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| A LONG WINTERS NAP |
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Tuesday, March 03 2009 @ 01:30 AM PST
Contributed by: Krunch |
 And our beloved Oakland Raiders have already handled a majority of their business.
By signing Nnamdi Asomugha to a (then) record contract and making Shane Lechler the league’s highest paid punter, their off-season heavy lifting has already been accomplished.
Lets look at it this way…
While the Oakland Raiders need a ton of help in many different areas, Lechler and Asomugha are the absolute best in their respective positions. Any team would be better off with them on their roster. The Oakland Raiders still have them both! This makes the Black and Silver squad better by retention, as opposed to the subtraction that we’re become accustomed to over the past several seasons.
Another coup, (and I know many of you will demand that I submit a urine sample after I tell you what getting at) was retaining the services of head coach Tom Cable. First things first, Cable EARNED the right to be head coach of the Oakland Raiders. I cannot tell you how gut wrenching it was to sit there in the Black Hole and watch the horrifically disinterested performance put forth by the Oakland Raiders when the Atlanta Falcons came to town in early November. Nor can I accurately articulate the nausea I experienced while watching the life being sucked out of the National Football League’s most radid fan base.
After choosing to play down to their host’s lack of concern, Atlanta let off the gas. Their 24-0 victory had been easily earned and there was no need to put forth an effort against a team that wouldn’t put forth an effort. Yeah, that as a Cable coached team. And pathetic is it aspired to be, Tom Cable began to earn the position he so rightfully deserves.
First, at halftime he confronted his players by asking which of them was “willing to go out there and fight?” Unimpressed by the meager output in the second half. Cable wasted little time in sending a message. DeAngelo Hall was released midweek. His $70 million agreement turned into a costly $1,000,000 a game, but the message was clear, do your job or you wont have it any more.
Looking back, Cable said something in his post game press conference that I should have taken as a sign of a changing tide, but I, along with everyone else missed it.
It was just a simple statement. One that, in my disgust, I took as premeditation to a terrorist attack. But when Tom Cable said, “I know what to do,” I should have appreciated it for its true beauty.
Lets take a look back shall we?
Bill Callahan called his squad “the dumbest team in America.” I still agree with coach Callahan’s assessment that day. They played stupidly and gave the game away. However, he was unwilling to address the issue until the final game to the 2003 season, when he sent Charlie Garner and Charles Woodson home for the winter.
Norv Turner was worse still. You remember him, he’s the cheese grater-faced coordinator who sounded like a full-blown alcoholic, attempting to make friends with the telephone pole he just rammed his car in to, so it wouldn’t press charges when law enforcement arrived. And aside from the fact that I could call his offensive plays while listening to the game on the radio, (yeah me, the guy who has never played a down of organized football in his life, much less coached a game) he had no concept of what to do. So he would stand there and speak of an invisible improvement that was lost on seemingly everyone but him.
To his credit, Art Shell knew what to do. He had just forgotten how to coach! Which as I sit here, trying to analyze the 2006 disaster, I think it’s better to move onto Lane Kiffin. I’m sure you remember him as well. The 31-year old offensive wiz-kid, son of defensive guru Monte Kiffin who couldn’t find the door on his own! Yeah, that guy! The same guy Chris Mortensen tried to help secure a multi-million dollar payday he wouldn’t have to earn.
Great! You’re up to speed now!
But before I continue on with the latter two aforementioned jackasses, (and believe me I will) I would like to exceed Al Davis by introducing head coach Tom Cable…
THE GUY WHO KNOWS WHAT TO DO!
You may also remember the media nonsense, that claimed “Nobody wants to coach in Oakland.”
Guess what…
Tom Cable does! And the enthusiasm currently on display should be infectious. Aside from Asomugha and Lechler choosing to remain in Oakland, some missteps have already been removed.
Kwame the overpaid league leader in everything negative Harris-Gone
Ronald Curry, an outstanding athlete that never turned into a great football player- Gone
And the worst surviving defensive coordinator in the National Football League Rob Ryan is finally gone!
I never understood Ryan’s initial hiring. He wasn’t ready to begin with and never grew into the job. His best season was in 2006, when his defense ranked third in yards allowed, but eighteenth in points allowed. Now before you start emailing me, wishing to enlighten me of my ignorance, I will concede that the incompetent offense on display that season allowed to opposition to be successfully one-dimensional. All they had to do was score once and run out the clock. With the operative word being RUN.
Oakland defensive rankings, in terms of points allowed in Ryan’s four other seasons were 31st in 2004, 23rd in 2005, 26th in 2007 and 24th in 2008. Aside from the aberration of 2006, the Oakland defense never threatened to be in the better half of National Football League defenses! I wish I could have said this to Rob Ryan and Norv Turner both after the 2004 season, but in 2009 I can finally say GOOD RIDDANCE!
Man, that felt good!
Cable also has the continued development of Jamarcus Russell to look forward to. I realize that many fans have become impatient with Jamarcus, which is sad. However one truly needs to look at his career thus far to understand why he hasn’t had the success of a Joe Flacco or a Matt Ryan. First, someone in the front office thought it was a good idea to not pay him the money he was going to get anyway, and second, for the first season and a quarter, he played and “developed” under a head coach who didn’t want his job or him!
If ever there was a recipe for failure that has to be it.
Give the kid some quality protection, receivers who actually can with the running tandem of Fargas, Bush and McFadden and we’ve got something. When you consider that the AFC West is weaker that it has ever been, with no team breaking .500, it’s really easy to grasp Cable’s optimism of reclaiming the AFC West title.
Awhile back, I made a proclamation on this space at raiderfans.com. More accurately, it was a declaration of war. As the Kiffin-trying-to-get-himself-fired saga played out, I challenged the media to show their evidence. Evidence that they never produced, because as I expected, it didn’t exist. So I felt vindicated. Scratch that, I was vindicated! I know I put myself out on a limb, but I new I was right. So I stand at the ready, waiting for these so called “experts” to open themselves up for my very own, very public game of whack-a-schmuck.
I took on Tim Kawakami and Mark Purdy from the San Jose Mercury news, and gave notice to anybody else who wanted to publish their irresponsible misinformation that I would target them as well. And make no mistake, IT’S STILL ON!
However, the unscrupulous were silenced by their own arrogance. When Chris Mortensen decided, “the Raiders had lost the privilege of having me come to them for a response.” God forbid they actually do their job, which many of Mortensen’s colleagues in the print media quickly pointed out. But the sudden change of tone and influx of integrity has been a welcome change. It’s just too bad that tabloid journalism ever found its way into legitimate publications.
Anyways, since our friends over at 1220 Harbor Bay Parkway don’t seem to be in a real hurry to bring anyone in and “revamp”, I’ll close for now with a quote from Al Davis.
“In the world of professional football, aside from life and death, nothing is more important that winning.”
God speed Marquis Cooper…
Six Days a week, Krunch is known as Jim McCullough, author of Pride & Poise: The Oakland Raiders of the American Football League. Please visit his website www.raidershistory.net. Or email at raidershistory@yahoo.com
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