The 5 Step Drop 11.22.07: Regular Season Week 12
Posted by Javier Zuniga on 11.22.2007
Just why are the Oakland Raiders so terrible? Who is to blame and how long is Al Davis going to be waiting for another Super Bowl ring? Plus a preview of all the Thanksgiving games and which mediocre team will end up with a spot in the NFC Play-offs?
Namaste.
First off, I'd just like to wish everyone out there reading the column a Happy Thanksgiving. The NFL has become such an important part of the Thanksgiving festivities that we will be previewing all three Thursday NFL games, even though two of them look like they might be total dogs. Let's face it: other than turkey and pretending to like your relatives, the NFL is the Thanksgiving holiday.
Hey, and if the games themselves aren't the best, my picks are. After going 4-1 last week, my record for the season is 34-16. I'm hotter than Lindsay Lohan's mug shot.
But before we get to that, I want to discuss the latest bit of senility to come out of the NFL. A few week's back, Don Shula tried to label the Patriots with an asterisk. Because they aren't playing the game with leather helmets or some damned reason. And now, this comes out: Oakland Raiders owner/general manager/crypt-keeper had some interesting thought on his future with the team, as first reported in the Minnesota Star Tribune.
Al Davis has been running the Raiders for 44 years. He has seen the Raiders win three Super Bowls among their 28 winning seasons and has been inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
Sunday, he sat in a Metrodome executive suite and talked about his refusal to retire until he wins two more Super Bowls. He is convinced he can accomplish that.
TWO more Super Bowls?
Really?
REALLY???
Legend has it, if you look in a mirror and say Al Davis three times, he will appear behind you covered in blood!!!
.
After starting the season 2-2, Oakland has lost six straight games and is again one of the worst teams in the NFL. I say "again" because being one of the worst teams in the NFL has become par-for-the-course for this once proud franchise. Not counting this season, they are a combined 15-49 since their Super Bowl appearance following the '02 season. That's awful. Terrible. To put it in perspective, they have less wins over that span than perennial doormats Cleveland (19), Detroit (19), Houston (20), and Arizona (20). Ironically enough, all four of those teams are at .500 or better this year while the Raiders….they still suck.
As a matter of fact, they are actually getting worse. Last season, Raiders Nation could at least comfort themselves by saying they had a great defense and would be able to turn it around as soon as they got some production out of their offense. This year? They are one of the worst defenses in the NFL. To be fair, they are "good" against the pass, but that's probably because teams are too busy going for 5 plus yards per rush to throw the ball. And they can't rush the passer.
But at least their offense is still terrible. Mainly because their QB play has been spotty and their big-ticket free-agent RB from a few years ago, Lamont Jordan, has completely fallen apart.
And for the 77th consecutive season, they are one of the league's most penalized teams. And one of the worst teams as far as Turnover Margins.
Other than that…I'm sure Al's vision of multiple Super Bowls is right around the corner.
But why are they so bad? Well, start with the Great and Powerful Oz, himself: Al Davis. It's hard to believe these days, but this old codger was once considered one of the most innovative and daring minds in all of sports. He was one of the founding fathers of the American Football League. As coach of the Raiders, his teams were one of the first to play the wide open style that made the AFL so popular. He became AFL commissioner and immediately began a campaign of signing NFL free agents and throwing money at big-name college player which allowed the AFL to gain some respectability. Hell, if it was up to Davis, the AFL would never have merged with the NFL since he was convinced that eventually HIS league would've put the NFL out of business.
Over the years, he has taken pride in his team being talented and intimidating. He took pride in not caring about "personality issues" and other coaches often referred to his players – men like Jack Tatum, Ken Stabler, Lyle Alzado, and John Matuszak – as rebels, thugs, criminals, and space cadets (seriously…check out some stories here about Tatum and Matuszak when you have a second). But to Davis, that didn't matter as long as you performed on the field. Just win, baby! The Raiders were ..frankly…a little scary. They were the anti-hero, the outlaw, the very definition of the word ‘cool.' In the 70s, if the Steelers were the Stones, and the Cowboys were Elvis, then Oakland was Johnny Cash. They were the team you loved to hate…the villains you rooted for.
Davis' rebellious nature also meant that he made some very progressive decisions off the field: he was the first to hire a Hispanic head coach (Tom Flores in 1979), the first to hire an African-American head coach (Art Shell in '89), and team president Amy Trask is the highest ranking woman in the NFL.
Dath Vader shakes hands with The Emper- woops! My mistake, that's Raiders Owner Al Davis.
But reading through all that, you might notice something. Al Davis hasn't been an "innovator" for almost 20 years. Al Davis hasn't been cool since Bo Knew Football. And the Raiders stopped being intimidating so long ago that other teams are more worried about what Raiders fans will do than anything that might happen on the field. The game, in short, has passed Al Davis by.
