Steve McNair is unstoppable!!! (A Raider's Fan lament)
 

I'm a Raider fan, so it's hard for me to admit this, but Steve McNair is unstoppable.

I watched the season opener between Oakland and the boys in powder blue and.....I'm at a loss for words.

Aside from the flag happy officials (I believe there were 28 flags thrown for just under 300 penalty yards) and the marginal calling of the game (if you had seen some of the penalties you'd understand) it was a fantastic game.

Hard hits. Dominating defense. Just a fantastic game.

McNair was certainly on his game and then some tonight. I watched him complete passes that should not have been thrown; I watched him scramble, duck, juke, and then throw textbook passes to receivers; I seen McNair single handedly (one word??) beat the Raiders tonight.

It wasn't his offensive line (he was rushed most of the night) it wasn't his receivers (he was really threading a needle on some passes) and it certainly wasn't his running backs (George and Holcombe rushed for 57 yards?!?!) it was all McNair.

I knew he was good, but tonight he was unstoppable.

I don't know why I'm writing this; I just felt like it.

Any comments on the man called Steve?
Any Titans fans (*shakes fist) want to comment on the opener?
Any Raider fans want to commiserate on the loss?

There were some bad calls, but the Raiders were pretty flinch happy.

And McNair didn't single handedly beat the Raiders, his receivers made some decent plays too.

The biggest question IMO is why was George out for a large portion of the game.

Kinda sad when the refs win the games..

*ducks*

Also a Raiders fan but didn't see it that way at all. He was definitely good but not great. Raiders blew quite a few opportunities and didn't stick with the things that worked. Most of the errors are ones that will go away as they play more games (I hope). Officiating was horrendous. No way in hell that receiver would have landed in the end zone.

George had 42 yards on 20 carries. That isn't enough reason for him to be sitting out? He lost yards on 6 first downs, had 12 attempts for postive yards, the other 2 were back to the line.

And calls went both ways, obviously being a Raiders fan your going to point to the one call that could of cost you the game. But come on, 14 calls in the first quarter? That's enough to lose you any game.

that touchdown call was just BAD.

i'm sure the officials will get punished for that.

Looked like he was going to land in the end zone to me. Good call

<b>BulletBob</b>, c'mon. Tenne-seein' is Tenne-believin', and I do believe he was out of bounds. The axis of his body was over the end line, so barring some amazing toework (from Mason?? HAhahahaha), he wasn't going to get both feet in bounds.

Also, if that ref who blew the coin toss for the Steelers is still in the league (I remember seeing him last season, at least), then there's no way anyone is going to be "punished" for calling a game like last night.

Watching the game last night, the Raiders were undeniably bad, and the Titans were just plain bad. Maybe it's the Era of Parity at work, but both teams looked shaky, and couldn't execute when they needed to.

I'm just super-happy my Titans got revenge for last season. I almost needed a new pair of underwear by the end of the game.

About the TD thing though...dude, he would have been really lucky to get one foot in, and I declare it impossible to have gotten both in. I'm glad we got the call...but it was a crappy call.

The Raiders were their usual sloppy, undisciplined selves. From John Matuszak through Lyle Alzado all the way up to the current players, they seem more concerned with doing things their own way rather than playing within themselves.

They are constantly near the top of the most penalized teams in the NFL and they look like they'll be leading the way again in that presitigious category.

Granted, it's week one and perhaps they'll be more disciplined later this season....but I certainly won't count on that.

Sure they were flinch happy and they certainly didn't bring their A-game to Tennessee.

I'll concede the point that the Titan receivers made some outstanding catches, but I recall on more than one occasion where McNair was fixing to eat dirt and managed to drill a 5-10 yard pass to a receiver or tight end. He threw 25-38 passes for 269 yards.

Oakland was putting pressure on McNair nearly every play of every down and he still had a great game.

Maybe it's parity rearing it's head, maybe it was a hotly contested suckfest, maybe it was sweet revenge for last season, but it was a very good game and I hope they meet up again in the playoffs.