Jason O. Watson-US PRESSWIRE

Bill Belichick freely admits to stealing many of his football philosophies from Al Davis. That’s not the only thing the man many regard as the best coach in the game takes from Oakland. It’s also where he goes to fill his roster.

Over the years the Pats have built their success on both the ideals and eye for talent of Davis. Whenever the Raiders put a player on the open market you’d better believe Belichick is the first in line to look them over. That goes for household names like Randy Moss on down to no names like Stryker Sulak.

If the Raiders like a player then so too will the Pats. That’s the safest bet there is this side of putting your money on Jennifer Lopez being incapable of keeping a man.

Last season Sterling Moore joined the ranks of Raider cast-offs turned Patriot contributors. Now it’s Trevor Scott that continues the pipeline running from the Bay to the Northeast.

Scott was signed by the Pats today where he’ll no doubt become the darling of all media honks nationwide. At some point this season some lazy journalist out there will spend way too much time licking the man region of Belichick for his ability to unearth a player like Scott…as if dude never spent a minute of his career with the Raiders.

Back in 2008 the Raiders took the defensive end out of Buffalo University in the 6^th round. All Scott did was go out and lead all NFL rookies in sacks during his first lap around the league. Things were looking up for the talented pass rusher. Eventually the Raiders experimented with moving him to weakside linebacker. That would give way to a return to end where Scott was valued as a member of Oakland’s talented rotation along the D-line.

Then disaster struck in 2010. Scott tore his ACL covering a kick against the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was shutdown for the rest of the season and spent all of 2011 trying to work his way back into the rotation. That never came to be and eventually the Raiders allowed him to walk in free agency.

No real surprise that Belichick would come calling. Scott is the hybrid type of player the defensive minded coach loves…oh…getting the Al Davis seal of approval doesn’t hurt either.

A native of New York State it also makes sense that Scott would return to the Northeast for the next phase of his career. Scott’s talent is real. Nobody every doubted that. He can rush the passer but doesn’t do much against the run. Somehow you get the feeling that Belichick and his camcorder will get the most out of whatever Scott has left to give.

Today the New England Patriots signed Moore to their practice squad.

Now I’m not here to say that Sterling Moore, an undrafted free agent, was going to be the deciding factor in this team taking the AFC West crown. However he did show plenty of promise in the preseason and in the humble opinion of this Raider fan deserved a roster spot ahead of Joe Porter.

But that really is irrelevant in the big picture. The Pats are among the few teams with a defense worse than Oakland’s. Both teams need all the help they can get and as usual are continuing their personnel swapping.

In fact the Raiders held the ball longer than the Pats, converted over 60% of their third downs compared to 44% for New England and even gained over 500 yards of total offense against the Belichick bunch.

In the end it was the Raiders that would prove to be their own worst enemy.

Once again the ugly face of pointless penalties reared its ugly face. Richard Seymour might have been a little too fired up for his revenge as he kept the Pats’ first drive alive with two painful penalties. The first flag against Seymour was debatable as he was hit for a roughing call on a play that (by rule) never truly occurred. Since when did it matter what happens after an offense is flagged for a pre-snap penalty?

But that point became pointless once Seymour gave this former team more free yards thanks to a face mask.

From there out it was more of the same.

The Raiders moved the rock with ease on offense as they owned the porous Pats’ D.

Darren McFadden and Michael Bush ran though the chowder chumps like they weren’t even there. Once again Hue Jackson’s bully abused an opponent in physical fashion.

Still you can’t talk about this game without mentioning two key turnovers courtesy of Jason Campbell.
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