Away I go for a single day
And look what appears
An article in the Washington Times
From a writer drunk from too many beers!
Bad poetry aside, I returned home from work at 4am Pacific time and began to catch up on what I’d missed over the previous day, and I quickly realized that it was time for another Krunch report.
I fully realize that it’s fashionable in this day and age to pile on the Oakland Raiders. I’m okay with that. And it doesn’t bother me when a “sports writer” says something negative regarding the team. The best record the Raiders have posted over the past six seasons (not five as Ryan stated) has been 5-11, so there hasn’t been a lot to be positive about. But to say the Oakland Raiders are the worst team in football demonstrates an incredibly loose grip on the obvious, and begs the question posed by the title of this article.
Does Ryan O’Halloran Even Watch Football?
As I’ve already stated, I could care less when a sports writer writes a negative article. But when makes a ridiculous claim that the Raiders are the worst team in football and potentially professional sports, they’d better do one of two things, either back it up with some strong facts, or face the wrath of the Raider Nation.
And the facts as I see them are these…
First off, the Detroit Lions had an abysmal 0-16 record in 2008, and were the first team in more than 30 years to post a winless record. That, by default, makes them the worst team in the league and arguably the worst team in history! After all, the last time a team went winless, the regular season was only 14 games long. So I think that bodes well for Oakland.
Another bright spot for the Silver and Bleak is their arch rivals in Kansas City. At 2-14 in 2008, the Chiefs might challenge Detroit’s mark of futility in 2009, as their best players Tony Gonzalez and Larry Johnson have either left (Gonzalez is in Atlanta) or want to, as Johnson has demanded a trade. I think I should feel sorry for the fans of the Kansas City Chiefs right now, but I don’t. Fact is, the Chiefs haven’t won a championship since the Super Bowl IV, which was held in January of 1970, a full 20 months prior to my birth. So there’s a championship club that’s not about to happen. Even with the addition of Matt Cassel from New England, who performed well on a championship caliber club, the Chiefs are going nowhere fast. No matter how good your quarterback is, aside from Johnson, he doesn’t have a team around him and I don’t expect them to make any grand improvements in the foreseeable future.
Their other divisional foes seem to be on the path tread by the Chiefs. New egotist (head coach) Josh McDaniels has already run the best part of the Denver Broncos out of town and San Diego was 8-8 last season, and under the guidance of Norv Turner, continue to plummet from their 14-2 mark of 2006. The American Football Conference’s Western Division isn’t rebuilding as Mr. O’Halloran suggests, its imploding! So all the Raiders have to do to be competitive in 2009 is stick together as a team and compete, as no franchise in their division could manage to post a winning record in 2008!
NFL futility also exists outside of the AFC West. Look at the Central Division, where Cleveland and Cincinnati each posted four-win season. Carson Palmer’s best weapon, T.J. Houshmanzadeh defection to Seattle and away from Chad Johnson’s antics should cripple the Bengals anemic attack and Cleveland’s sixteenth ranked defense will be hampered by the addition of former Oakland defensive coordinator Rob Ryan, whose best team could only manage a ranking of eighteenth in the league. And let us not forget the 2-14 Rams and 4-12 Seahawks who will be mismanaged until the ownership wises up and gets rid of Jim Mora like our friends in Atlanta did!
Looking ahead into 2009, where Mr. O’Halloran has boldly “predicted” another 2-14 disaster (unless new addition Jeff Garcia wins the starting quarterback role out of training camp), I see plenty of winnable games. To begin with, Oakland won’t face a winning team until the fifth week of the season when they travel to New York to face the Giants. That begins a run of tougher opposition as the 9-7 Eagles and Jets visit the Coliseum on consecutive Sunday’s, and let us not forget, the supposedly NFL worst Raiders beat the Jets in Oakland last season. And as good as Mark Sanchez might become, he’ll still be a rookie in week seven. And the latter half of the season presents challenges from four sub-.500 teams, and two squads that managed 9-7 marks. The toughest games awaiting them are both on the road against the aforementioned Giants and the world champion Steelers. With the ease of schedule, and Jamarcus Russell remaining under center (the overhyped Jeff Garcia has a long and storied history of pouting on lousy teams in Detroit, Cleveland and San Francisco) and a few wins, Oakland could compete by default in the AFC West in 2009 and with a little added confidence, they could become a threat in 2010 and beyond.
Even if our friends at the Washington Times struggle with the obvious…
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 (when it’s back online) at raidershistory.net. Or contact him at raidershistory@yahoo.com
http://www.raiderfans.com/article.php?story=20090630191222146