Low

By Os Davis  |   Monday, October 27, 2008  |  Comments( 48 )

Oakland Raiders
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What a bummer, eh? Just when it appeared fans would be treated to the welcome sight of, if not a complete Oakland Raiders turnaround, a least a little competitiveness from the silver and black for 2008’s remainder. This team hasn’t gone as low as it can yet, but it will. Very soon. At the end of this column, actually.

The Tom Cable Era again looked dismal in Oakland's 29-10 loss to those high-watt Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. In the 12 quarters since the firing of poor Lane Kiffin, these Raiders have now scored two touchdowns and apparently can only stay in games against offenses capable of tallying fewer than, say, 14 points.

When it comes to the Raiders, what wasn’t bad about this game?

On special teams, Johnnie “Sometimes B. Goode” Lee Higgins only became visible in the first-quarter misjudgment that set the Oakland offense up in position to take the safety later; the other side, meanwhile, looked devoted to making Jim Leonhard (seriously, who?) look good.

On defense, the box score would indicate think that someone in the secondary was giving up those choice Joe Flacco bombs, and that supposition would be correct despite actually really excellent play from DeAngelo Hall. Luckily for Baltimore, Ray Rice’s agent and fantasy football owners of Willis McGahee (ahem), the Oakland ‘D’ again proved nicely porous against the run. Against that vogue single-wing "Wildcat" stuff, the Raiders looked about as bad as any defense (think New England Patriots at the mercy of the Miami Dolphins) has against the formation this year. Posterized by Troy Smith and Joe Flacco: Ouch.

On offense, Justin Fargas mostly showed that he’s no Darren McFadden. How much did the Raider Nation appreciate the late scratch of McFadden from the lineup? As much, if not more, as his fantasy football owners (argh) who again got a goose egg for our faith. Let’s all just hope that Darren McFadden can soon be Darren McFadden.

JaMarcus Russell was again infuriatingly too little, too late, again showing flashes of brilliance (think the long strikes to Chaz Schilens and Zach Miller), but the endless succession of three-and-outs had the Raider ‘D’ damn near plum tuckered out by the end of the second quarter.

The offensive line was same old, same old. While these guys held in the lost-cause second half, the likes of Cornell Green and Kwame Harris were tossed aside again and again beginning with the safety on Russell. In summary, six words: Negative yardage in the first quarter.

Finally, while Cable made out good on successfully challenging the ball spot resulting in the Justin Griffith touchdown, his game plan looked misdirected with a McFadden-sized hole in it. And wouldn’t you have gone for it on fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter, even without McFadden? (Instead, the Raiders found themselves in an unenviable no-chance fourth-and-21 situation just three minutes of game clock later.)

So have the Raiders now bottomed out? Judging by Sunday’s performance, the team can’t convert on a first down; tends to first-quarter and first-half holes for a subpar passing game to deal with; and the roster particularly on defense is mostly composed of guys of upper-level pay and below average-level play and/or greenhorns. They’re currently coached by a .250 lifetime record in the position while the kicker and punter may well be the team MVPs.

The Oakland Raiders have become the Detroit Lions.

And that is about as low as you can go.
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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: 48  |  Sign Up  View all comments
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No.1
RaiderSensation		02:12 AM
10/27/2008
The only way the team can go lower is if they become the Oakland OsHoles. We've already covered what went wrong in the last ...
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No.2
02:52 AM
10/27/2008
RaiderSensation I felt the same way. I wanted to turn away and turn off the tv so bad but I just couldn't do it. I wouldn't be ...
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No.3
02:56 AM
10/27/2008
#2 is looking better and better every week. Well, at least when they actually do give him the opportunities to make plays. He ...
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