Biggest game of Raiders’ season? The first

By Anthony Carroll  |   Tuesday, August 28, 2007  |  Comments( 59 )

Oakland Raiders
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Many will refer to it as the anti-Super Bowl, the Toilet Bowl or the one-week reincarnation of NFL Europa.

After all, when the Oakland Raiders host the Detroit Lions on Sept. 9 to kick off the regular season, it certainly will be the ugliest matchup on paper. The Lions, who finished 3-13 in 2006, will travel to McAfee Coliseum to do battle with the Raiders, who placed an NFL-worst 2-14 last season.

Together, the teams posted just 47 combined touchdowns last year. That's 12 fewer TDs than the San Diego Chargers registered alone.

For both rebuilding teams, though, Week 1 will likely be the biggest game of the season, particularly for the much-disparaged Raiders and their first-year head coach, Lane Kiffin.

Oakland hasn't won a Week 1 meeting since it reached the Super Bowl five years ago. Dating back to an 11-5 campaign in 2002, the Raiders have dropped season openers to Tennessee, Pittsburgh, New England and San Diego, losing the four meetings by a combined 45 points.

The ensuing seasons from the four opening-day losses were four atrocious seasons, totaling a combined record of 15-49.

More so than ever, last season's run-over at the hands of the division rival Chargers set the tone for the entire campaign.

Raider quarterbacks were sacked an astonishing nine times in that game; by the end of the year, that total climbed to a league-worst 72. Veteran QB Aaron Brooks was yanked late in the game and replaced with the 25-year-old Andrew Walter. For the remainder of the season, that unhealthy pattern would continue, and both quarterbacks would split the season with eight starts each. It was the perfect precursor to a tremendously imperfect season.

"I was shocked," then-head coach Art Shell said. "We didn't play well, as you could tell. We didn't have the intensity level that the San Diego Chargers did. I didn't get us prepared for this game."

As it turns out, Shell didn't get his team ready for the entire season. After a 4-1 preseason, he seemingly entered the year blind and misguided.

Kiffin, though younger and much less experienced than Shell, doesn't seem to be fooled by another rather successful preseason, though.

"On offense we weren't very good today, that's no secret," Kiffin said after the team's 20-10 win against the St. Louis Rams. "We did not protect the quarterback very well, there were four sacks, two turnovers -- no excuses there. We have to finish our drives."

On paper, the three Raider quarterbacks finished 13-for-23 for 211 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.

Not good enough.

"We left a lot of points out there," Kiffin added. "Regardless of who is in, we have to protect the quarterback, maybe I should have called better plays in those situations but that was very disappointing."

Under two weeks away from the first game that counts, Kiffin is seemingly striving for perfection.

If he gets somewhere close, the Raiders can stand undefeated and atop the AFC West for the first time in five long years.

Anthony Carroll, a senior writer for RealFootball365.com, can be contacted 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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