In Sunday's loss to a New York Jets team that was on a mid-season slide, the Oakland Raiders began searching for a scapegoat. Halfway through the first half the Raiders found themselves trailing 21-0. In an attempt to blame JaMarcus Russell, head coach Tom Cable pulled him from the game, replacing him with Bruce Gradkowski. Yes, Russell was struggling early, with two Interceptions, one a pumpfake which he lossed control of, and the other was in the endzone for Darius Heyward Bey, who fell to the ground rather than making any sort of play on the ball. The second clearly wasn't Russell's fault. The coaching staff had words with Russell, who was steaming with his own poor production, which ended up resulting in him sitting out for the remainder.
Aside from the two interceptions JaMarcus had played fairly well, and was still able to march the team up the field. The decision to pull him will only slow down his learning, because he was still our best chance to win the game. If he wasn't pulled from the game against the New York Giants at the half, down 35-7, why pull him when we are only down by 21 points? Especially when you are working on building his confidence, it makes no sense to show him that you do not think he can bring you out of the hole. His history has a lot of victories in come from behind fashion, that's when he performs at his best. It was the most inconsistant coaching decision I've seen from Cable and his staff.
There was no bigger hoax call than the phantom defensive holding on 3rd and 5, where the Raiders defensive pressure caused Mark Sanchez to make an errant throw immediately after the snap, while Gerrard Warren slammed Sanchez to the ground. This would've forced the punt, but the flag gave them a first down, and eventually led to the third TD of the half. Albeit, it was Russell's INT that led to this Touchdown, but the defense has the chance to get the ball back, and allow the offense to cut the lead in half, and gets fooled by a fake punt. So why not bench the whole first string? Don't place the blame on one guy.
It was a combination of mistakes by several players why they were in an early hole. In a way to make a point rather than searching for a scapegoat, Cable should have sat down all the players that cost the team in any way. The first play fumble should have placed, RT Khalif Barnes on the bench for the remainder of the afternoon. Aside from not blocking Calvin Pace, he tried to trip him, which warrented the second flag against Oakland in two plays.
Oakland's defense was almost able to keep the Jets out of the endzone early, but Thomas Jones pushed through and scored from one yard out on fourth and goal. It is a tough task to ask your defense to keep any team out of the endzone, especially when they start the drive on the four yard line. So this defensive stand will leave all eleven starters on the field.
The second offensive drive starts at the Oakland 18 yard line. The first play, JaMarcus completes a pass to Tight End Zach Miller, for a gain of eight. On second down, Michael Bush runs for a loss of two, which brings up third down and four. The offense was unable to convert for a first down, due to a Louis Murphy dropped pass. So the Raiders send out Shane Lechler to boot the ball deep giving the Jets their second possession of the game.
The Oakland Raiders were able to put some pressure on Sanchez during the second stand, which stalled the Jets offensively. They put a small drive together, yet yielded only one first down, and minimal yardage.
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