffie . Jim Gentile was injured with club, but did not play)
RAPIÑOS (VENEZUELA):
MANAGER:
Lester Moss.
PITCHERS:
Ed Hobough , Billy Muffet , Marcelino Sanchez, Rafael Melendez, Marcos
Barboza , Ted Bowfield , Ramon Castellanos , Julian Ladera .
CATCHERS
Lester Pedden , Lester Moss.
INFIELDERS:
Cedlio Prieto (1B), Bob Aspromonte (2B), Luis ” Camaleón ” García (3B), Luis
Aparicio (SS), Luis Añez .
OUTFIELDERS
Willie Davis, Stan Miley , Al Grunwald , Pastor Romero, Roberto Zambrano ,
Johnny Callison , Johnny Davis y Norman Cash. Los tres últimos no viajaron ,
también jugaron Teolindo Acosta, Alejandro Vargas y Gilberto Valbuena .
INDIVIDUAL LEADERS
BATTING
Tommy Davis, Puerto Rico (.409).
RUNS BATTED IN: Stan Palys , Panamá (12).
HOME RUNS
Héctor López , Panamá , Tommy Davis, Puerto Rico y Félix Torres, Puerto Rico
(3).
Rogelio ” Borrego ” Álvarez , Cuba, Dan Dubbeck , Cuba y Stan Palys , Panamá (2)

One Homerun each:
Les Padden , Venezuela, Bob Perry, Panamá , Elwood Huycke , Puerto Rico, Joe
Caffie , Panamá , Willie Davis, Venezuela, Eddie Napoleón , Panamá , Elias
Osorio , Panamá , Luis Aparicio , Venezuela, Al Grenwald , Venezuela, Frank Rivera,
Puerto Rico, Octavio “Cookie” Rojas, Cuba and José Pagan, Puerto Rico.
PITCHING
Camilo Pascual , Cuba, (2-0)
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
Camilo Pascual , Cuba.
NOTE: George Altman of Cuba and Eddie Napoleón of Panamá had beter batting average than Tommy Davis of Puerto Rico with .438, but they did not have enough at bats.

Can you highlight how many players and managers above were in the show after Cuba?

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the vice president of the Major League Baseball Hispanic Museum and does News and Commentary each week for Sportstalk Radio

Morris Phillips on the NCAA

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by Morris Phillips

BERKELEY–The Cal Bears are getting confidence with these non conference games wins like the one Saturday against the Fresno State Bull Dogs 67-56 in an 11 point victory and it’s an opportunity to gain confidence with a young basketball team which is great. The Bears have got new players that haven’t had expereince at the division one level and that’s why home games or pre conference games are so critical so that will help them.

The Bears didn’t see anybody of size this week and obviously when the conference games start they will be seeing bigger teams and taller players and the Bears will have to contend with those teams. At that point Cal will be the smaller team of the group. Especially they played Nevada and Fresno State on Saturday at Haas Pavilion and they saw a pair of undersize teams and that won’t be the case in the Pac 12.

The one thing that’s going on right now for the first time since 2006 the number one team in the country is from the Pac 12 Arizona who won against Michigan to secure that number one spot and the Pac 12 looks to be as balanced and competitive as it has been in years top to bottom and their already getting raves for being one of the strong leagues in the country.

Once again Cal is not in a conference schedule there is nothing compared to what they will see once the conference season starts. Just to run through the team, Arizona is number one, Oregon is ranked, Washington State looks to be much improved, Washington as like Cal a younger team trying to find it’s way.

Stanford is kind of interesting they just lost their point guard Aaron Bright for the season the Pac 12 is going to be a bear and every week it’s going to be tough ball games that are going to be very closely contested. Cal is going to be right there in the mix. They are younger and less experienced than some of the teams that they will face.

Morris Phillips covers Cal basketball and is filling in for Dr.Michelle Richardson this week for the NCAA commentary

Michael Duca on Cal basketball

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by Michael Duca

BERKELEY–What you want to do is construct a schedule that challenges your team and give it the opportunity to give it different kinds of looks. What a way for Cal (8-3) to rack up a win over the Fresno State Bull Dogs (6-5) an 11 point victory on Saturday night at Haas with a 67-56 victory. It’s silly the way you can beat non-conference teams like this but this is the way you get into the NCAA Tournament.

 

Getting there you need to play North Carolina, Duke, Michigan in the pre season and it really doesn’t matter who else you play you can play 11, 12, 13 non conference games and you want to make sure you win most of them and you want to be sure your team is challenged a little bit in the process. 8-0 at home is good, they lost three away from home not so good but that’s how Cal constructs their pre conference schedule so that their almost entirely at home.

