From an average fan's perspective, the Oakland Raiders victory over the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday night was hardly anything good. Your average fan would say, "They looked good on defense but didn't do anything on offense until late in the game."
However, those with a little more insight to Raider football saw a little more than that.
How much can you see in a preseason game where the starters barely played?
That depends on what it is you are looking for.
I saw the blue print to a return to Raider football.
What?
They didn't look like world beaters out there on Thursday night.
Being a world beater isn't what Raider football is. If that were the case, the Raiders only played Raider football three times in 50 years.
Raider football is a means to an end, not the end.
You need the means in order to get to that end anyway.
First, you need an identity.
What type of team are we going to be?
Then you need the blue print of how it's going to be put together.
There are as many ways to build a Super Bowl winner and the Raiders have done it the same way in each of their three Super Bowl wins.
They had a smash-mouth defense that included defensive lineman that harassed quarterbacks. They had linebackers that hit anything that moved. Then there was the physical secondary, that included bump and run coverage.
On offense, it remains smash-mouth football with the power-running game. The running game is set off with a vertical passing attack that includes shots down the field on go routes.
Tight ends and running backs were always featured in the passing game as well.
Al Davis once said, "It's about pressure football, not percentage football. We wanna be feared out there."
I saw the identity of Raider football on display T...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Oakland Raiders
