My Two Cents: Oakland Raiders Getting Healthy
What up RaiderNation? Welcome to this week’s edition of My Two Cents, with your favorite over-the-hill Raider fan, Old Timer. I want to give a shout out to my friend Andy Webster, who has been working in partnership with the Oakland Raiders, and is promoting a new app that has been developed for your PC, or Windows based tablet. The app is called Raiders Desksite, and I have been using it for almost 3 months now and love it. A version for the MAC and iPad is in development, but likely won’t be ready until after the season is over. Raiders Desksite is sort of like a DVR on your PC, in that it downloads official Raider videos to your hard drive automatically when you have an internet connection and “caches” them there so that they can be played later whether there is an internet connection or not. The app is very customizable so you can control what types of videos will be downloaded, and how much space they use on your hard drive. Categories (or Channels) include Announcements, Viva Los Raiders, Game Highlights, Raiderettes, Raiders Report, Silver Black (Silver and Black Show), Coaches Corner, Coach Allen, Press Conferences, and Behind the Shield. You can also choose whether you want to be alerted that new videos have been downloaded, and if so, whether you want an audio alert, or just system tray notification. So now you can take your PC wherever you go, and watch Raider videos without an internet connection. As an IT guy, I really appreciate the high quality video playback, that is not restricted by internet connection. If you haven’t already tried this app, I would highly recommend it. You can download it here: http://www.raiders.com/fans/desksite.html
Well, on to the business at hand. I don’t know about the rest of you my Raider brothers and sisters, but after that narrow loss last week (that should have been a win considering how well we played), I was ready for some good news, and have gotten just that this week. Aaron Curry, who has been out since before training camp, is practicing again and is apparently no worse for the wear despite all of his time away. Coach Allen is very impressed with where he is at already, and though he won’t be activated for tomorrow’s game, he could very well be back in time for our game against our long-time division rival, the Chiefs in week 8. Although Miles Burris has performed admirably for a rookie LB, having Curry back will free him up to do what he does best, get after the QB. This will also enable the Raiders to utilize more 3-4 packages on defense, with Curry now practicing at all LB positions. I for one, am excited to see what Curry is going to be able to do in this new defense.
More good news came this week with Shawntae Spencer now out of his walking boot, although still not ready to start practicing again yet, and Ron Bartell will be eligible to begin practicing as of today, so his return should not be too far on the horizon either. Finally, there is also the news that Khalif Barnes is probably on about the same timeline to be able to play as Shawntae Spencer. What does all of this mean? It means our Raiders are finally getting healthy again and should be almost at full strength in the next few weeks for the first time since the first game of the season.
We have 3 very winnable games coming up starting tomorrow at home against Jacksonville. The following week we are at K.C., and then home again against Tampa Bay in week 9. It is quite possible that we have all of the above mentioned players back in time for Baltimore in week 10, and if we can win the next 3, we will be right in the middle of the AFC West hunt, a big turn around from what things looked like after last week’s heartbreaking loss!
As I have said before my Raider brothers and sisters, all is not lost. There is a long season still ahead of us. We are continuing to improve, and now we are starting to get healthy once again. Above all, always remember. Win, lose or tie, Raiders ’till I die!!!! There is no greater team in the history of sports than our Oakland Raiders, and there is but one nation, and that is RAIDERNATION!!!! Go RAIDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, that’s it for this week my Raider brothers and sisters. Make sure to check back next week for another
edition of My Two Cents. Peace out RaiderNation!!
Old Timer
Questions? Comments? Email me at OldTimer@silverandblackdaily.com
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