 

The interesting thing is a lot people are wondering how Cal would be this year without Allen Crabbe, without a two time Pac 12 player, who was a good shooter, a good scorer who left early for the NBA and is intimately acquainted with the bench up in Portland now. The answer is their doing just fine the Bears are not relying on just one guy to score for them now their spreading that scoring all around.

 

The Bears had six players in double figures earlier this week against Nevada and three of those players came off the bench. You like to have an eight man rotation that has eight guys that can score in double figures and so Saturday night against the Bull Dogs the Bears spread the scoring around quite as thickly but you did have two guys with double figures in rebounds from Richard Solomon and David Kravish both.

 

One night Justin Cobbs comes and gets you 25 points and the next night he gets eight or nine assists so Cobb can find different ways to adjust his game to what needs to be done on the floor. The conference games will be starting soon enough and there are a lot of very good teams in the Pac 12 this year. Washington is always a tough team for Cal, Oregon is a nationally ranked team, UCLA is a nationally ranked team Arizona is a top ranked team.

 

You have just a variety of squads in the Pac 12 that could give anybody fits on any given night and Cal is always going to struggle when they go to places like Utah or Colorado because of the altitude. It’s going to be a very competitive conference, it will not surprise me Cal in the top second tier after Arizona and UCLA who will be right up there with Oregon.

 

The Cal Bears Tyrone Wallace you look at him on the floor and you think he’s a tweener and it’s the same position that former Bear Patrick Christopher used to play he has the scoring ability to rebound like a power forward with Kravish and Solomon and with that many rebounds to be gathered in right around the bucket and paint he is one of those guys like Kravish was a couple of years ago who has a nose for the ball. I don’t know if Wallace studies and scouts down the other team but he’s got a playbook in his mind where to go on the floor.

 

Michael Duca covers the Cal Bears for Sportstalk Radio each week

Why was Bill King snubbed by the Hall of Fame

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That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary

OAKLAND–Bill King was nominated again for the Ford C. Frick Broadcasters Award, but he was snubbed.

Why? I think it’s tougher for a west coast announcer, unless he is known nationwide.

We here in the west, and even here in California with 35 million people, larger than many countries in the world, and with five Major League teams(no US state has that many) are still playing ball when the people on the east coast are going zzzzzzz.

Many things have changed in our business of broadcasting, obviously there was a time when independent radio stations proud themselves of carrying Major League Baseball, radio used to rule in the world of baseball and had no rival, then television came about and for a while it was ‘the game of the week’.Today every team, everybody televises just about every game home and out of market.

Today without a radio or television, you can listen to a live game that is happening in Chicago, while sitting at the airport in New Delhi, India in an assortment of devices, in some cell phones that the only thing they do not have is a microwave.

But honestly, Bill could care less if he was or was not elected. You see, Bill King was not your typical sports guy, he was a renaissance man, his life was much more than calling a Rickey Henderson stolen base. He is in heaven laughing at all this silliness down here. He is saying: “Holly Toledo, look at all you people down there, don’t you have a better thing to do, than to write about this?”

I could care less what or which Hall of Fame, Bill King belongs in all of them. By the way, not only in baseball, if you ever heard Bill calling a Warriors game, on the radio, he made you see the game better than if you were watching on television .

I wrote about this when Bill was doing Warriors, for El Mundo News of Oakland, many moons ago, and I still have not changed my mind. The times I spoke with Bill, like the last time I saw him, when he called his penultimate game in 2004 at Safeco Field in Seattle, we sometimes spoke about something else besides baseball, and for that, and that alone, I will never forget him.   What Armando Galarraga and Bill King have in common?

Galarraga a pitcher with the Detroit Tigers in 2010 threw a perfect game, but Jim Joyce the umpire at first base blew the call on what was out number 27 in-a-row. Galarraga was robbed, we all saw it. Bill King is a Hall of Fame announcer, we know it also, but he has been robbed, again.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland A’s baseball and does News and Commentary for Sportstalk radio

Commissioner says no to A’s move but owners would approve in a vote

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That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary

OAKLAND–Major Leauge Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig during last regular season denied the A’s move to San Jose if you read between the lines. They were asking about the San Jose financial status and if San Jose can support a big league club. It makes no sense to me because in a recent survey San Jose was declared the wealthiest city with over one million people.

