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If Russell signs, Raiders will be in for real QB controversy
By Stefani Rebekah Black September 10, 2007 |
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Raiders Coach Lane Kiffin said it best, the Raiders offense started out slow in the first half, just the calls were not getting out to that offense as quickly as succinctly as possible as they would have wanted. The consistency that they were looking for and what the fans at the Coliseum was looking for coming in after looking at a 2-14 team from last season that was really difficult. So these Raiders fans are going to continue to be hard on the team and on Kiffin until they see some improvement and frankly there was very little progress in terms of offense for the Raiders during this game last Sunday. The fans still saw the seven-step drop from last season, and the offense just sputtered and the loss of Jeremy Newberry, was lost on the first snap of the game of the new season. Just to lose him was losing that rocket center that guy that's going to be able to check off and be able to look out for the offense with him gone you saw the noticeable difference with the presence of center Jake Grove who not intimidating. Kiffin is going to stick with Josh McCown at quarterback and Kiffin has said he was proud of what McCown did last Sunday and what he accomplished in that game. Kiffin was proud of the team. McCown has a 93% rating for that game looking really good completing 30-40 passes but looking at the game as both a fan and a journalist it looked shaky to me. It looked like the offense was not quite getting the leadership the talent deserved. The ball was heavily distributed to running back Ronald Curry. It was Curry's game and it was LaMont Jordan's game so they were not able to spread the ball ordinarily the way they do and not enough deep passes not traditional Raider football. Still that West Coast thing experiment that the Raiders were working on and Josh McCown was the player that was going to continue to lead that experiment until that starts to falter and then your going to see Daunte Culpepper. If JaMarcus Russell signs then what? Obviously your not going to be a coach favorite because he hasn't been here so he still going to sit. The Raiders have to learn to get their talent moving, and get their youth movement going and it just doesn't seem to be in the mix for the team right now. With Russell is not being in camp then not being at the season opener that's a problem when you can't get your first rounder in there and to get him active it’s going to be a problem for him in his career getting started until later. But talking to the players, they really don't miss Russell right now they're dealing with what they have on the table right now because he's not here and in talking to a lot of the fans in the stands. The fans in the stands they say the same thing, he's not here we can't worry about him right now we want to see Culpepper. In fact, the fans last Sunday chanted Culpepper's name throughout the game and the crowd got louder and louder and louder as the game went on and with Josh McCown leading that team and the want McCown out. Denver matches up with the Raiders next game: Now that is a difficult to call in terms of the Broncos because that is a division rival for the Raiders. It is going to be an intense game and its going to be a struggle as the Broncos are struggling defensively and offensively they have many changes. The Raiders could look at this as an opportunity to get one of their division games wrapped up Kansas City not looking good, it took San Diego 3 or four fumbles their last game on Sunday in order to win. So the AFC West is open right now but if the Raiders cannot win home games, cannot beat teams as bad as the Detroit Lions at home, then how are they going to do in their division. The Raiders have been 0-4 in their division the last two years so they have to find a way to win that division or else they are going to look at that 8-8 season maybe even less. Stefani Rebekah Black covers the Raiders and co-hosts Sportstalk on 1690 KFSG Sacramento. |
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