The defense played a pretty good game Friday night. The Raiders are going to have a pretty good offense this season with the running back combo of Justin Fargas and Darren McFadden. JaMarcus Russell looked pretty good as well. That TD pass to Zach Miller was a perfect throw against good coverage. My only real complaint about the defense was they didn't get much pressure on Russell, and when they did, they allowed him to move around and make some plays. The only player that could bring him down, oddly enough, was Reynaldo Hill. Some thoughts on individual defensive players:
Eric King- King had an up and down night. He looked silly early when he got juked out of his pants, but came back to make a break up a pass intended for Ronald Curry on 3rd down. Later Curry put a move on him that left him standing still. After seeing King start one game, I would say he is better than Reynaldo Hill, but he is not anywhere close to starting over a healthy Nick Harper.
Stephen Tulloch- I really like watching Tulloch play. He did get blown up by Fargas outside linebacker positions so he is the next guy on the field if any of the linebackers get injured.
Albert Haynesworth- Fat Albert blew a couple of plays up. He looks to be in good shape and ready for another Pro Bowl season.
Cortland Finnegan- That was money well spent. He is always around the ball, and he is always knocking people off of their feet. He made a really nice play against the screen pass to keep it from becoming a big gainer.
William Hayes- The kid looks athletic. He was in the backfiel a couple of times and made a nice play to stop McFadden on a stretch play.
The passing game was terrible Friday night. There is really nothing else to say about it. Vince Young and Kerry Collins both seemed completely lost out there, and the receiver didn't do anything to help them out. The Titans actually ran the ball really well. Some individual thoughts:
Vince Young- VY looked great on the first series. He made a great throw to Bo Scaife, who had a good game, on the second series, but it was all down hill from there. The biggest things I noticed was that VY was back in the habit of not setting his feet and stepping into his throws which is what keeps him from being accurate.
LenDale White- White looked shifty and ran the ball hard all night.
Chris Johnson- I was so sad when he missed the ball on his first kickoff return chance. CJ is an impressive runner. He was very close to breaking another TD run. The one thing he did wrong Friday night was not concentrate on balls thrown to him. It looked like he was looking to run before he caught the ball.
Justin Gage- He only made one catch, but it was a good one on a ball that was not well thrown.
Paul Williams- He has to be on life support at this point after another bad penalty and another couple of dropped passes.
Lavelle Hawkins- This was the coming out party for The Hawk. He got lit up on the first pass he caught and help on. The 51 yard TD catch was awesome. He made a nice move after catching the ball to spring himself free.
Ingle Martin- Martin did a really good job leading the team down the field to set up the winning TD pass. The Titans will probably only carry two quarterbacks on the roster, but Martin is looking he might deserve a spot.