Silicon Valley is in the South Bay the only reason that this is happening is because of Giants team president Larry Baer is declaring the team’s territorial rights in San Jose and this might be put to a vote and it’s almost positive that the owners would apporve the move by over a quarter of the majority but it’s the Giants who hold the cards here therefore the A’s are stuck in Oakland and they just recently extended their contract at the Coliseum for two more years.
Eventually something will happen, something will give, it might be that A’s owners Lew Wolf and Don Fisher might get tired of this situation and put the A’s up for sale. For right now the A’s have been denied moving from Oakland to San Jose although that’s not written in blood as we speak it’s not a real definite.
Kings and Warriors arena builds: If the Sacramento Kings can’t build their own arena in downtown Sacramento it would be a shame because Sacramento Mayor Ken Johnson jumped through hoops to keep the team in Sacramento and stopping the team from leaving for Seattle.
When you put a vote like this to the voters who knows you could flip a coin most people in this country are not in the mood to spend tax money on new arenas. Most people 99 percent beleive that most owners have the money to build a new arena. These are the guys who sign players for over $200 million and the average fan or citizen would say they would have the money to build it themselves.
So if the public votes on the new Kings arena and I’m not a betting guy but most people in Sacramento would vote no on spending public money on a new arena. The owners have to be ready to pay and build their own arena. Regarding the Warriors we don’t know the history of San Francisco. All you have to do is look at the Giants and see how many times they tried to build a new stadium with some public money.
The voters turned them down several times until they got approved for Pacific Bell Park, the Warriors want to move to the City at piers 30-32 but right now former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos is working very hard to prevent the Warriors from moving to the piers. In an election to decide to move the Warriors at the piers won’t be easy it won’t be a matter of “were going to put the Warriors at the piers and that’s all”.
Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Gruber they have great attorneys but they don’t understand the political environmental layout of San Francisco. Even if both Lacob and Gruber could pay for the entire project the voters would vote no because they like the views at the piers just fine.
Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland A’s baseball and does News and Commentary each week for Sportstalk Radio

A’s proposed move to San Jose

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That’s Amaury News and Commentary

 

OAKLAND–Commissioner Bud Selig’s letter denies the A’s move from Oakland to San José, but…But Selig’s June 17 letter addressed only the details of the stadium relocation proposal – not the principle of relocation, the sources say. MLB questioned the feasibility of that project and felt that insufficient financial information and attendance projections had been provided about a downtown San Jose site. Again: “not the principle of relocation”.

 

To question San Jose’s financial and attendance projections is interesting, because at least on the financial side of the equation the South Bay city is listed as the wealthiest metro area in the United States of America in recent surveys. As far as the attendance is concerned? I do not buy it. San José’s weather is much baseball-like (warmer) than most other Bay Area cities; located inland, not close to the ocean or very close to the bay, it provides perfect baseball weather from April to October. During these days of a very bad economy, there is one industry thriving; the high technology industry, Silicon Valley. Are the Giants afraid of Silicon Valley?

 

Income for most of the 366 metropolitan areas measured by the U.S. Census Bureau are flat in the last year, and many are still down significantly compared to 2008. According to the Census Bureau, Brownsville, Texas replaced McAllen, Texas as the country’s poorest metro area. San Jose, Calif. took the top spot as the wealthiest metro area, replacing Washington, D.C. 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the metropolitan areas with the highest and lowest median incomes in the U.S.

Again: “San José, California, took the top spot as the wealthiest metro area, replacing Washington, D.C”.

 

Obviously (and I have said this for years now) the San Francisco Giants opposition is the biggest hurdle. I do not believe that most Major League teams owners would oppose the move of the Athletics from Oakland to San José. Oakland doesn’t have the resources while San José has an abundance of resources. The Athletics need three-quarters approval of the owners for the proposed move to the south bay.

 

Although they do not say it publicly, what counts are actions not words, and the Giants ownership like to see themselves as “The Bay Area’s Baseball Team”. They have not won the big trophy until 2010, when they won the World Series for the first time in San Francisco in 52 years.

 

Are the Giants afraid that the Athletics with a new park in San José would lose at the gate? Are the Giants afraid that some of their great fans in the south bay, just might not travel to San Francisco to see the Giants, if the A’s have a beautiful brand new facility in San José? Are the Giants living these days with that much insecurity?

 

We are within days of 2014. This is not the Bay Area of 1969, this is a completely different Bay Area, in population, demographics and lifestyle. In 1969 San José was a huge tomato field and a truck stop with a sign:  340 miles to Los Angeles. The only thing that remain from those years is the sign.