As the general manager, Davis has made a string of bad decisions. He signed Lamont Jordan from the Jets to be his feature back. Then went right out and paid Dominic Rhodes $7.5 million do the same thing. Now Jordan is hurt, Rhodes was suspended for the early part of the year because of drug violations, and the Raiders' best back is Justin Fargas…a third round pick from three seasons ago. Way to use that cap space, Al!
He's also made the QB position a joke. Since former league MVP Rich Gannon went down with injury in 2004, the position has been played (and I use the term loosely) by such luminaries as Kerry Collins, Andrew Walter, Aaron Brooks, and Marques Tuisasoso-what. Hell, they even brought Jeff George in for a cup of coffee last season. Daunte Culpepper has been erratic at best All the while, the Raiders managed to pass on several high-caliber NFL quarterbacks in the draft (which we'll touch on later).
And the biggest mistake in recent memory? How about trading a 1st round pick, a 7th round pick, and their starting LB (essentially another 1st) to the Vikings for Randy Moss – watching Moss do NOTHING for two years because his offense is terrible and his coaches are grossly incompetent – and then trading him away for a 4th round pick to New England? And now Moss is –surprise! – poised to shatter the record for single season TD catches and is arguably the league MVP. Maybe someone needs to tell Al that it's "buy low and sell high" and not the other way around?
We might as well complete the circle and talk about the draft as well. Let's take a look at Oakland's first round picks since 2000, keeping in mind they received two extra picks for allowing Gruden to go to Tampa Bay:
2000- K Sebastian Janikowski: Monumentally stupid pick. SeaBass isn't bad, but there are comparable kickers all over the NFL that were selected in the second day or were free agent signings. To put it in perspective, Seattle took star RB Shaun Alexander two picks later.
2001 - S Derrick Gibson – BUST! Out of the league
2002 - LB Napolean Harris – BUST! Traded to the Vikes for Moss, and then lost his starting job.
2002- CB Phillip Buchanon- BUST! Traded to Houston and then waived
2003 - DE Tyler Brayton – BUST! Along with Buchanon, he was the compensation for losing Gruden. The Bucs got a Super Bowl; the Raiders got a guy who has six sacks in five seasons.
2003 - CB Nnamdi Asomugha – Really good player. Best Raiders pick of the millennium, actually
2004 - T Robert Gallery – GIANT BUST! This was only made worse by the fact that the Raiders passed on both Ben Roethlisberger and Matt Schaub to make this pick. Either man would be 10 times the QB the Raiders have now.
2005- CB Fabian Washington – solid player
2006 - S Mike Huff - solid player, but again they passed on QBs Matt Leinart and Jay Cutler.
2007 – QB JaMarcus Russel – who knows? The raiders low-balled him for months so now this season may or may not be a total waste of time.
So there you go…ten picks and to show for it the Raiders have one good player, two solid players, a total unknown, and six total disasters. The Clippers don't draft this crappily.
Al Davis contemplates his next personnel move: "Michael Vick as an Oakland Raider…..EXCELLENT!!!
And the final insult is, with all these mistakes he's made, none of them are the biggest reason why Al Davis is hurting this team. The ultimate mistake Al Davis is making is that he is not able to set aside his own ego and do what's best for the team he loves so much. He was successful for so long that he no longer has the willingness to change. And when it comes to the league – actually when it comes to the business world and life in general – if you refuse to change or adapt, no matter how successful you used to be, eventually you WILL fail. Evolve or die.
Al Davis reminds me a lot of someone at my "real job." To protect the innocent, let's call him ‘Larry.' Well, Larry is the head of a division of our company and has been very successful in the past. He always did things HIS way and was always able to get customers HIS way and was able to beat the competition even when the competition was companies that were bigger and more well-known. And he did it HIS way.
The one negative to that is, however, that HIS way is now the ONLY way in his mind.
He won't change his marketing strategies. "Door to door has worked for years. Why wouldn't it work now?"
He won't upgrade his equipment. "We never needed it before."
He meddles constantly. If a sales person gets a contract signed that isn't at HIS idea of what the price will be, he'll call the client to renegotiate. This not only pisses off the client, it undermines and embarrasses the salesperson. "I could get a better deal. And if they don't like the price, maybe we don't need them as a customer."
He haggles with his own people. Even after a sale is made, he will find reasons to chip away at the commission amount to save on what he has to pay the salesperson. Sure, it cuts the costs of the division, but you end up with people who feel like they are getting screwed over no matter how hard they work, so why bother? "If I pay them on all their commission, they get spoiled. This way….I know they work harder!"
So now the only people who will work that division are either cast-offs who can't find work anywhere else or people who absolutely need a break and will take an opportunity no matter what. Because it doesn't matter how talented or capable someone is if they aren't allowed to do thier job. No one wants to work for a boss like that.
Exactly like Al Davis. There is a reason why the Raiders head coaches are either e-treads who were fired by other teams or young coaches who probably would've had to wait years for a head coaching gig otherwise. Why would any self-respecting coaching candidate with a decent resume and an opportunity to coach somewhere else work for an owner who won't pay him as much, won't pay for talent, constantly meddles and will openly contradict his own coaches' game-plans, and will never allow the coach to have any input on personnel moves?
