teedubya
09-15-2005, 09:57 AM
FUGG YOU, AL. :-)
ALAMEDA — Al's team is in desperate need of a win Sunday evening.
Week 2 at home. At night. Coming off a difficult road loss. Against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Ring a bell?
It's happened in that order only twice. The first time, in 1974, the Raiders lost their opener to the Buffalo Bills 21-20, came home to thrash the Chiefs 27-7, and went on to a 12-2 season.
The other came after a 24-21 overtime loss in Tennessee. It was 1997, a Monday night game at home, a 27-13 lead in third quarter ... Grbac to Rison ... Joe Bugel closes the locker room, too stunned to face a 28-27 loss ... no need to recount the details.
The Raiders had a roster stocked full of big names and former first-round draft picks. They finished 4-12, and Bugel was one and done.Here we are again.
Owner Al Davis promised at the August retirement ceremony for Rich Gannon "to get this thing fixed." The Raiders started the season with a 30-20 loss to the two-time defending champion New England Patriots and did some good things, but didn't exactly cover themselves in glory with 16 penalties for 149 yards.
The 1997 loss to Kansas City began the process that started Davis on the way to making two decisions that have resulted in the only sustained success for his team since he decided to return to Oakland in 1995.
In 1998 he hired a 34-year-old head coach in Jon Gruden.
In 1999, he signed Gannon, a first lieutenant to carry out Gruden's orders.
Neither man practiced or preached the kind of football Davis prefers. But as Davis has said, "I'd rather be right than consistent."
The Raiders won three consecutive division titles from 2000 through 2002 and reached two AFC Championship Games, winning one. The AFC title came under Bill Callahan, who maintained and modified the Gruden system but couldn't conquer the creator in Super Bowl XXXVII.
The Gruden-Gannon collaboration is the only thing separating the Raiders from the Cardinals and Saints in the last 10 years as NFL also-rans.
After Callahan went two-and-out and on to bigger money and more power at Nebraska, Davis remade the Raiders in his own image.
Hired Norv Turner, a coach who runs a form of the Sid Gillman offense Davis started with as an assistant in the days of the Los Angeles and San Diego Chargers.
Brought in Kerry Collins, a strong-armed pocket passer in the Daryle Lamonica-Jim Plunkett mold, to succeed Gannon. Traded for the NFL's premiere deep threat in Randy Moss. Signed a power running back in LaMont Jordan.
No more dink and dunk. The Raiders were going vertical again.
On defense, the area in which New England coach Bill Belichick said "Coach Davis" exerts the most influence, Davis last season brought in aging but big-named tackles Warren Sapp and Ted Washington. Signed Derrick Burgess in the off-season to rush the passer. Drafted speedy corners who looked great in workouts and coming off the bus but have yet to prove their coverage skills.
The Raiders would stop the run, cover, and the quarterback would go down hard.
Cue "The Autumn Wind."
The Raiders have long been Al's team, but this is truly "Al's Team."
When Davis, 76, went to the field at Gillette Stadium before kickoff, the cameras clicked and the film rolled. While it's a jarring sight to see Davis using a walker to get around, he remains the center of attention and the last of his kind — the coach who became an owner.
He remains as defiant as ever, with the ability to steamroll subordinates through sheer force of personality as well as engage in humanitarian acts of kindness, all in total secrecy.
If the Raiders don't beat the Chiefs, or at least demonstrate the potential of a contender in the process of losing, another embarrassing string of blackouts could follow.
If the Raiders are done in by a revitalized Kansas City defense, it means Raiders antagonists Carl Peterson and Gunther Cunningham rebuilt a porous defense quicker and better than Davis did.
If the Raiders fall to 0-2, you wonder if things will be much worse than their record. Davis, widely regarded as a player's owner, said when he fired Callahan he didn't want a disciplinarian.
That being the case, who takes charge if the pirate ship goes off course? A former player and an ex-assistant coach described difficult plane flights home the past two seasons after road losses in which coaches are being berated in front of players who are tacitly receiving the message that it isn't their fault.
Davis is trying. He spent big money on free agents despite the NFL's smallest profit margin, according to Forbes Magazine.
Yet in its opener, Oakland remained a faint copy of its glorious past, a team that hasn't won a Super Bowl in 21 years and has skeptics wondering if it might be 21 more.
Optimists will cite the quality of the opponent and believe better days lie ahead.
If "Al's Team" is going to turn it around, Sunday night is a good time to start.
NFL Editor Jerry McDonald can be reached by
e-mail at jmcdonald@angnewspapers.com.
