Category: Oakland Raiders

By Jeremy Kahn

OAKLAND-After numerous tests for a concussion that he suffered in Monday’s 37-21 loss to the Denver Broncos, it was decided that Terrelle Pryor was unable to go and Matt Flynn was getting the start.

Everything was looking good for the Oakland Raiders, especially after jumping out to a 14-0 lead over the winless Washington Redskins.

Unfortunately, jumping forgot to tell the Redskins that were just supposed to roll over for the Raiders and fall to 0-4; however head coach Mike Shanahan, his staff and especially players left the Coliseum with a 24-14 over the Raiders.

David Amerson returned an interception for a touchdown, and the Redskins defense sacked Flynn seven times on the afternoon.

“We needed that so bad,” defensive end Ryan Kerrigan said. ”It really feels good. Seven was kind of the magic number today – we give up only seven points, we have seven sacks, scored seven points on defense. Great feeling right now.”

The Raiders first touchdown of the game came after a blocked Sav Rocca punt was recovered in the end zone by Jeremy Stewart, and then the Raiders extended the lead up to 14-0, when Flynn threw an 18-yard touchdown pass to rookie Mychel Rivera.

Besides not having Pryor, the Raiders lost the services of running backs Darren McFadden and Marcel Reece before the end of the first half.

Robert Griffin III gave the Redskins the lead for good on a touchdown pass to Pierre Garcon, and then Roy Helu, Jr., clinched the victory with a touchdown run midway thru the fourth quarter.

”That one hurt, that one stung,” coach Dennis Allen said. ”I felt the way we were able to start out the game . get to 14-0 . then we let them back in the game. Give them credit, they continued to fight. But we didn’t do enough to win the football game.

by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–In what look doubtful for Raiders starting quarterback Terrelle Pryor to return back in uniform and see any action Pryor was cleared by the NFL and passed league mandated tests and is expected to start on Sunday against Washington at the Coliseum. Pryor answered questions to the media after practice and said he felt great and was ready to go.

Pryor has to jump through one more hoop and pass non-mandated tests by the Raiders to see if he would start on Sunday although it was reported likely that he will be start against Washington. Raider head coach Dennis Allen said, “it’s something that has to be done, it’s something that we want to do to make sure. I want to make sure were making the right decision for this kid” said Allen.

While Pryor appreciated being checked over by the Raiders team physicians he said that he felt 100 percent. Pryor’s injury occurred last Monday night in Denver in a helmet to helmet tackle by the Broncos Wesley Woodward, the hit gave Pryor a concussion in the fourth quarter of the game and Pryor was replaced by back up quarterback Matt Flynn.

Allen said he could not make an announcement on Pryor until he gets more information by team doctors he didn’t have an answer on Saturday and the team should have an announcement before game time on Sunday morning.

David Zizmor is covering the NFL for Sportstalk Radio

by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–The Raiders this week have said that starting quarterback Terrelle Pryor was out with a concussion and he will not start in this game against Washington and back up Matt Flynn will take the reigns and he’s going to be the starter versus Washington this Sunday at the Coliseum. Flynn hasn’t actually started in awhile and he only played a few snaps last year for the Seahawks.

Even when Flynn was with the Green Bay Packers he only started only a handful of games barely in injury situations and Flynn isn’t that much more experienced than Pryor at this point and beyond that Flynn has not been all that impressive even in the pre season and there is a reason why Pryor came out for the starting job because Pryor was playing a lot better.

Frankly you watch his play this season you wouldn’t know that Pryor wasn’t going to be a great quarterback but he could be a solid above average quarterback in this league and Pryor has shown flashes of goodness. Flynn has to prove us wrong he has to prove that he’s a better than average quarterback and that he’s better than just a back up. That will be his job this week to show that he could do a go job and convince people that he’s a player worth having on your team.

To be honest he doesn’t look like he’s going to be anything special, the one thing that he has going for him is that he happens to be playing against one of the worse defenses in the league in Washington. They have been absolutely awful this season. They’re giving up a ton of points and a ton of yards. So in that respect Flynn had a slightly easier job that he would have had otherwise because this Washington defense is terrible.

