Oakland Raider Woes Continue: After Another Tough Loss, What is Next?

The Oakland Raiders fell 44-7 in Week Five to the New York Giants. Not only was the offense not anywhere to be found ,as they only came up with 124 total yards, the defense just hasn't been able to find the consistency needed in regrouping a team. Many things have obviously gone wrong in the Black Curtain.

JaMarcus Russell was once thought of to be the quarterback of the future in Oakland. Coming out of a very impressive collegiate level career at LSU the Raiders expected to get a strong armed quarterback who they could rely on in their quest to regain respect in the NFL. He was the first pick of the 2007 draft and some could say it has been all down hill from there.

In his three professional seasons he has completed just over 51 percent of his passes with as many touchdowns as interceptions. In his two seasons on the team Oakland has combined to go 9-23 and are sitting at 1-4 in front of only Kansas City in the AFC West.

Russell has completed a putrid 42 percent of his passes in the early going this season and has only one touchdown pass this season. Russell has to find himself at some point in his career or he will be on the bench watching another quarterback calling the shots in Oakland.

Also on the offensive side of the ball the Raiders have rushed for only 415 yards so far and are averaging just 3.3 yards a carry. As a unit the Raider offense has not been able to capitalize on turnovers and are turning the ball over to many times themselves holding a -4 ratio.

On the defensive side of the ball the Raiders made a pretty big move bringing in Richard Seymour to take the spot as anchor and leader with the departure of Derrick Burgess.

After a close 24-20 loss to San Diego in Week One and a 13-10 victory in Week Two over Kansas City things were shaping up for Oakland to have a nice season but since that game the Raiders have been outscored by a whopping 96-16 margin and have gone 0-3.

With an offense completely unable to move the ball versus anybody since the Kansas city game the defense hasn't been able to step up to the pressure. They have allowed 1,184 yards in the three games versus the Broncos, Texans, and the Giants who are good teams to their credit.

They are allowing 341 yards on average this season and have been on the field for more than half of the time on average in each game.

To add to the on the field struggles head coach Tom Cable has been involved in a off the field incident as he was said to have punched defensive assistant Randy Hanson in the nose on Aug. 5 that is now being looked into closely by the league and pending on their decision Cable may be facing a suspension of unknown length.

Changes need to be made in Oakland. What they are nobody knows but what every single person knows whether it is a new quarterback, coach or even the cleaning lady and water boy they need to happen quickly to salvage a ship sinking very fast.