ALAMEDA — Al's team is in desperate need of a win Sunday evening.
Week 2 at home. At night. Coming off a difficult road loss. Against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Ring a bell?
It's happened in that order only twice. The first time, in 1974, the Raiders lost their opener to the Buffalo Bills 21-20, came home to thrash the Chiefs 27-7, and went on to a 12-2 season.
The other came after a 24-21 overtime loss in Tennessee. It was 1997, a Monday night game at home, a 27-13 lead in third quarter ... Grbac to Rison ... Joe Bugel closes the locker room, too stunned to face a 28-27 loss ... no need to recount the details.
The Raiders had a roster stocked full of big names and former first-round draft picks. They finished 4-12, and Bugel was one and done.Here we are again.
Owner Al Davis promised at the August retirement ceremony for Rich Gannon "to get this thing fixed." The Raiders started the season with a 30-20 loss to the two-time defending champion New England Patriots and did some good things, but didn't exactly cover themselves in glory with 16 penalties for 149 yards.
The 1997 loss to Kansas City began the process that started Davis on the way to making two decisions that have resulted in the only sustained success for his team since he decided to return to Oakland in 1995.
In 1998 he hired a 34-year-old head coach in Jon Gruden.
In 1999, he signed Gannon, a first lieutenant to carry out Gruden's orders.
Neither man practiced or preached the kind of football Davis prefers. But as Davis has said, "I'd rather be right than consistent."
The Raiders won three consecutive division titles from 2000 through 2002 and reached two AFC Championship Games, winning one. The AFC title came under Bill Callahan, who maintained and modified the Gruden system but couldn't conquer the creator in Super Bowl XXXVII.
The Gruden-Gannon collaboration is the only thing separating the Raiders from the Cardinals and Saints in the last 10 years as NFL also-rans.
After Callahan went two-and-out and on to bigger money and more power at Nebraska, Davis remade the Raiders in his own image.
Hired Norv Turner, a coach who runs a form of the Sid Gillman offense Davis started with as an assistant in the days of the Los Angeles and San Diego Chargers.
Brought in Kerry Collins, a strong-armed pocket passer in the Daryle Lamonica-Jim Plunkett mold, to succeed Gannon. Traded for the NFL's premiere deep threat in Randy Moss. Signed a power running back in LaMont Jordan.
No more dink and dunk. The Raiders were going vertical again.
On defense, the area in which New England coach Bill Belichick said "Coach Davis" exerts the most influence, Davis last season brought in aging but big-named tackles Warren Sapp and Ted Washington. Signed Derrick Burgess in the off-season to rush the passer. Drafted speedy corners who looked great in workouts and coming off the bus but have yet to prove their coverage skills.
The Raiders would stop the run, cover, and the quarterback would go down hard.
Cue "The Autumn Wind."
The Raiders have long been Al's team, but this is truly "Al's Team."
When Davis, 76, went to the field at Gillette Stadium before kickoff, the cameras clicked and the film rolled. While it's a jarring sight to see Davis using a walker to get around, he remains the center of attention and the last of his kind — the coach who became an owner.
He remains as defiant as ever, with the ability to steamroll subordinates through sheer force of personality as well as engage in humanitarian acts of kindness, all in total secrecy.
If the Raiders don't beat the Chiefs, or at least demonstrate the potential of a contender in the process of losing, another embarrassing string of blackouts could follow.
If the Raiders are done in by a revitalized Kansas City defense, it means Raiders antagonists Carl Peterson and Gunther Cunningham rebuilt a porous defense quicker and better than Davis did.
If the Raiders fall to 0-2, you wonder if things will be much worse than their record. Davis, widely regarded as a player's owner, said when he fired Callahan he didn't want a disciplinarian.
That being the case, who takes charge if the pirate ship goes off course? A former player and an ex-assistant coach described difficult plane flights home the past two seasons after road losses in which coaches are being berated in front of players who are tacitly receiving the message that it isn't their fault.
Davis is trying. He spent big money on free agents despite the NFL's smallest profit margin, according to Forbes Magazine.
Yet in its opener, Oakland remained a faint copy of its glorious past, a team that hasn't won a Super Bowl in 21 years and has skeptics wondering if it might be 21 more.
Optimists will cite the quality of the opponent and believe better days lie ahead.
If "Al's Team" is going to turn it around, Sunday night is a good time to start.
NFL Editor Jerry McDonald can be reached by
e-mail at jmcdonald@angnewspapers.com.