Oakland Raiders: Powerful Duos Like Flores-Craig, Wilson-Allen Can Defeat Miami

Good games often have great surprises. When you look at the data, you will see that there are some records held by the Oakland Raiders that deserve more attention. In fact, paying attention to what was done and what can be done just might awaken the Oakland Raiders to do something surprising again in 2010.

Powerful duos like Jim Plunkett and Cliff Branch must rise up again. In the game against Miami, there must be a strong pass-reception bond like that of Marc Wilson to Marcus Allen.

A little help from the Jack Tatum, Gene Upshaw and George Atkinson types would add "hot sauce and Tabasco" to spice up the game. In fact, from this point on, the spicing up of the games ought to be at a level similar to the hottest spice known to man.  Mild and sweet will not get the job done.

There need to be some very hot players on the playing field. How hot? Hot like this pepper from India:

"The hottest chilli pepper known to man is the Bhut Jolokia, which also goes under various other names including Naga Morich, Naga Jolokia, or the ghost chilli. This chilli comes from India/Bangladesh and is about 850,000 - 1,000,000 on the Scoville scale. That's seriously hot!"

Here are some of the "hot" historical facts:

Longest Rushing Plays					Year	yards	record held
92	Bo Jackson	11-05-89 vs Cincinnati			60	87
91	Bo Jackson	11-30-87 at Seattle			80	89	20
89	Kenny King	10-12-80 vs San Diego			87	91	7
88	Bo Jackson	12-16-90 vs Cincinnati			89	92	2
87	Jack Larschied	10-16-60 vs Boston			90	88	1
Longest Passing Plays					Year	yards	record held	increase
99	Jim Plunkett to Cliff Branch	10-02-83 at Washington			62	90
94	George Blanda to Warren Wells	11-10-68 at Denver			63	93	1	3
93	Tom Flores to Dobie Craig	10-20-63 vs New York			68	94	5	1
92	Marc Wilson to Marcus Allen	10-07-84 vs Seattle			83	99	15	5
	Cotton Davidson to Dick Dorsey	12-02-62 at San Diego			84	92	1	-7

As you can see it took about 20 years to break one record in the database of the team. For example, in the category of "Longest Running Plays", Kenny King broke Jack Larschield's record.

In the category of "Longest Passing Plays", two players, Cotton Davidson and Dick Dorsey, made history on Dec. 12, 1962. A 90-yard completed pass made the thunder roar in the stadium.

Now, look at the years that George Blanda brought joy to the Raider Nation. It took 15 years to break the George Blanda-Warren Wells record of a 94-yard completion. It was a great moment in Raider history.

Looking back at history, it took five years for the Blanda-Wells duo to break the earlier record of the Flores-Craig duo. See the chart.

There were certainly some powerful duos (quarterback-wide receiver) in those good old days, and we expect a great duo again in 2010.

Then, there was calm in these categories because Blanda-Wells held a record until 1983. The thunder and lightning caused by a completed 99-yard pass made hearts throb and pound. Who did it? It was Jim Plunkett and Cliff Branch.

So, the bridge over troubled waters for the Oakland Raiders could be a powerful duo like Blanda-Wells, Plunkett-Branch or Flores-Craig.

A few surprises would be good news for the Oakland Raiders. Last minute victories coupled with very long completed passes would "Make our day!"

Go Raiders! Find and make those bridges (long passes and long rushing plays) over those troubled waters, and get more victories.

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