Optimism In Oakland: Raiders Set to Take On The 2nd Half

McFadden should be back.  Gallery should be back.  Schilens should be ready to debut.  Looking ahead to Sunday's game against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Raiders haven't had a reason to be this optimistic since week 2 against, well, the Kansas City Chiefs.  Prior to that game, Oakland punished the San Diego Chargers before falling short in the end, losing on Opening Night.

Oakland's first half was marred by inconsistent play, drama, and injuries.  They limped into the much-needed bye week with a record of 2-6.  Even in their two wins, the level of inconsistency is apparent.  In week 2, the Raiders squeaked by the Chiefs with a come from behind victory, but yet their other win was a dominating defensive performance against the heavily favored Eagles, a team few have assaulted like the Raiders did.  While the rushing attack and passing game have been disappointing, Sebastian Janikowski, Shane Lechler, Zach Miller, Michael Huff, and corners Chris Johnson and Nnamdi Asomugha are all having very solid seasons.

Everyone knows about the drama the Raiders endured in the first half.  From Coach Tom Cable's woes dealing with the Randy Hanson incident and now accusations of domestic assault to JaMarcus Russell's regression into mediocrity (at best), the Raider Nation had one collective migraine. 

But, despite all of that, optimism is abound in Oakland.  The injuries are healing.  We hope that will cure some of the inconsistent plays, which will hopefully help alleviate the drama.  Maybe I'm asking too much here, I probably am, but a 4-4 second half would finally shake the 11-loss curse.  While the Raiders have three favorable games (Chiefs, Redskins and Browns), that leaves 5 tough games (Broncos, Cowboys, Steelers, Bengals, Ravens).  But, as the Raiders proved against the Eagles, no matter how much people want to say parity is gone in the NFL, and there is too much of a gap between the "haves" and have-nots", the old quote rings true:

"On Any Given Sunday".  That's reason enough for me to be optimistic.