Wednesday 30 December 2009

CABLE, ABLE ?


I had it decided last week, despite contrary opinion carrying some weight I wanted to keep Tom Cable as Head Coach of the OAKLAND RAIDERS next year.Maybe with an offensive co-coordinator in tow, but still I had decided that continuity was the key to things getting better.


Then I watched the Browns game.


Frustration and anger are an understatement, fortunately my daughters were not in the immediate vicinity at the time.The inability to follow up a win with another one is getting really old, it's maddening, sorry John.It would be slightly less so if the team we lost to this week to perpetuate this ridiculous trend was actually :


a. Good, and

b. Better than us


Watching the re-run (yes I actually watched it again) confirmed to me that the RAIDERS looked the better team and with a few exceptions, had the better players.But again they managed to pull out that loss, and the first place I can find culpability is at the door of the Head Coach.Cable had talked about the game being one of field position, and it took the RAIDERS a quarter to wrestle that field position from the Browns.During the second quarter they were vulnerable, they were vulnerable despite the some erratic play from Charlie Frye, we were at the Browns eleven yard line with a third and three.Here was the game of field position that Tom Cable had talked about, Michael Bush was averaging over five yards per carry for the second week in succession and we had two downs to gain three yards for goal to go heading towards the half.In a worst case scenario we still had field position if we failed to get the first down.So Cable asks Frye to drop back and pass, having already seen the interior line struggle to protect him - SACK, FIELD GOAL.

The ensuing chaotic Browns drive, where the RAIDERS shot themselves in both feet with indiscipline of numbnuts proportions, smacked of frustration, funny that.I was still seething from the fact that we should have been tied at ten, and it seemed that the players weren't too impressed either.

That's not an excuse for the players either, they were truly a set of knobs on that drive, but the fact that a possible 10-10 scoreline quickly became 17-6 is down to Cable, and the implosion before the half also.To top it off he stood on the sideline as it all unfolded with a blank look on his face.You get the impression that there weren't many players who were worried about the reaction to their behaviour from the Head Coach .

Later in the game the RAIDERS had a chance to punch the ball into the end zone again, down close to the Browns line, a couple of scores needed and decent clock time left.Cable chose to drop Frye back on every down, every single down.By this time he had un-necessarily given up on the run, but Bush had gained fifty yards on nine carries in the first half, but inexplicably was not called on in the second, not even when we needed two yards for a touchdown.


BIZARRE.


It felt like Cable was almost asking to be fired.

For every positive thing that he has done for this team, like benching Russell for Gradkowski, he seems to return the status quo with baffling stuff like using Darren McFadden up the middle, or lining up at the two with a five receiver set, who does he think he is Mouse Davis?

And while we are at it, is it me or is John Marshall the only NFL defensive co-coordinator who sees an opponent with a third an a lot to go, with a bad quarterback, who don't want to take any risks in a close game, and doesn't see a draw play coming?I saw it and I am not any sort of co-coordinator.

The coaching decisions all around were poor.Charlie Frye threw the ball forty five times for 333 yards against a team that are unable to stop the run, forty five times!!! not long ago he was our third string QB, he is not Dan f@#*?*g Marino.We ran the ball seventeen times!

Call me mad but what if Frye had thrown it a lot less, hence less interception opportunities, and we had at the very least ran the ball down in the red zone possibly picking up another fourteen points, maybe we win two games in a row.


EH TOM?


P.S. NFL


The shit is piling up.Yes the RAIDERS had themselves to blame for the majority of the penalty tally against them on Sunday.But we still see the stuff like the taunting call on Zach Miller and we know your game.You need to wind your necks in a little, it's starting to get too obvious.And where were the replay's following the player ejections?Obviously they weren't major incidents worthy of such scrutiny.


EH NFL?


The only points of interest for the season finale are :

a. Can the RAIDERS actually get six wins in a season?


b. Can Cable call a worse game than this week?


c. If he does, will we see Al Davis fire a coach at halftime?


d. Will we still be using a FB to return kicks?


e. Do they know it's christmas time at all?


Hope you all had a good one, and all the best foe 2010.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice article and I agree completely. I just don't get why he is so weird with Bush who looks like a premier back in the making if he just got 20+ carries per week.

Now I'm down to praying we don't draft a DB in the 1st round...

Calico Jack said...

I'll take the quiz:

a. Not likely
b. Yes
c. No, he doesn't act fast on anything
d. Yes
e. Yes, the bank accounts are filled to the brim