So long, Greg Knapp

By Os Davis  |   Wednesday, January 07, 2009  |  Comments( 8 )

Oakland Raiders
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So long, Greg Knapp. We hardly knew you.

No, literally. We hardly knew the guy and his grandiose plans for an Oakland Raiders West Coast offensive scheme (for all West Coast offensive schemes are grandiose), any potential for such washed away in 2007 by the continuous quarterback shuffle and in 2008 by the coaching downshift.

And now the reports say Knapp is gone, off to go work for ex-boss Jim Mora up in Seattle, leaving the offensive coordinator position vacant in Oakland. This should prove a tough hole to fill if Raiders coaching spots are as difficult a sell as roster spots appear to be these days; a shame it is, too, because the Raiders appear to be this close to building a sweet West Coast bunch.

Seriously, who better to run a nearly all-pass offense than an all-around athlete like JaMarcus Russell? What better halfback to supplement the short-pass bit of the playbook than Darren McFadden, whose skill set was stunning at times this season? Don’t Zach Miller and Chaz Schilens look as though they were born to play a West Coast offense?

Instead, the offense never quite jelled – damn tough to do it, actually, with the mostly generally sorry receiving corps employed in Oakland ever since Randy Moss blew through town – and Knapp was perpetually attempting to fit a square peg in a round hole for two seasons.

Some observers were surely skeptical of Knapp from the go in 2007. (Yours truly was.) After all, judging anyone involved with the Atlanta Falcons offense in the Michael Vick years becomes difficult because of skewed statistics. Sure, the Oakland Raiders official bio – Read it now before it’s gone! – on Knapp credits him for his part in the 2004-2005 seasons when Vick’s scrambling ability made those Falcons overwhelmingly the league leader in team rushing yardage.

More impressive was probably his part in 2003 when, in one of the few years Knapp wasn’t coaching a Pro Bowl QB, “the 49ers finished in the top five in total offense (355.4 yards per game) and rushing offense (142.4 yards per game). The 49ers also finished in the top 10 in passing offense (213.0 yards per game), scoring offense (24.0 points per game) and fewest sacks allowed (28).”

Fat lot of good it did him on the Raiders in 2008. Knapp was famously replaced in responsibility by interim head coach Tom Cable in mid-November after some embarrassing “Who can we blame for calling these plays?” chatter mediaside. Cable then famously went on to lead the offense to seven TDs -- including three against the disintegrating Denver Broncos and three mostly meaningless scores in the 23-point loss to the New England Patriots -- in the next five games. While good things happened in the season's final two games and team cohesion started to hold, the offense is still clearly lagging in terms of rebuilding behind both defense and special teams.

Time will tell, as they say, but right now it seems too bad Knapp is departing just as something is emerging. By 2008 season’s end, the Raiders had developed a three-pronged running attack that will surely be the envy of the league in 2009. Surely Oakland will be drafting offensive linemen high and can sign one decent receiver. (Would Reggie Williams really be that bad for the Raiders, Coach Carroll? After all, he’s got great potential...) This could be a nice-looking offense next season.

Unless, of course, the players are overly affected by having yet another play-caller making the game plan; does Knapp’s departure now essentially solidify Cable’s naming to the head coach position?

Here’s an idea for the Oakland Raiders Football Inc. head office: Take on Jim Fassel as head coach and make Cable the O-coordinator. No? Why not?

And somewhere right now Uncle Al is crafting a “Help Wanted” ad to run in the classifieds section of The Sporting News...
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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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