Raidertopia

The former Bronco just can’t let his hatred for the Raiders go.  He continues to rub the Raiders’ noses into the poop of their recent woes.  L-Dizzle has a good round-up of his most recent Raider bashing outburst.  Yes, he’s a loser and, yes, Janikowski was snubbed by the Pro Bowl selectors.

There’s a lot of dumb in football. For example, how many times have you seen a dumb defensive player pick up an incomplete pass and run the other way with it (yes, I’m talking about you Rickey Brown)?  Or celebrate before crossing the goal line (calling Chris Johnson and DeSean Jackson).

You thought the fact that Donovan McNabb, who plays what is regarded as the smartest position in the NFL,  didn’t know that there could be a tie in the NFL was pretty darn dumb, right?  (I still can’t believe that one)

Well, Tom Cable may have trumped them all last weekend.  The Bay Area writers are having a field day with him, but rightfully so, for calling that ill-advised fake field goal Sunday against the lowly Chiefs.

Normally, I’m all for a little razzle dazzle to keep your opponent off balance.  The Raiders haven’t done enough of it these last several seasons.  But in this case, it was plain crazy.  Here’s why:

• It was against an opponent the Raiders should beat straight up, without the need for trickery.
• It was 4th and 10.  Not 4th and short, but a whopping ten yards.
• The plan was for Janikowski to run the ten yards (plus the extra 7 yards or so behind the line of scrimmage) for the first down.  Yes, Janikowski.  The fat, Polish guy.  Probably, the slowest guy on the team.
• Upside-downside.  There was much more risk than reward here.  Kick the field goal and you’re up three.  Fail and you give a weak opponent renewed confidence and decent field position.  The worst happened, of course, and that weak opponent took it the other way for six.  Instead of up by 3, the team with easily the most pathetic offense in football is down 7.  10 point swing.  Game over.
• Did I mention this was against the sad sack Chiefs?  Why? Why? Why?

I really like Tom Cable.  Both for his mentality and the fact that he has a loyalty to this team, being a fan growing up, but that play alone was probably enough to relegate him back to assistant coach next year – I hope with the Raiders still.  Head Coach though?  I don’t think so, unless the Raiders hire a dynamic offensive coordinator and he’s more a teacher and figurehead.

The Raiders committed a whopping 14 penalties, mostly of the discipline-lacking, pre-snap variety.

And the Raiders won?

Typical Raider buffoonery -  a neutral zone infraction by the Raiders on a Jet punt gave New York a first down and led to their only touchdown.  Oh, and it negated a nice Higgins punt return to boot.

Don’t pull my leg and tell me the Raiders still won.

The Raiders extended their streak and once again could not punch it in from the red zone in the entire first half.

You say the Raiders won?

The Raiders were only 4 for 17 in third down conversions.

The Raiders couldn’t have won.

The Raiders were outscored again in the fourth quarter.

Their typical fourth quarter meltdown to lose in the end….wait….they won?

Janikowski missed an important 40 yard field goal in the second quarter that would have put the Raiders up and perhaps helped to win the game in regulation.

Ah yes, the inconsistent kicker that the Raiders wasted a first round pick on….once again costs them a game.  They surely must have lost by those three points, right?

A running back on the 27th ranked rushing offense gained 159 yards on the Raiders.  Justin Fargas, on the other hand, averaged a measly 2.6 yards per carry.

The Raiders surely couldn’t have won.

The Jets kicked a long, 52 yard field goal to tie the game with three seconds left in the game, barely eeking it over the crossbar.  And that was after a time out was called by the Raiders just moments before a miss.

Of course, the Raiders lost, right?  In their patented torture-the-loyal-fan way, where victory is dangled before them and then snatched away by bad coaching, tackling, penalties….whatever it takes.

Speaking of the kicking game… In my view, this calling time out to freeze the kicker strategy is self defeating.  I always thought that it just gives the kicker a free, practice kick to warm him up and adjust to the turf and wind conditions.  Jay Feely confirmed that after the game:

“I heard the whistle before I started, which is an advantage to the kicker,” Feely said. “If you’re going to do that, do that before he kicks. I can kick it down the middle, see what the wind does and adjust. It helps the kicker tremendously.”

Live and learn, Tom Cable.  Live and learn.

Now, back to my stream of disbelief….

The Raiders’ Michael Huff loses his starting job, yet is in there just enough to drop an interception that hits him in the gut and probably would have won the game earlier in overtime.

Just another event, call it Raider karma, that leads to a heartbreaking Raider loss?

The Raiders offensive play calling was overly conservative in the fourth quarter with only a three point lead, bringing out boos from the home crowd.

Surely, just conservative enough to keep the Raider defense on the field and tired, thus allowing Brett Favre to drive the Jets to victory, right?

And the Raiders gave the great Brett Favre three (three!) chances to beat them in overtime?

This has 1-5  and a last place tie with the lowly Chiefs in the AFC West written all over it.

Wait?  Regardless of all this, the Raiders came away with a 16-13 victory?  You don’t say?

I can’t take too much satisafaction from it because it was a totally maddening experience.  I must have thought to myself, “here we go again”, at least a half dozen times during the course of the game.

A win feels a heck of a lot better than a loss though.  Enjoy it guys and let’s fix the mistakes before the trip to Charm City.