A Win Is A Win?

How confident is everybody feeling this morning? I really hope you can chaulk that game up to first game, National stage, on the road jitters. And I really hope those line injuries aren't nearly as bad as they looked, because the next three teams we face are even more physical than the Raiders and they are unlikely to make the same mistakes on offense the Raiders made to keep us alive last night. On that note, if any of you were happy with that overturned Raider TD, I hope you never once made a disparaging remark about Ed Hochuli. That was a TD, plain and simple. The Patriots won their Monday Night opener on a nearly identical kind of catch by Ben Watson and it took review officials about 10 seconds to uphold the call. We shouldn't have needed that call to win that game.

The pass rush is still missing. In case you didn't see that. Just pointing it out. I will give slight praise to the D for clamping down on the run for the most part in the second half, which I believe is the only thing that ultimately saved us.

I was a little surprised that our superstar receiving core was so thoroughly handled by man coverage last night, too. Norv loves to force the offense through the receivers as much as possible, but it wasn't until Rivers rediscovered Gates late in the game that we were able to efficiently move the chains. I imagine Gates was open in that coverage a lot more often than that. But Jackson will be a top five receiver this year. Norv Turner said so.

On the radio this morning it was reported that LT sprained his ankle last night and that is why he was on the sideline last night for much of the second half. But I'm sure he'll bounce right back and put up another record season like you all promised me he would. I can't wait. In the meantime, Sproles continues to be a little spark plug but he can not carry the ball a full load if we are going to make any noise this year. He just can't.

Ugly, ugly win against a team that I guarantee you is not nearly as good as they looked last night. But a win is a win, I guess, and there's no reason to slit our wrists so early in the season. Go Bolts...