Cable throws Russell under the bus... runs him over, then backs up for good measure

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Cable: Without Russell, we're in playoffs

Gwen Knapp, Chronicle Staff Writer


(12-28) 19:36 PST -- Tom Cable's Monday news conference felt like a rerun of a comedy classic.

The Raiders' head coach, sensing a looming pink slip, gets an opportunity to defend his administration and takes it. He doesn't back away from the questions, trying to keep the discussion in-house or off-the-record, as other imperiled coaches might. He submits to the inquiries, because he knows that he has to state his case publicly.

Even if the performance doesn't sway Al Davis, it can't hurt to reach other audiences. After all, three of the last four head coaches (Bill Callahan, Norv Turner and Lane Kiffin) landed pretty great gigs after Davis fired them.

Cable began his news conference with a requisite reliving of Sunday's 23-9 loss in Cleveland, then said he expected Charlie Frye to start at quarterback again when Baltimore visits the Coliseum in the season finale Sunday.

If JaMarcus Russell has something to prove, he probably won't get a chance until next season. Cable and the Raiders can't sacrifice the meager dignity of finishing at 6-10, which would be the team's best record since 2002, to the lost cause of cultivating a No. 1 draft pick who did little but regress when he held the starting job.

"I think this is a big game for this team," Cable said, "and as I said when I made this switch (away from Russell) initially, (it gives) us the best chance to win."

Asked whether the Raiders would be playoff-bound if they had received an average or better performance from their quarterback, Cable quietly and succinctly made the strongest statement of the afternoon: "Without even asking that question, you know that we would have."

He balanced his remarks by calling Russell "a really, really classy kid" and pointing out that Vince Young, the first quarterback drafted in the year before the Raiders took Russell, had lost his job, sat out roughly a year and returned a new man.

But the message wasn't muddled at all: Cable could not win consistently and nurture Russell at the same time. To prove what he and this Raiders team can do together, he'd rather trust a third-string quarterback.

Many, many factors will determine Cable's fate, including the state of the NFL investigation into his temper and assistant Randy Hanson's broken jaw, plus accusations of violence that women from the coach's past revealed to ESPN. The fact that the five-win team has engineered four upsets could work against him as well as for him. Either he got the team to overachieve on several occasions, or Cable had a lot of talent that underperformed in its 10 losses.

The future of Russell, the young man with the rocket arm and close to $40 million of Al Davis' money in his pocket, will weigh on any Raiders head coach. If Davis believes that Russell was the problem this year, then a win over Baltimore might buy another season for the incumbent coach. If Davis follows his pattern and blames his head coach for holding back a young star, he'll have to turn to the Jim Fassel file and decide whether any of the usual-suspect replacement coaches can do better.

So Cable vouched for Russell's potential Monday, if not for Russell himself.

"I'm convinced that he has the tools to do it (become a great quarterback)," Cable said. "Every human being has choices to make, and the choices you make kind of dictate who you are and what you become."

Cable stood up for himself more forcefully, when asked about his work as the offensive coordinator and the effect on his quarterbacks.

"I think at times an exceptional job and at times an average job," he said. "... I think I managed it as well as you can under the circumstances and what goes into the decision making."