Catastrophe, devastation, demolition: Where to go from here?

By Os Davis  |   Tuesday, September 09, 2008  |  Comments( 92 )

Oakland Raiders
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So much for optimism. With eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, a bedecked Oakland Raiders fan lofted the year’s first “Lane Kiffin must go” sign; barring a miracle, it probably won’t be the last. The boos from the Raider Nation itself – arguably the best, most loyal, most heart-wrenchingly devoted fans out there south of Wisconsin and most likely anywhere, to hell with what ESPN says – started before the gun had fired on the first half.

This may not be college football, but elimination from contention based on a Week 1 loss hasn’t looked this compelling in years. Did anything go right for Oakland on Monday? Said a certain RF365 writer last Thursday: “Expecting Oakland to stagnate at 4-12 despite its own improvements is shortsighted and unimaginative, considering the nice moves the Raiders have made in the past couple of seasons.”

Said nice personnel moves were hardly in evidence against the Broncos, however. Hope of the future Darren McFadden whipped off an early 10-yard run, but other than that averaged a scant 4.0 yards per carry against a seemingly weak run defense (Denver finished 30th in ground yardage allowed in 2007). Javon Walker didn’t even play. Zach Miller turned in one of the Raiders plays of the game – a nice 21-yard reception to put the silver and black in the red zone – when all was mostly irrelevant with just over two minutes left in the game. And JaMarcus Russell again looked great in flashes (albeit very brief flashes), but still possesses the single least-convincing play-action fake in the NFL.

On the defense, that shock-and-awe secondary of Nnamdi Asomugha, DeAngelo Hall, Gibril Wilson and Michael Huff was easily solved by Mike Shanahan, instantly providing a blueprint for Raider opponents in 2008. Don’t want Asomugha to pick it off? Don’t throw it his way. Want to burn Hall? He apparently can’t play underneath, and is susceptible to blowing his cool in piling up an early lead on the year’s personal-foul leaders table. Even without Brandon Marshall, Denver threw at will. Is Jay Cutler really that good? And how will the Oakland ‘D’ fare against, say, Phillip Rivers in Week 4? Or Drew Brees in Week 6? Or Brett Favre in Week 7?

Meanwhile, the zone-blocking schemes which were supposed to have solidified by now after a long session of practice to work out the kinks – some folks called it the 2007 season – showed nothing against the Broncos once Russell tried

As for a “fan pulse,” if there was a virtual space packed with more depressed football fans than Patriots.com this football weekend, it was the Raider Nation’s territory on NFL FanHouse. By 11:15 p.m. ET, Raider fans had begun muting the television commentary (yet Mike Ditka hadn’t even started going off in describing various degrees of badness while repeatedly dissing Al Davis). A post-game police escort off the field for the Raider players was predicted by the start of the fourth quarter, viewers openly wished that they were hammered (if they weren’t already). By 1 a.m. ET, chat had turned into “the first-ever FanHouse group therapy session” with the Raiders down 34-7.

This writer has to admit to the Raider Nation that my confidence is shattered. What say you, Raider backers? Can your team pull out of this graveyard spiral? If so, how? A single optimistic thought on the remainder of the 2008 season after that debacle should serve as final proof that The Worldwide Leader in [American] Sports need rework its silly fan power poll; after all, such a loss would crush a weaker bunch of fans.
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About Os Davis

Os Davis has taken a twisted route to get to RealFootball365.com in his nearly 17 years in professional writing, working in any number of capacities in the sportswriting, news reporting and film criticism worlds. In print media, Os has served as editor at a few publications, including Albuquerque's...
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CommentsComments: 92  |  Sign Up  View all comments
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No.1
03:52 AM
09/09/2008
Oz you are such a looser! The Raiders got penalized for blinking twice. This was a mugging by the officals, from the perfect 1...
No.2
Neoplatonist23		04:22 AM
09/09/2008
Minimize the penalties, beef up the pass rush. Russell looked good. 8 wins isn't off the table, but it'll be impossible to win...
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No.3
04:33 AM
09/09/2008
RaiderSensation what are you talking about when you say Kiffin needs to be Fired (in the last thread)!!! Did you even watch the...
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