 

Maybe the Giants are right to worry…

 

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for the Oakland A’s and does News and Commentary each week for Sports talk radio 

                                                               
 

 

Raiders report: Raiders need consistent intensity to beat Chiefs on Sunday

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by David Zizmor

 

ALAMEDA–The Oakland Raiders next opponent the Kansas City Chiefs managed a win last Sunday to snap their three game losing streak and it was a pretty easy game agianst Washington, Kansas City won 45-10 on the road in Washington in freezing conditions. So the Chiefs probably feel like their back in the swings of things. In the Meadowlands meanwhile the Raiders had a rough game against the New York Jets last Sunday.

The Jets are not a very good team their offense has been struggling mightily for about four or five weeks and quarterback for the Jets Gino Smith has not thrown a touchdown pass since week seven and were sitting here at week 14. That tells you how bad that the Jets are doing and sure enough Smith goes out and has a pretty good day. It was kind of a rough game for the Raiders.

When the Raiders go on these east coast trips that time difference is tough and the Raiders did seem to get a little more involved in the game as the second half progressed and their body clocks caught up to the eastern time if you want to be competitive team you can’t go in against a team like the Jets and let them gain 352 yards. You can’t let them throw for over 200 yards and run for over 125.

If the Raiders want to be a competitive team you can’t let a team like the Jets do that to you, going into this week’s game against Kansas City there’s not much of a chance for the Raiders to win. The Raiders played the Chiefs pretty tough but the one thing I’ve noticed the last few weeks is the Raiders defense has been so surprising early on in the season it kind of faded as the season progressed.

Part of that is that teams have tape of them now and they know what their tendencies are and know what their weaknesses and strengths are so their able to take advantage of them. It might just be that these guys who were signed by the Raiders just because they were kind of cast off from a lot of other teams. Aside from Charles Woodson your talking about a lot of guys who had no experience as a starter.

Some of these players have had no experience in this league and it’s just an overall talent level that doesn’t match up with most other teams and while the Raiders might be surprised with their intensity early on that hasn’t been able to hold up. If your winning because of your intensity that’s great your able to do it early on but the problem with winning with intensity most teams can’t keep up that level of intensity over the course of 16 games it’s just not possible.

You have to have the talent to go along with it and once the intensity fades and the talent doesn’t kick in then your in trouble and that’s kind of where the Raiders are starting to head.

David Zizmor is covering the NFL for Sportstalk Radio

49ers report: Bucs rookie Glennon could be overmatched Sunday against Niners

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by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–The 49ers get rewarded for their win against Seattle with a cross country flight to warm Tampa Bay they don’t have to fly to Baltimore, New Jersey or Philadelphia where the tempatures are always around 20 or less where they were playing football in the middle of snow storms this past weekend the 49ers get to go to a relatively warm weather site that’s the one benefit they get.
They’re banged up after this win against Seattle last Sunday and playing Seattle is never an easy game and these two teams get so pumped up for it and hit so hard that you only imagine how bruised and banged up they are after this game even if they don’t suffer any major injuries their just going to be beaten up.
It’s not going to be easy for the 49ers to make this long trip given the shape their going to be in and Tampa Bay is not the best team in the world but they have been getting better the last several weeks. They start off the season with a six or seven game losing streak but since that time they actually have been playing reasonably well.
The Bucs have won four out of their last five games this isn’t a team that the 49ers can expect to roll over and they can’t take these guys lightly the Bucs are a decent football team their certainly not going to let the 49ers just walk in and take a win away. The Niners need to get all these wins their still in a fight for that wild card spot so every game counts at this stake.
The Niners have to put that Seattle game behind them and focus on Tampa and it’ll be intresting to see how this plays because Tampa their defense is okay their offense is okay but their another tough team and the Niners know one of their guys on their defense and it’s Dashon Goldson is a former Niners safety and now the Bucs safety.
We’ll see if Goldson is going after anybody with some big hits, the biggest question mark for the Bucs is their quarterback rookie Mike Glennon he’s been okay probably better than everyone expected. He’s not the quarterback people thought would be having a decent amount of success coming out of last year’s draft but he’s probably playing reasonably well all things considered.
When you put some of these young rookies against really experienced tough defenses the results can be kind of bad often times for the rookie. It’s one thing to go up against a lousy defense but when your going up against really tough rock and sock em teams like the 49ers it becomes a whole different ball game and that could be the case for the Bucaneers Sunday.
David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportstalk Radio