BOLT ANALYSIS: WEEK 13 - THE BEGINNING OF THE END

I begin this week with a quote, taken from the final comment in last week’s blog of course: “So, we now enter the part of the schedule we have been looking forward to. Three at home. A chance to keep a run going. A chance to take control. It is all in your heads boyz. Stay hungry.”


Those who witnessed yesterday’s debacle see very clearly what happened. All of the optimism that our 4 game winning streak had brought…Gone. The mythical 18-0 December streak? Gone. The domination over the AFC West, and particularly the Raiders, Gone. Our Boyz did the exact thing they could not do….they did not stay hungry and they were not prepared. There was only one team on the field that came to play…and it was not us. The Powder Blue Unis did not help….the first of three home games did not help….it was plain and simple. The Raiders came into our house, in what was essentially a playoff game, and beat the crap out of us.

Now, followers, we spoke last week of psychology. Of how difficult it is to get a team playing on the same page. Yesterday was yet another perfect example of the painful lack of focus that our team has. We had a chance to take control. A win against conference-foe Oakland would have turned all the tiebreakers in our favor. With that, a win next week against the Chiefs would have put is completely in control of the AFC West. Now, although there is still hope, we need help. And it may be very difficult to get it. With the horrible start we had, there was no margin for error. And we blinked and gave it up.

The game began with exactly what we have avoided during our win streak. Two turnovers. A miserable fumble by Sproles after a nice three and out by our D. Touchdown #1. A miserable pass by Philip…for my money the worst pass he has thrown this year…and Touchdown #2. Spotting any team a 14-0 lead is tough. We have done it enough to know. And let me pause for a moment and just stay that Darren Sproles may be the biggest bust of the year in the NFL if you factor in the dollar amounts. He has been beyond bad. Philip was off…his worst game of the year. The offensive line was horrendous. Every man got beat by his opponent. This is a line that has been excellent the past few games. Dielman, Clary, Hardwick, Green, they all got dismantled yesterday. Especially Dielman. For our “best lineman”, he was on roller skates all game long. Pushed back. Philip sacked 4 times, hurried more than 10, knocked down 8 or 9. Brutal. Most of this was because we had zero running game. Tolbert could not get out of the backfield…our receivers could not get open….and we had no time. Don’t let the 4th quarter “comeback” fool you. We had a ton of chances in this game with decent field position. Could not score or move the ball. Raider penalties were all that saved us on several drives.

The defense. Well, just flat outplayed. They had 251 YARDS RUSHING. That is a beatdown folks. A Beatdown. We were blocked out on every play. Oliver, Weddle, and our secondary was knocked back 5 yards every time they tried to make a tackle. That is when they even made contact. These guys are not physical enough. Period. We were beat up. Our D line got pushed around. Perhaps most embarrassing…we got tricked badly on two fakes. One for a TD…and one for a 40 yard pass that ended the game. We were so completely lost on those two plays I felt embarrassed for the guys. Looked like a high school team out there.

But…maybe the most discouraging thing at all. There was no fire. No urgency. And we were seriously, seriously out-coached. The trickery is one thing. But we had two 12 men on the field penalties in a row…and still could not stop them. Their defense stoned us all day long. We could not adjust. We were 13 point favorites and we never figured it out. Now, there is absolute truth to our injury problems. Gates is maybe 50%, Floyd is not right, Legedu looked awful and left with another injury, VJ still nursing his “calf injury”, Sproles got a concussion, Mathews never left the bench. Tolbert has a bad hand. And on and on. These are legit. But what is not legit is that we just blew an opportunity to move forward and take control. We were not ready. We were not prepared for the snap. The Raiders punched us in the face and we just covered up…not prepared to fight back. Norv and Ron Rivera had no game plan…no adjustments…and no answers.

So, where are we now? Well, we still have a chance. Beat KC next week and then hope both KC and Oakland lose one more while we sweep our last three. Is it doable? Of course. Is it likely…well, probably not at this point. But, we will not count the Boyz out until the Math says we need to. Regardless of what it says however, do we deserve to be in the playoffs? No we do not. We have squandered too many games to deserve anything. But, that is not the litmus test for getting in. It is Math. And Math springs eternal.

EDITORS NOTE: GO DUCKS! National Championship Game! Quite an amazing story. For a team that never scares the top 25 in recruiting, a major testament to playing with motivation, playing as a team, and having a game plan. Hmmm…..sounds good to me. Ducks have 4+ weeks to prepare to stop SEC Superfreak and cheater Cam Newton. Should be a fun game.