| Authored by Christopher Reina & Douglas Benton - 15th November, 2006 - 11:58 am
 The Raiders are now 2-7 after their loss to the Denver Broncos and are desperately looking for a way out of mediocrity that that has plagued them since their loss in Super Bowl to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
DB: Andrew Walters isn’t the answer at quarterback for the Oakland Raiders. Though he has been plagued by poor offensive line play in front of him and critical drops by his wide receivers, Walters doesn’t posses the ability to make all of the throws or the mental capacity to play quarterback in this league. He is good enough to keep a team competitive and around the five win mark, but to take the next step they need a new pair of hands under center.
CR: Adjusting to life without Rich Gannon has been very difficult. Aaron Brooks only lasted two games and was an ill-advised choice to begin with. Walters is definitely a stop gap type of QB, so if Al Davis continues his ‘Just Win, NOW’ philosophy, they will need to upgrade there this off-season. They will be in the Brady Quinn/Brian Brohm territory in the draft, but just as they passed on Matt Leinart, as NFL ready as they come, they will pass on these two in favor of one of the two Big 10 tackles, Joe Thomas from Wisconsin or Jake Long from Michigan.
The Texans could be looking to end the David Carr era and Atlanta might be finally ready to get some value in return for Matt Schaub, so I don’t believe starting from scratch with a rookie QB is their intent.
DB: The problem is Robert Gallery isn’t a lack of skill, but the problem that he is beginning to think his way through the position. The best in the game don’t think about their next move, but just react on what they see in front of them, which is exactly what Gallery did during his time at Iowa. I’m not sure how the Raiders can fix this, but their best option is to leave him alone and let him play his way out of it.
CR: When you draft an offensive lineman with the second pick in the draft, you are anticipating bringing in a can’t miss perennial All-Pro. Gallery may look like a Raider, but he certainly doesn’t play like one. The switches between left tackle and right tackle have stunted his ability to get comfortable and he doesn’t look nearly as athletic now as he did when he came out of Iowa. Hopefully, this is because of the said comfort level and not due to the injuries that he has suffered.
DB: Art Shell isn’t the right man for this job and it isn’t his fault. He is a great motivator and handler of people, but what the Raiders need is a young, energetic coach who can teach the young players how to play in the NFL and breath life into a franchise that is dying slowing before our eyes. A possible candidate is Pat Hill of Fresno State or their own defensive coordinator, Rob Ryan.
Al Davis is hurting his own franchise by involving himself with the coaching aspects of the team. This drives off worthy candidates (Bobby Petrino) and good coaches already under your control (Jon Gruden). Davis still has a great eye for talent as his excellent young secondary he drafted can attest, but if he keeps running off good coaches, who will lead them?
CR: The Warriors brought back Don Nelson for the same reasons Shell was re-hired and while they are not totally groundless, they are rather flimsy and are a backwards move both literally and figuratively. The results that Eric Mangini is getting with the Jets and Sean Payton in New Orleans demonstrates the need for a young 20 hour a guy type of head coach, exactly what the Raiders had under Jon Gruden. Any coach worth that type of weight will demand certain concessions from Davis that the interference will be kept at a minimum, which is something that I doubt he has the faith to do at this point.
Sidebar: Even though Davis may hurt his franchise as much as helps it by being too involved, he remains the model of what a sports owner should be in the Utopian sense, specifically in the way he goes about competing.
I actually think Shell should be given another year because A.) He is a class act and deserves it and B.) The team is still a few players away talent wise on offense to win more than half a dozen games a year, so Shell will do better keeping a struggling team together.
DB: A bright spot on this team has been the play of the defense under coordinator Rob Ryan. They are fast, they rush the passer, and they have the players to play man to man in pass coverage. Derrick Burgess was a great addition and Warren Sapp is starting to show signs of his old self in Tampa Bay. However, it is the young secondary that has everyone excited because they all posses great cover skills and are unafraid to come up and make a tackle. Once the offense reaches the level of average, the defense will be good enough to carry this team.
CR: Seeing the Raiders play well on defense has been exciting to watch and is how I would continue to build the team. With the salary cap, there are no teams that can afford to dominate both sides of the ball, so instead of being average in both, it would be advantageous to excel on one side. The Raiders don’t have the talent to become truly dominant on defense yet, as part of their success has surely come from teams sitting on an early lead. The way that offensive lines need to key on Burgess has allowed Sapp to have resurgence and the secondary is built really well around Huff, Fabian Washington and Stuart Schweigert.
DB: With Randy Moss, it isn’t all about a lack of desire, but also a loss of talent over the years. Ever since he came into the league, he has never developed his route running abilities and now that he is losing some of his burst and athleticism, it is starting to show. Effort is a large concern because it has hurt this team in key spots this year and in concert with his diminishing skills, the days of Moss dominating football games are over.
CR: Jerry Rice and Cris Carter never had the kind of athleticism that Moss has built a Hall of Fame career upon, but they were able to play at a high level well into their 30’s because of the fundamentals and attention to detail that were the groundwork of their careers. The Doug Gabriel trade and the Jerry Porter situation has allowed opposing secondary’s to key in on him in a way that has been him completely ineffective. He had just one catch for 8 yards on Sunday versus Denver, though part of that problem was the Champ Bailey coverage.
The biggest problem, other than the lack of imagination and guts from the plays called in from Tom Walsh, is who has been throwing passes to Moss. In Minnesota, he had Randall Cunningham and then, while in Oakland it has been mainly Kerry Collins and Andrew Walters.
Many people forget how dominant he was during his first few games with the Raiders in 2005 until injuries and the implosion of the Norv Turner era quickly halted the play.
Randal Williams looked good at tight end against Denver, so if Walters can make defenses respect the short passing game, perhaps Moss can get open with greater frequency as they try to stretch the field.
DB:The Raiders were once a proud franchise because they did it their way, which was different than anyone else in football, and they were successful at it. This created a sense of intimidation whenever you played the Raiders and made them one of the better franchises in sports. Now, that is long gone and teams don’t fear the Raiders anymore. It takes a lot time to regain that fear again and if you keep posting losing seasons, it will only elongate the process, hard hitting and trash-talking don’t produce intimidation, wins do.
You have to know your talent to be successful in the NFL and the Raiders are lacking in this regard. You have a poor offensive line, a group of wide receivers who don’t play with passion, a quarterback that is young and lacking in talent and a good running back. So, why does offensive coordinator Tom Walsh continue to call low-percentage plays? If you don’t have the pieces to run your offense, change it. Continuing to try and put a circle peg into a square hole isn’t dedication, its stupidity.
CR: Ever since the Raiders were blown out by Tampa Bay in Super Bowl XXXVII, the Raiders have been trying to reload instead of rebuild, which is to be expected given Al’s age and health, but it also has produced disappointing results and a pessimism that there improvement will not be allowed to come while they scramble to Just Win, NOW!
The Autumn Wind still gives me goose bumps whenever I listen to it followed by The Raiders Theme, though I realize that it is mostly out of nostalgia for the best winning percentage since 1963 that they still prominently mention in their media guide.
(Both songs are available for download at www.raiders.com/multimedia)
The slogan for this era of Raiders’ football should be ‘Commitment to Trying’ because the current combination of pieces hasn’t even come close to tasting ‘Excellence.’ |
