Oakland Raiders Have a Gateway Game Against San Diego Chargers: Make or Break?

One article described Bruce Gradkowski as a quarterback looming on the sidelines to become the permanent starting quarterback. Well, the injury has disqualified him.

Now, since some folks do better when the competition is close on their heels, let's now wonder if Jason Campbell is going to perform in an elite fashion. Will he get too relaxed because his colleague has been put on the reserves?

Let's hope he plays an excellent game for more than one reason. A loss on Sunday could set the Oakland Raiders too far back and stifle future opportunities, thereby making the Raider Nation wait another year.

The good news is that an experienced quarterback has been signed. His name is J. T. O'Sullivan. Now the depth chart shows Campbell, Kyle Boller and then O'Sullivan.

The Raider Nation hopes for a better year are dependent on the remaining games this season. As one writer said, it is mathematically possible to pull through and still do well. I am just hoping that the mathematics is the deterministic type, where an input guarantees a certain output. If the model is probabilistic (and it is), unless the offense and defense is very effective and powerful from this point on, things could very well go wrong.

Don't throw in the towel yet. As a senior politician said, "Keep hope alive." That's it. Continue to look at the good side and remain hopeful.

As I sit in the lobby of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Building at Texas Southern University, two outstanding young football players watched me write this article.

I told them how my hopes have been high for the Oakland Raiders and for TSU. They smiled because they are headed toward a championship game in Alabama. It's on Dec. 11. By that date we will have a better idea of the fate of the Oakland Raiders. Of course, we will also know if TSU won the championship on that day.

Let's just say that I am "half-happy." Is there such a thing as "half-happy." I am stretching it a bit and using "poetic license."

I admit that I enjoyed the "spark" in Bruce Gradkowski. He did some good. The spark gave out and now the "yo-yo" situation in the quarterback position is quelled. I guess?

Surely, we realize that the game on Dec. 5 is a make or break situation. Either the future will be truncated or a door of renewed opportunity will open.

What do you think?