| Christopher Reina. 11th September, 2007 - 3:20 pm
 Randy Moss made his debut in an Oakland Raiders uniform on a Thursday night in Foxboro in 2005 and recorded 130 yards and one touchdown. It wasn’t the 183 yards he posted on Sunday (the most since he had 204 in 1999), but it was a start to give Norv Turner a reason to be optimistic that his head coaching career wouldn't be over by the end of that year (Did he really think he would inherit a team as talented as the Chargers one year later?).
Moss continued his productivity in Week 2 at home against Kansas City with 127 yards and a touchdown, a decent performance in a tight game at Philadelphia and 123 yards against Dallas.
But during the remaining 12 weeks of the season, Moss averaged just under 45 yards receiving per game, which included a 116 yard, two touchdown performance on the final night of the season against the Giants.
Last season was a disaster from start to finish, where he caught just three touchdowns and 553 yards for the entire season.
During Moss’ two seasons with the Raiders, the offense was as awful as an NFL offense can possibly be.
Unlike a Terrell Owens who will scream and yell if a team struggles or doesn’t get him the ball, Moss elected to mope and disappear into the background under a cloud of apathy.
The question that needs to be asked in New England is whether it was apathy and a bad Oakland club or an overall decline in play that led to his poor showing with the Raiders. And whether Week 1 was an aberration that shocked Eric Mangini who thought single coverage would be sufficient or if this is indeed the best Minnesota import since David Ortiz.
"Randy Moss is a player whose skills are diminishing, and he's in denial of those eroding skills," former Raiders offensive coordinator Tom Walsh told the Boston Globe following the trade. "Randy was a great receiver, but he lacked the work ethic and the desire to cultivate any skills that would compensate for what he was losing physically later in his career."
There wasn’t a quarterback with the Raiders who could throw the ball like Tom Brady and even if there was, that quarterback was forced to throw the ball nearly immediately due to the pass rush coming through a porous offensive line.
The Jets secondary looked awful against Moss, with rookie Darrelle Revis being the most productive corner.
Famously, the Patriots offense hasn’t featured a single wide receiver, which is something that can help Moss as the season goes along if he indeed has aging legs and a nagging hamstring that won’t go away.
"Randy Moss has a great football IQ," said Walsh. "He's tremendously gifted. I think he can still play, but his legs will determine how much work he can handle.”
Making the postseason isn’t exactly a huge climb for the Patriots, given their professionalism and the lack of quality teams in the AFC East, so like Curt Schilling, Moss will be largely judged by his performance in the playoffs. |