And those young coaches Al "discovers"? The ones he gives their "big break" to? If they have any kind of talent or acumen they will get as much as they can out of the situation and then leave as soon as they realize how screwed up things are. Just like Mike Shanahan and Jon Gruden. Honestly, would it surprise anyone if Lane Kiffin ended up being a tremendous offensive mind, helps turn the Raiders around, and then leaves to win a Super Bowl with some team like the Chargers? That would be par for the course, wouldn't it?
In the end, the Raiders became great because of Davis. And now they are awful for the same reason. Until he steps aside and gives power to someone better equipped and more familiar with today's game, then the Raiders will never be consistently successful again. Until he hands over power to someone confident enough to hire good people and then actually let them do their job the Raiders are doomed to failure.
Al doesn't plan to move aside until he wins two more Super Bowls? Then he will be running the team while his cold, dead corpse is propped up in the corner of the owner's box, because that isn't happening any time even remotely soon.
On to the games:
Thursday, November 25, Green Bay Packers (9-1) @ Detroit Lions (6-4) : I said last week that the Lions needed to beat the Giants because of the way their schedule falls. After next week's game against the Vikings, they conclude the season with four straight games against teams in the play-off chase, including the season finale at Green Bay against this Packers team. Unfortunately, Jon Kitna is throwing picks again and the defense, which has been giving up a ton of yards all year, isn't forcing many turnovers at the moment.
So what are the positives? Well, Green Bay is one of the worst teams against the rush. Of course, the Lions are last in the league in rushing and two weeks ago, they set an NFL record low by rushing for -18 yards in a game.
They've got that going for them.
The Lions flat-out need this game more than the Packers do. Not just for the play-off picture, but for the big picture. The Thanksgiving game has always been a sense of pride for this franchise but after years of lousy teams and three straight blow-out losses (including a humiliating loss last season to a bad Dolphins team led by former #1 pick Joey Harrington) there was talk at the league office of taking the game away from the Lions. So for the state-of-mind of the team, and the psyche of these players, the Lions MUST win.
Which is too bad, because the Packers are going to hand them their lunch. Green Bay, in a blow-out.
Thursday, November 25, New York Jets (2-8) @ Dallas Cowboys (9-1) : Why do the Cowboys always play on Thanksgiving, you say? Because they're America's Team. It's tradition. That's the way it's always been.
But the Lions started playing on Thanksgiving in 1934 and the Cowboys didn't start until 30 years later, you say. WELL WHY DON'T YOU SHUT YOUR BIG FAT PIE-HOLE! That is my response.
This game against the J-E-T-S Jets has all the markings of one of those dreaded "trap games." The Cowboys just swept past the entire NFC East in consecutive weeks, have only a few days to prepare, and could possibly be looking ahead to their showdown with the Packers next Thursday. But c'mon…it's the Jets. Who are we kidding? The game isn't even really worth talking about so let's just get another dose of that sweet, sweet love potion I like to call: ROMOWENS!!!!
Cowboys win.
Thursday, November 25, Indianapolis Colts (8-2) @ Atlanta Falcons (3-7) : This could be a very strange game. Without WR Marvin Harrison (and to a lesser extent that Gonzalez kid from OSU) the Colts have looked very…um….ordinary. Peyton is throwing picks, the line can't get RB Joseph Addai out of the blocks, and the defense isn't making any big plays. If KC had any kind of offense last week, the Chiefs win that game.
This is why it's hard to pick against the Colts here. The Falcons are very similar to the Chiefs. They have talent at the skill positions but their QB doesn't make any big plays and eventually I just don't see the two-headed combination of Joey Harrington and/or Byron Leftwich doing enough to get past the Colts.
This game will be very ugly, but the Colts will win.
Sunday, November 25, New Orleans Saints (4-6) @ Carolina Panthers (4-6): and Washington Redskins (5-5) @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-4): I'm merging these two games because they are both very similar.
Both games are key for the NFC play-off standings.
Both games feature teams that are wildly inconsistent. Does anyone have any clue which version of Drew Brees is going to show up? Or who is going to be throwing the ball to Steve Smith? Is Jason Campbell for real? Why do the Skins run so much when they are clearly more effective passing the ball? And who in the hell did the Bucs pay to get this schedule? They have ONE win against a team with a winning record. I'm pretty sure they play next week against Duke.
I know the NFL likes parity, but couldn't we just eliminate on of these NFC slots and open up a spot for a team like Tennessee or Cleveland that are both far better than these four teams and both could miss the play-offs?
I'll take the Saints and Skins. But if this were hockey, I'd say both games would end in a tie.
Well, that's all for this week. Again, I wish you all the best and have a wonderful holiday. Watch football. Enjoy the company of your families. And eat until you puke up a kidney.
