The easiest game of the year for the Oakland Raiders was the first one against a bad New York Jets team…and the Raiders lost.
Since then the losses have piled up and the rest of the schedule does not portend any future victories.
They have now lost their first eight games and seven of their final eight are against teams who are currently .500 or better. It would seem that the Raiders best chance for victory would be against the St. Louis Rams or the San Francisco 49ers.
The main factor for their current plight is having the worst offense in the NFL, one that has scored a measly 129 points. That averages out to 16 points per game. Only twice this season have the Raiders scored more than 20 points.
Part of the problem is that they are trying to develop their quarterback of the future, rookie Derek Carr, who is bound to make mistakes at the most crucial position on the field.
But just as important, the Raiders do not have enough talent on their roster to make up for Carr’s learning time.
A more pertinent question is how did the Raiders get into this state? One thing, based on their history, is that the Oakland Raiders are not associated with losing, but since their last Super Bowl appearance in 2002 they have been dreadful.
Let’s start with coaching. The Raiders have had 18 head coaches in their history and the glory years were under John Madden and Tom Flores from 1969-1987.
Flores was only the Raiders seventh head coach. Since then there have been eleven more coaches in 27 years, a coach lasting on average less than three years. Only Bill Callahan, who lasted two years, can say that he had a successful tenure.
The Raiders are still desperate for a leader at that key position, firing Dennis Allen this year and replacing him with Tony Sparano.
The other key leadership position is at quarterback and like the head coaching position, only two men in Raiders history can say they were winners, Ken Stabler and Jim Plunkett.
Since Plunkett’s departure in 1986, only two quarterbacks, Jeff Hostetler and Rich Gannon have shown the leadership necessary to lead the Raiders to success.
The draft has not been kind to the Raiders. The most terrible blow was the failure of quarterback JaMarcus Russell who had a miserable three-year stretch with the team before being released. The question will always remain was he bad, or was he rushed and mishandled?
Another problem is that the famous “reclamation projects” that were successful in the Raiders early history have not panned out. Instead of Ted Hendricks and Jim Plunkett, the Raiders got Jeff George and Carson Palmer.
While the Raiders have fallen, the rest of the league and its fans have rejoiced. The Raiders deliberately set out to create an image of villainy. Cheering for them is like cheering for the bad guy in professional wrestling or an outrageous villain like Shakespeare’s Richard III.
Therefore their present predicament is seen by their foes as justice coming home to roost on the forces of evil.
But for their fans, this year is a sad case of eating humble pie and a horrible nightmare. For them, there are prayers that the remaining eight games of the season will not prove for their “Richard” to be a winless Bosworth Field.
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