This gives him an advantage here compare to the other teams that he had to play, how long Pryor is going to be out is anybody’s guess and this is a concussion and there’s not a particularly good way to tell how long a concussion will last or the effects of a concussion. This is something that’s going to be continually evaluated and Pryor will be ready when he’s ready and not before than.

The NFL is taking a very strict stance on concussion evaluations they’re very conservative about it with all these lawsuits that have been going on about concussions. So you could bet that their not going to rush him back before he’s ready. We’ll see if Pryor is back before the San Diego game. Hopefully Flynn plays well enough against Washington this Sunday that he’ll feel a little more confident going into that San Diego game if he happens to be the quarterback for that game as well.

With concussions it’s pretty much a wait and see approach you have to evaluate them every week according to certain protocol that the league has set up. We won’t know how long Pryor will be out and it’s hard to project the impact of these injuries. It can be short or they can be long and they want to make sure the players don’t come back before they’re ready. We’ll have to wait and see on that one, hopefully Flynn does well this weekend.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportstalk Radio

By David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–The Raiders who have a short week on hand after playing on Monday night in a 37-21 loss to the Denver Broncos at Mile High have now found out on Tuesday that their starting quarterback Terrelle Pryor maybe out for this Sunday’s game in Oakland against Washington with a concussion. Pryor took a helmet from the Broncos Wesley Woodward in the fourth quarter and seeing stars right after. The hit was bad enough where Pryor was replaced by back up Matt Flynn.

The Raiders have said that Pryor will not be allowed to practice until he goes through the league mandated protocol and have been seen by team doctors and medical staff to approve whether he will be allowed to start on Sunday or not. It was also reported that Pryor was not able to recall a lot of the game and that his memory was blurred. It’s not official yet that Flynn will get the call. “We’ll look and see how he’s doing tomorrow, we’ll see if he’s able to go or not. Then we’ll see as the week goes on and make a determination and what we can do” said Raider head coach Dennis Allen.

Pryor is more mobile and Flynn is more stationary, Allen tweaked the offense to make it work for Pryor’s mobility but with Flynn being more stationary Allen will have to tweak the offense again, “it’s a bit of a challenge but that’s where were at and that’s what we’ve got to get ready to do so. So we’ve got to have a game plan, if Terrelle’s able to go in and execute and give us a chance to win. If not, we’ve got to have something in there that gives Matt Flynn a chance to have success” said Allen.

Looking ahead at Washington and San Diego games: The Oakland Raiders face Washington and San Diego in their next two games and these are two teams that the Raiders might have a chance at winning but for the Raiders there isn’t such a thing as an easy win on their schedule. Jacksonville two weeks ago might be the closest that their going to get and they did manage to pull that game off. With Washington and San Diego it’s anybody’s guess.

Washington and San Diego comes out to Oakland so the Raiders at least get two home games back to back and that gives them a little bit of an edge regardless of what’s going on and where their playing this is still going to be a team that’s going to struggle and it’s not going to be an easy victory here and coming off this game against the Broncos last Monday it’s anybody’s guess on how the Raiders are going to take it.

After the first two games they might have had a little bit of confidence and they played very well in their loss against Indianapolis and then they beat up on Jacksonville and they were out there thinking they got something going on and then Denver whose one of the best teams in the league comes out and knocks the Raiders back. It’ll be interesting to see how the Raiders respond to that if they feel like their confidence is shaken.

The Raiders could come back fighting even harder with all their problems as we’ve been saying this isn’t the most talented team in the NFL so they have to play with a lot of heart and a lot of fight and you got to hope they don’t get knocked out by a team like Denver. For the Washington game Washington is not having a great season either their winless and nobody would have thought Washington would be 0-3 at this stage.

Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III is still struggling from his knee injury last year and while he’s been cleared to play he certainly hasn’t looked like his old self he’s not running around as much and his leg just doesn’t plant properly and it doesn’t look right when he throws. There is definitely something wrong there and he’s not fully recovered and maybe the Raiders can take advantage of that.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportstalk Radio