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Waiting game will end for Russell
By Jeremy Harness November 9, 2007 |
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The waiting game might be over for the Oakland Raiders third string quarterback JaMarcus Russell. The number one NFL draft pick in his rookie season that brought much anticipation is expected to make his debut soon enough this season and it could be after this Sunday's game with the Bears at the Coliseum, if the Raiders starting quarterback Josh McCown and the Raiders go down again which would be their fifth straight loss. Head coach Lane Kiffin has said stood by his standard line when asked about Russell and that whenever Russell is ready and game prepared with the system down he should see action and that would be able to put the Raiders in the best position to win. Right now for the Raiders the way things are going the sooner the better and neither Daunte Culpepper or Josh McCown give you much of a chance to pull out a victory and granted JaMarcus Russell did miss most of training camp, but still Russell has a lot of catching up to do at this point. Russell has had some time to digest the offense but right now, this would be the best time to throw Russell in there because Russell does give you the best chance to win. On the Raiders defense: Nnamdi Asomugha is out and injured and did not practice on Wednesday, and is not expected to be tapped to play on Sunday. Asomugha is expected to be out with the knee injury and the Raiders need to have someone who can line up against the Mushin Muhammad, the Bears wide receiver. As of right now Stanford Route and David Washington neither one of those guys can match up with Muhammad as far as the size is concerned and Asomugha would have been perfect for that assignment but it's going to be very tough. The Raiders defense already has a hard time trying to stop the run anyway so now you have to now compete with Muhammad and he's going to have a mismatch whether Routes on him or if Washington is on him so it's going to be very tough. Trying to kick the ball away from Hester: For the Bears Devin Hester it's just a matter of time when Hester breaks one and he's already has 12 touchdowns in the year and a half that he's been in the NFL for kick returns and punt returns and the missed field goal return. So if Hester when it appears that Hester can't break one and an opponent has him cornered that opponent has a another thing coming. Their going to keep him from trying to return the ball if Janikowski completely kicks it out of the end zone which he's done a lot which is the reason why Janikowski will not kick it out of the sidelines when he has the ability to kick it over the end zone and he's done that quite frequently. Shane Lechler the Raider punter and Lechler is the perennial Pro Bowler and he is making a strong case why he should be the Pro Bowler punter this year. Because you can see his kicks and Lechler is booming 60-65 yards punt and he's got so much hang time at least for four or five seconds of hang time for punts so that gives the coverage guys plenty of time to get down there and surround them. Both Lechler and Janikowski are going to have to be on their game or Hester can burn the Raiders and the coverage unit hasn't been that great for Oakland and it hasn't been for quite sometime now do those two guys are going to have to be on their A game. Jeremy Harness covers Raiders football and co-hosts Sportstalk on 1690 KFSG Sacramento. |
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