Can Tom Cable make Al Davis look like a genius?

What has happened, happened.  And what has been done is done.

Through four games the Oakland Raiders are 1-3.  Losing two games in which they held a 9 and 12 point lead going into the 4th qtr.  They are a few plays from being a 3-1 team.  The Raiders had two potential playoff teams right where they wanted them but could not close out the deal.  If they could've been focusing on football 100%, who knows what could have happened.

Now the team can get back to just football.  Tom Cable is taking over a team that is on the verge of taking that step out of the bottom half of the NFL.  We have a solid core of good young players and now they know who their coach will be for the rest of the season.  He already worked his magic with the offensive line turning the Raiders into a dominate rushing team.  He also helped reduce the sack total by nearly 30.  If he can get the team to believe in him as the O Line does, he may be able to turn this thing around.

After two practices, the Raiders seem to be a more "upbeat" team.  Tom Cable says that he stresses tempo.  The offense will be more balanced with him at the helm.  One thing that he says will be different is that the Raiders will be taking more shots downfield when teams stack the box with 8 or 9.  Instead of just running our backs into a pile, we'll look to find someone deep off play-action.  We also shouldn't see any more back to back 3 & outs with 6 rushes for a combined 4 yards. 

Under Cable, JaMarcus Russell will get more chances to go downfield like against S.D.  That was the first game that Greg Knapp called plays with Kiffin.  Now Greg Knapp will be calling all of the plays with Cable having the final say on how the Raiders are going to attack on offense.  That should open things up for Russell.  He connected on an 84 yard strike to Johnnie Lee Higgins and followed that up with a 64 yard TD pass to Zack Miller.  With more opportunities JaMarcus Russell will connect on more long TD passes.  He only had 3 attempts in the 2nd half of the Buffalo game yet connected on that 84 yard TD.  He may have hit on another if he had more attempts.

Time will tell if Al made the right move.  Hopefully the team comes together and rallys around coach Cable. 

RAIDERS 4 LIFE ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !