Too Little Too Late For The Oakland Raiders

 “It’s a sick and hurting feeling that you can’t describe.”--Quarterback Josh McCown

By Barbara Mason 11/05/07
Raiderdrive.com/Bay Area Sports

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Alameda, Ca. The spark that many had hoped Josh McCown would provide for a struggling Oakland offense went up in smoke as early as the first quarter of Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans.  There was no spark, not even the slightest glimmer of one.  What there was, was yet another disappointing loss 24-17 dropping the Raiders to 2 and 6 leaving the grim possibility of tying last year’s season record.  It was another ugly game.  The stadium was emptying out with nearly five minutes left in the game as disappointed fans hurried off to lick their wounds.

The few and far between highlights were shadowed by yet another miserable performance.  Against all odds, Oakland continued to fight and the Raiders final drive of the game yielded a last minute touchdown after only 2 plays from the Houston 31 yard line and a 28-yard touchdown to #17 Tim Dwight with less than two minutes left in the game.  It was too little too late and yet one more case of coming up short for Oakland.  The Texans covered the ensuing onside kick, and the game was all but over.

What went right for the Raiders in this game?  Punter Shane Lechler continues to amaze with several more 60+ yard punts.  He had one for 64 yards and another for 62.  The hard-working safety Stuart Schweigert intercepted a ball meant for Houston’s Kevin Walter in the second quarter.  Just as the half was about to expire, Kicker Sebastian Janikowski attempted a 64 yard field goal which had the distance but hit the right upright.  You’ve just got to give that one an A for effort.  DE Jay Richardson was able to block a Texan 43-yard field goal attempt in the third quarter.  “I hopped over the center and got my hands up,” explained Richardson.  “I was just trying to give us a chance and keep us in the game,” he said. 

Justin Fargas had the first Raider touchdown of the game on a one-yard romp in the fourth quarter.  He finished the game with 104 rushes on 23 carries.  The Texans brought exactly what Fargas and the team had expected.  “They play hard.  They have some pretty strong and physical guys up front, their linebackers play hard but that is what we expected.  We just didn’t execute consistently like we expected to do.  That was the difference,” said Fargas.  “We kind of hurt ourselves today.”  Running back LaMont Jordan who came into the season like gang-busters was held to 4 carries for 10 yards.  He also caught 2 passes for 16 yards.

Three interceptions from quarterback Josh McCown (photo left) made things very tough for the Raiders.  The offense just seems to be all over the place even against a team like Houston and they need to figure something out and soon since the season becomes very tough after next week’s game against the Chicago Bears.

“We came out extremely slow and got ourselves in a hole again.  I thought we had some good things going but the same things we talked about all week happened.  I am proud of the effort; the guys keep playing right to the end.  You never know what is going to happen at the end,” said Coach Kiffin after the game.  “We’ve got a lot of things to figure out,” he concluded.  He felt that quarterback Josh McCown did not protect the ball as well as he could have and also forced the ball a little bit.  “He played a poor first half but then he battled back at the end.”

Coach Kiffin was happy with the performance of Justin Fargas who started at running back in this game.  “He will start again next week. I thought he ran extremely hard and protected the ball.  It was a decision that we made last week and he (Fargas) responded. 

Kiffin admitted that he thinks about playing JaMarcus Russell all the time.  “You’ve got to make sure that JaMarcus is ready to play.  You better make sure that you’ve got the right stuff around him and that he knows what he is doing.  You don’t want to have to re-build him.  This is a guy that is not used to losing and having offenses not playing well around him.  The last thing you want to do is put him in when he’s not ready,” said Kiffin.

It was a downcast and disappointed Josh McCown who met with the media.  “I am not going to make any excuses.  I’ve got to play better than that.  I started slow and that’s not acceptable,” said McCown.  “We wanted to be aggressive with what we did and coming into it, they (Houston) were a heavy man coverage team.  We are not pulling our weight.  Everybody has a mistake at the wrong time and it hurts us, whether it’s turnovers on my part or penalties.  It just kills your momentum.”  This loss self-admittedly deeply hurt McCown.  “It’s a sick and hurting feeling that you can’t describe.”

The Oakland Raiders cannot dwell on the bad things that have happened, they need to toughen up and do whatever it takes to come out and play as a team.  They need to move on and try to get the offense going and pull a few wins out.  As the losses begin to mount, it can be like a sledge hammer threatening to weigh very heavy on the team and mercilessly chip away at their spirit.   The Raiders will have one more home game against the Chicago Bears next Sunday before they go out on the road against the Minnesota Vikings.