Raiders looking to break through; shake away poor efforts after wins
Raiders trying to give themselves bulletin board material
Anytime the Oakland Raiders notch a victory, there always seem to be a good vibe in Silver & Black land – until the following week.
With regularity, the Raiders have put up horrendous performances the following game after victories in 2009.
Example number one: week-three versus Denver.
The Raiders a week earlier had beaten the Chiefs and in front of their home crowd, they could not amass 200-yards of total offense, allowed a then season high 215-yards rushing and JaMarcus Russell was booed during his 12-for-21 61 yards and 2 interception outing. Final score: Broncos 23 – Raiders 3.
“I know that the guys in my locker room are behind me,” Russell stated after that game. “When the fans get to that, it’s kind of where they seem like they’re fed up. But again, until you come out and play like I know we should and get back on track it will be a different story.”
Oakland got back on track three weeks later against Philadelphia…
And then tanked it week seven when facing the New York Jets.
Russell was benched after he went 6-for-11 for 61-yards with two interceptions and two fumbles. The Jets posted 316 yards on the ground led by their rookie Shonn Greene. They faced a beleaguered New York team that had lost Kris Jenkins for the season a week earlier, was in the midst of a three-game losing streak and had to travel to the west coast with a struggling rookie passer.
“I don’t think we could have beaten an Oakland high school team today,” said Richard Seymour after the 38-0 thrashing.
Fast-forward three weeks later and the Silver & Black led by Bruce Gradkowski upset a confident Cincinnati Bengals squad.
But case number three; a Thanksgiving Day match-up versus the Cowboys was a contest of little festiveness.
Dallas tallied almost 500-yards of offense and Gradkowski suffered his first set-back as the starter. Oakland allowed big plays, Miles Austin ripped apart the secondary and Nnamdi Asomugha summed it up by saying, “Trying to win two games for us has been like trying to climb Mount Everest.”
So how will the Raiders fare tomorrow?
Everything sounds good out of the Raider locker room. The team has a new found level of confidence – and a passing game – with Gradkowski under center. But is that enough?
This is the spot where things come crumbling down for the Raiders. And not just in 2009, since they’ve been in this horrid stretch of football, Oakland can’t get anything going after victories. Just last season, after beating the Jets, they went to Baltimore and lost 29-10. Then later in 2008, when they came off a 31-10 win in Denver, they lost 20-13 against the hapless Chiefs in the Black Hole. And Asomugha at that end of that contest had the nerve to state, “It hurts just a little bit because we were thinking about the playoffs.”
The Washington Redskins have not won a game on the road this season. They will be without Albert Haynesworth and DeAngelo Hall. And they will be starting an unknown 2nd year running back out of Utah.
Looking at past occurrences, this spells trouble for the Raiders.
An over-confident bunch facing a team in disarray. Oakland in the past has let the likes of Greene, Kolby Smith, Bernard Scott and journeymen like Ron Dayne run wild over their defense. They’ve stunk it up at home facing teams in turmoil or that came in lacking talent.
Regardless of the situation, Oakland has been dreadful after wins. And even worse against team’s that come in to their stadium under-manned or with a leak in their ship.
A win on versus the Redskins can go a long way.
Especially with Gradkowski leading the way. And if he can ride them through this wave and not fall, it will go a long way for this team’s confidence level that things can change and more severely, it will indict the passer that was at the helm of this team when they stunk it up after victories.
NOTES
- Since Tom Cable took over as coach, the Raiders have been outscored 134-33 after their victories, dating back to October of 2008.
- In that same span of 5 games after wins, Oakland has allowed an average of 222.6 rushing yards per game, have been infracted for 34-penalties and have tallied 11 turnovers.
Contact Author: Victor Cotto – SB Report Columnist
