Oakland Raiders vs. San Francisco 49ers Recap: What Was Learned in Preseason

So Oakland Raiders fans were right. They are much better this year and much better than a lot of people expect.  

They have a solid team that is coming together in a lot of good ways...and have a lot of spirit.  

Tom Cable seems like a competent coach who surprised me and the game easily could have gone their way if it weren't for a few bad pass interference calls against the Raiders in key situations.

One of those key situations was a fourth and one where the 49ers called a play action fade route to Ted Ginn Jr. who was in one-on-one press coverage against the Raiders Star player Nnamdi Aso-what's his face.

The play was dead before it started and the pass wasn't even close to Ginn who seemed to quit on the play. The Niners were saved by a flag, let's not complain about the referees, though; let's look at the bigger picture.

Let's hope the Niners would only call this play on fourth down as a preseason test. Let's hope the Mike Singletary and his coaching staff didn't really think Ted Ginn Jr. was the matchup to go to against Nnamdi Aso-what's his face.

This was a mis-match in the Raiders favor and let's pray the the Niners just did this as a preseason test and didn't actually think this was a good call.

A play action was a fine call. 

A two step drop and quick release was a good call too considering the pressure Oakland would be bringing up the middle. 

To go after Nnamdi vs. Ted Ginn who is anything but a possession receiver is just foolish and will cost the 49ers in the regular season.

Upon further reflection for the Niners; will they be flexible enough a team to be able to win games when just hitting them in the mouth isn't getting the job done?

Will they be able to execute other strategies effectively?

What made Bill Belichick the best coach in football is more than just taping the other teams’ practices.

It's that he does that in order to design a strategy against what the other team is designing against you.

That's the nice thing about having advanced knowledge. There's no element of surprise.

To be able to know a team’s strategy and design a gameplan that exploits that strategy is where the coaching staff becomes the difference between winning and losing when two equal teams are playing.

For the 49ers to be one dimensional and just try to hit people in the mouth all day, simply won't get the job done against tough teams who know exactly what is coming. 

Sure, no one will be videotaping the 49ers practices, but the gameplan is pretty much out there.

Lastly, on short yardage situations next pre eason game, I would like to see FB Brit Miller at running back with Moran Norris leading the way. 

Two full backs in there is a BIG improvement, and I'd like to see the results because I am not at all convinced the Niners made it in for the final touchdown.