Excuses, excuses…

By Os Davis  |   Thursday, September 11, 2008  |  Comments( 35 )

Oakland Raiders
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To their credit, the Oakland Raiders, their fans and the pundits themselves kept the soul-searching on the silver-and-black's opening-week debacle to a minimum; nonetheless, some still sought (albeit surely fruitlessly) to find more mundane and/or rational reason for the potentially debilitating defeat to Denver.

Some of this rationale included:

• Inexperience. After most everyone (including, it seems, this weekend’s opposing head coach, Herm Edwards) found the Raiders draft to be positive, the greenery showed on more than one of these guys Monday night. On the other hand, any number of rookies throughout the league – Jerod Mayo, Matt Ryan, Matt Forte, Chris Johnson and Joe Flacco come immediately to mind here – had more than respectable debuts. And who was that guy repeatedly torching a certain highly paid Oakland addition or two for 146 receiving yards. Oh yes, rookie Eddie Royal.

Worse, some are already seeing this as a potential problem this Sunday: "It's a young team,” said Nnamdi Asomugha, “and you never know how guys are going react to a loss.” Yeesh. Plausibility score: 3/10.

• “Trying to do too much.” According to Lane Kiffin himself, this was part of the problem in the Denver game – indeed, the only specific fault the coach was willing to assess in the day-after press conference. Um, not exactly sure what Kiffin means here ... yes, Justin Fargas was trying to do too much when he put all that unnecessary relish on while hot-dogging a simple reverse play. But did Kiffin really see “too much” from that loathsomely soft pass coverage? Did he see “too much” blocking from the offensive line on any given pass play?

Seriously, is this a euphemism, doublespeak for what Brett Favre might describe as “Maybe we just ain’t that good”? Does Kiffin himself have no answers? Or is he as clueless as those of us from this far outside are? Theorized Kiffin (via the Contra Costa Times): "Due to the “electric” atmosphere generated by the hometown crowd, the “players wanted to play ‘harder and faster’ and may not have maintained their composure.” All in all, it sounds like the next reason may have some teeth to it after all. Plausibility score: 1/10.

• The coaching. Many a potshot is still being taken at the publicly perceived crummy play-calling from the Raider side in the Denver game. The official RF365 assessment runs thusly: A decent job in the first quarter, highlighted by the decision to go for it early on fourth-and-1 in Bronco territory, was gone to sleep on with the return from commercial break to the second quarter of action. Where was the extra coverage devoted to Royal, after, say, his fifth long reception? What about the blitz?

Most importantly, what was going on in third-down situations? Not only were the Raiders just 2-of-12 on third-down conversions, they were 1-of-6 on third downs with fewer than 5 yards to go. To make matters worse, both successes were represented by Fargas runs; JaMarcus Russell’s stats on third down read 0-of-3 for zero yards, a fumble, a sack and a minus-2-yard “run.”

The ever-patient Raider Nation may finally get its wish on this particular issue, however; at least one source definitively claims Kiffin is out with a loss at Kansas City this weekend. In the meantime, on this one the plausibility score is 6/10.

• Referees. Seeking any refuge, some Raider fans even grabbed for this old saw. Granted, Zach Miller and the boys got shafted when the blatant pass interference wasn’t called on Marquand Manuel to stifle the early Oakland drive, but come on. To suggest, as one RF365 reader did, that “The Raiders got penalized for blinking twice,” and that the game “was a mugging by the officals, from the perfect 1-yard line downing to the mugging our receivers were taking in the fourth quarter” is a tad shaky in logic at best.

Surely some of the 10 penalties called against the Raiders – most of ‘em biggies – were legitimate. And to deny that DeAngelo Hall was basically putting on a clinic demonstrating the late hit is to be wearing blinders. Plausibility score: 0/10.

• History. Probably the tightest frustrated rant on the Raiders post-Monday night was turned in by Gary Peterson of InsideBayArea.com. Assessing the Denver game as absolutely typical of Raider ball since the very return to Oakland (!), Peterson put down the destruction to the inevitable weight of history, specifically “They're undisciplined”; “too many stupid penalties”; “too many appalling breakdowns on defense”; not one “decent safety since they came back” (wait a minute, Gary, what about the new guys?); “any quarterback not named Rich Gannon has been a roll of the dice”; and “too many me-first personalities and freakishly gifted athletes, and too few team-oriented players with football-specific skills.” Oh yeah, and Al Davis is no good for the team, either. Plausibility score: 4/10; a bit abstract, especially in the “Instant History” 21st century, but maybe the Oakland Raiders are in fact building a culture of losing as we watch.

In his own attempts to assess the damage, Kiffin did remind the press corps of one salient fact -- that a “win in Kansas City would dramatically change the landscape.” Opined the head coach, “You see it every week in the NFL; all of a sudden someone is the new AFC or NFC champion one week, and the next they’re the worst team in the league.”

Truer words were rarely spoken; unfortunately this week, the Raiders may be the worst team in the league. Pray for some excuse-free football against an imminently beatable opponent this weekend, Raider Nation. Unless, of course, you want Kiffin out of there now.
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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: 35  |  Sign Up  View all comments
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No.1
03:06 AM
09/11/2008
Dude, you guys are going to get man-handled this week. How is the Chiefs beatable for the Raiders? That is funny. I can't wait ...
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No.2
RaiderSensation		03:38 AM
09/11/2008
What is troubling is that Quief Tom actually thinks he's being cool. This is a guy who comes from a state that thinks Cow-Tipping ...
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No.3
The Shape		04:32 AM
09/11/2008
Tom Tom, I like it when you stay on Realfootball365 all night trying to piss off Raider fans because mean while I'm F@cking ...
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