Featured Columnist

Oakland Raiders at the Bye Week: Rearm, Rethink, Refocus...Will It Really Help?

Senior Writer Written on November 04, 2009

OAKLAND, CA - OCTOBER 18: Head coach Tom Cable of the Oakland Raiders looks on against the Philadelphia Eagles during an NFL game at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on October 18, 2009 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

For the Raiders, this probably wasn't where they expected to be. Coming into the season, the hopes of the Nation would have the team looking at 4-4, maybe 5-3, resting up, and then making the push to the playoffs.

Now, the team will be saddled with the effort to reach seven wins, in effort to keep them from a double digit loss year, yet again.

Oakland does have a few things to look forward to, considering this bye week. For one, it is nicely placed in the middle of the season, not like prior seasons where it would come in week five, and by the end of the year everyone was getting hurt late.

Oakland should also see several players coming back at full power, who have been sorely missed. Robert Gallery, Darren McFadden, and Chaz Schilens should either be ready for Kansas City, or on limited duty, depending on the injuries that exist. Some of our defensive players could also enjoy the week off, getting a chance to heal up.

At this point, I think the team needs to sit down for a couple days and look at what systems of plays worked truly well for this club. Twice our defense came close to delivering wins against the Chargers. We shut down the Chiefs and Eagles when needed.

We got killed by New York teams, we have no offensive numbers to speak of...if it wasn't for the Cleveland Browns ineptness, we'd truly be the butt of Adam Schefter's jokes. As it is, JaMarcus Russell will probably finish out the season, to see if he can work like he did late last year. It's anyone's guess if he can, since he will have Schilens back.

One of the biggest question marks out there, is if Cable will be wearing the headset in Oakland when the bye is over. The Raiders organization did no favor, with it's most recent press release, regarding the allegations of past actions.

Although, it seems foolish to fire a coach from a slapping incident 20 years past...didn't they do a background check on the coaching? Either way, if Cable is removed...it is back to the drawing board.

(1)

26 Comments

There are no comments yet. Get the conversation started by leaving the first comment

Loading more comments...

posted just now

Loading...
Nobody has liked this comment yet

Cancel

This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete

<form action="/accounts/create_from_facebook_comment" class="new_facebook_user" id="new_facebook_user" method="post">	<input id="facebook_user_facebook_id" name="facebook_user[facebook_id]" type="hidden" />
	<input id="facebook_user_proxied_email" name="facebook_user[proxied_email]" type="hidden" />
	<input id="facebook_user_profile_pic" name="facebook_user[profile_pic]" type="hidden" />
	<input id="facebook_user_profile_url" name="facebook_user[profile_url]" type="hidden" />
	<ul>
		<div id="facebook_questions">
			<li class="fb-question" id="facebook_full_name_container">
				<p class="question">
					<label for="facebook_user_use_full_name">Use your full name <strong class="full_name"></strong> on Bleacher Report?</label>
					<br />
				</p>
				<p class="options">
					<input name="facebook_user[use_full_name]" type="hidden" value="0" /><input checked="checked" id="facebook_user_use_full_name" name="facebook_user[use_full_name]" type="checkbox" value="1" />
					<label for="facebook_user_use_full_name">Yes</label>
				</p>
				<div class="input full-name-edit" style="display:none">
					<p>Edit your name for Bleacher Report:</p>
					<div class="fb-first-name">
						<label for="facebook_user_first_name">First Name <em>(required)</em></label>
						<input class="signup_text_input" id="facebook_user_first_name" name="facebook_user[first_name]" size="30" type="text" />
						
					</div>
	
					<div class="fb-last-name">
						<label for="facebook_user_last_name">Last Name <em>(required)</em></label>
						<input class="signup_text_input" id="facebook_user_last_name" name="facebook_user[last_name]" size="30" type="text" />
						
					</div>
				</div>
			</li>
			<li class="fb-question">
				<p class="question">
					<img src="/images/default-user-icon-medium.png" class="profile_pic" />
					<label for="facebook_user_use_profile_pic">Do you want to use your Facebook profile picture on Bleacher Report?</label>
				</p>
				<p class="options">
					<input name="facebook_user[use_profile_pic]" type="hidden" value="0" /><input checked="checked" id="facebook_user_use_profile_pic" name="facebook_user[use_profile_pic]" type="checkbox" value="1" />
					<label for="facebook_user_use_profile_pic">Yes</label>
					
				</p>
			</li>
			<li>
				<a id="facebook_connect_submit"><img src="/images/shared/submit.png" /></a>
			</li>
		</div>
	</ul>
</form>

609
reads

26
comments

1
likes

written on November 04, 2009 Opinion