Will The Raiders Lose 10 Games Again This Year?

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In the history of this historic franchise, the Oakland Raiders never had more than two consecutive seasons of losing 10 or more games, in fact from 1960 to 2002 the Raiders had only had a total of four seasons (this right, FOUR).  

In 1961 (2-12) and 1962 (1-13) were the only two consecutive years, then again in 1987 they went 5-10 and finally in 1997 the Raiders went 4-12 and ended up with the No.4 pick and took Charles Woodson.  Since then the Raiders went (8-8),(8-8),(7-9) and then Rich Gannon and Jon Gruden got going and the Raiders went (12-4),(10-6), and (11-5).

Since then the Raiders have gone 4-12 (2003), 5-11(2004), 4-12(2005), 2-14 (2006), 4-12 (2007), and 5-11 (2008). 

In 2003, the Raiders who were coming off a Super Bowl season, started with a 2-5 record. Much like this year, their two victories were close nail biters against the Bengals and Chargers, both by a field goal.  After the break, they went 2-7 with an impressive victory against the Ravens.  Their record was 4-12 and with the second overall draft pick, they drafted Robert Gallery. 

In 2004, the Raiders lost Gannon, Garner, Tim Brown, Rod Woodson, and they finally got rid of Callahan. Al went shopping. He tried luring away Sean Payton from the Cowboys (but he knew better than to commit) so he found Norv Turner.  They went on to post a 3-6 record by the bye week, with impressive wins against the Tampa Bay Bucs and against the Denver Broncos, after losing to them 31-0 earlier that year.

Like this year's Raiders team, the 2004 Raiders had six losses by less than seven points and three losses by over 20 points  This is because they were a team that were capable of focusing and putting together strong games, but also suffered from a tendency to check out of other games.

In 2005, Turner came back for a go-around, the idea was that giving a coach and players time to develop a system could reap results. Collins was again the starter, with the addition of Lamont Jordan, Randy Moss, and the defensive retooling of  Warren Sapp, Ted Washington, Derrick Burgess, Tommy Kelly, and Nnamdi Asomugha. It seemed like the Raiders were making the right choices. 

However, the Raiders lost the opening game against the Patriots and then two heartbreakers to the Chiefs 23-17, and to the Eagles on a last second field goal, 23-20.  They went into the bye week at 1-3, after the bye they had an impressive win at Buffalo 38-17 and against the Titans, posting their first back to back wins in three years. 

However, they fell apart losing eight out of nine, including six of them by more than 10 points. They earned the seventh pick in the 2006 draft, taking Michael Huff over Cromartie or Cutler. The 2005 edition showed similiarities to 2004, a team with sparks of potential, but little results.

In 2006 after a complete retooling, with Turner gone and Kerry Collins back in free agency, Al Davis hired Art Shell and gave the QB job to Andrew Walter. The personnel was largely unchanged in the starting lineups on defense. The results? The Raiders went 0-5 to start the season, lost 14 games overall (a new record), including failing to score more than three points in five different games. 

This was the worst of the worst and for the Raider's pain and suffering they acquired the first overall pick in the 2007 draft; JaMarcus Russell.

In 2007, after an embarrassing performance by the Raiders, the total meltdown of Art Shell as a head coach began and Davis had to go back to square one. He fired Shell and started the process of finding a new coach. 

Davis had a hard time interviewing; various prominent coaches turned him down. It was USC coordinator Lane Kiffin, that was willing to take the reigns of the team.  A 31-year old puppy that had no real coaching experience at the pro level.

The Raiders started 2-2, similiar to 2003 and 2004.  They had a 35-17 stomping against the Dolphins and showed promising signs, but alkso showed their constant inconsistency by getting slammed by the Jaguars 49-11, or the Packers

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