Raiders: No Turnovers, No Turnaround

By Anthony Carroll | Tuesday, November 15, 2005 | ( 0 )

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You can come up with nearly a thousand excuses for why the Oakland Raiders are not winning football games: They aren't running well, they are plagued with injuries, their coaching is poor, their quarterback doesn't win games. But the excuse that stands above all-and would perhaps even correct every other problem-lies solely on the subject of turnovers. For this reason, it should not be very shocking why the Oakland Raiders are sitting at the bottom of the AFC West.

What was so rare about Sunday's game against Denver was that for once, the Raiders actually forced multiple turnovers in a game. However, three interceptions by Kerry Collins nullified Denver fumbles by wide receiver Rod Smith and running back Tatum Bell. But for the past three seasons, the Oakland Raiders have finished in the negatives in the plus/minus column for turnovers, and consequently they have a combined record of 12-30 in these seasons. In the best of these three seasons, Oakland registered a sub-par 25 takeaways (2003). In the 2004 season, they were at the bottom of the NFL with just 18 takeaways. And this season, they have just eight forced turnovers through 10 games.

Accordingly, losses should come to no surprise for Oakland Raiders fans. Randy Moss can't intercept passes on the sideline and LaMont Jordan can't run off the bench to pickup fumbles. Oakland is the only team in the NFL whose interception leader is a 300-pound defensive tackle. Injured cornerback Charles Woodson has the only other interception on the team, but it came off a meaningless Hail Mary pass against the Cowboys.

This season, the most successful teams have been those who have been able to take the ball away from their opponents: Cincinnati has 29 takeaways, Pittsburgh has 19, Indianapolis has 16, and Denver has 15.

It's no coincidence that Oakland is struggling again this year and has failed to have a strong year since the 2002 Super Bowl season. Oh, and yes�they had 31 takeaways that year.

Any comments on this article? Contact Anthony Carroll at acarroll@realfootball365.com

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	About Anthony Carroll Anthony Carroll began writing for RealFootball365.com on Sept. 26, 2005, making him one of the longest tenured contributors to the “365” team. As a senior writer, Anthony has taken on the task of delivering original content to the silver and black faithful year round, despite having to deal...
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