Authored by: killem on Sunday, November 25 2012 @ 03:16 PM CST

We didn't show up first half so the refs came in 2nd half to assure they won.

This 'whistle rules' nonsense needs to stop.

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Authored by: Oak_Raid on Sunday, November 25 2012 @ 08:40 PM CST

Patience is the prescription in Oakland
November, 23, 2012
By Bill Williamson | ESPN.com

The Oakland Raiders have done a good job of becoming a modern NFL franchise in the past year.

They must continue that trend, and that means owner Mark Davis needs to continue to stay in the background and allow the men he chose to run the football operations to do their job of digging the franchise out of the dregs and make it a viable NFL program.

Davis took over primary ownership of the historic franchise in October 2011 when his father, the legendary Al Davis, died at the age of 82. Mark Davis, who benefited from the mentoring of several of his father’s trusted former employees, hired Reggie McKenzie to become the general manager, a duty his father essentially held from 1963 until his death. McKenzie then hired Dennis Allen to coach the team that hasn’t had a winning record since 2002 and is tied for having the second-longest playoff drought in the league.

Early in the year, Davis proclaimed it was a "brand new day" for the organization. I have been impressed with Davis’ work as the owner, starting with him allowing the football people to do their jobs.

Yet, Davis' actions Sunday worried me. He made some rare public comments, spurred by the frustration of another blowout loss which dropped his team to 3-7. Among the things Davis told reporters was this: “I’m patient, but I want to see progress. Not regression. I’m embarrassed, pissed, disappointed and I take full responsibility.”

I know many Oakland fans were happy that Davis made those comments, and he is certainly entitled to his opinions. But there were some key parts of his media session that struck me. Saying he was seeking “progress” means that Davis may not have patience. He also mentioned that the team’s woes this season shouldn’t be pinned on the team’s salary-cap situation in the offseason. That can be interpreted as a direct knock on the job his team’s brass has done.


It will be in the best interest of the franchise if Davis simply allows his general manager and coach to grow. They are both first-timers in their positions. I suspect that’s what will happen, and I think it's unlikely Davis will make changes there. But what if the losing continues in the final weeks of the season?

Exactly what kind of progress is Davis looking for? Will going 2-4 the rest of the way constitute progress? What if Oakland beats Cleveland and Kansas City at home but gets trounced in the other four games? Is that progress?

Hopefully, advisers such as Ron Wolf, Ken Herock and John Madden -- who all helped guide Davis through the hiring process with McKenzie -- are there to let Davis know it would hurt the organization if he gets impatient.

There is no denying Al Davis was impatient. He went through six head coaches in his final 10 seasons. The instability hurt the franchise.

The Mark Davis era was met with hope because of the expectations for renewed stability. He needs to work through his emotions and stay stable. No NFL program can handle constant change at the top. It appears Romeo Crennel could be on the chopping block in Kansas City after one season as the permanent coach. He was promoted from being the interim coach in January. Chiefs star running back Jamaal Charles, in an interview with the Kansas City Star this week, said:

“I don’t know what the outcome is, what you’re going to get if you keep on changing head coaches and changing head coaches. If you keep doing that, he can’t get the right players here. I feel if you stay with one system and continue to get players … If [Crennel] is here for one year, you just can’t kick him out because he’s not having a good year. Let him get his stuff together and have a couple of years, then we can have a successful year.”

Charles’ words can be related to any NFL franchise.

If the Raiders continue to falter and Davis makes a change, he will show that it’s the same old Raiders and the franchise will be back to square one. Who would want to work for the franchise knowing that it is a one-year audition every season?

Davis needs to realize that the team’s immense salary-cap issues this season are playing a role in the Raiders’ failures. They had to cut several starters and were relegated to signing modestly priced players because of the cap restrictions. Plus, the past couple of draft classes (next year’s class will be small as well) were small because of trades made by the past regime.

McKenzie, who rebuilt the entire pro and college scouting departments, needs to be allowed the opportunity to work free agency and the draft without limitations. Allen deserves to be able to coach a deeper roster.

We all knew it would take time in Oakland. It was predictable that the Raiders would likely take a temporary step back in the spirit of having greater long-term success. Davis has to remember that and chalk up this disappointing season as part of the reconstruction of the franchise.

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Authored by: davis83 on Sunday, November 25 2012 @ 10:53 PM CST

I still submit that KNAPP IS THE PROBLEM. HIS OFFENSE IS STAGNATE, UNIMAGINATIVE,LACKS POWER , AND THAT ZBS MUST GO. 10101010101010101010 POINTS...yes 1010101010 POINTS FROM KNAPP. HORRENDOUS OUTPUT. I hope Reggie Mckenzie,john Madden,mark davis, are analyzing this offensive production or lack of.

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Authored by: xlxkratos on Sunday, November 25 2012 @ 11:01 PM CST

why would they hire a rookie head coach and a rookie DC? we need NFL coaches who can see whats wrong and fix things everyone is saying this reggie knows football crap well he signed off on bringing in KNAPP that tells me ALOT about the guy... we have NO secondary and no LBs and no pass rushing DE's that would start for anyone in the nfl

mckenzie went after two hurt CBs and they get hurt

knowing mcfadden is glass he brings in goodson another fragile puppy and suprise ? they are hurt

C johnson and routt are head and shoulders above anyone we have right now and wheres chekwa? id prefer him over huff

our team is worst off in every position except passing and under hue jackson we could pass with the best of them... the only thing we can hope for is losses like this total failures across the board we need real NFL head coaches not rookies we are the joke of the nfl

under hue all we needed was a DC now we need everything

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Authored by: 0tt0 on Tuesday, November 27 2012 @ 02:54 PM CST

The raiders just completed the worst defensive 4 game stretch in the history of the franchise

Good job coach

Here comes the drive for 5

And it's going to come from the colt McCoy led browns

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Authored by: RaiderSteve8294 on Tuesday, November 27 2012 @ 10:39 PM CST

So I guess it is pretty safe to say we, including myself, are very unhappy with Dennis Allen as head coach, and the rest of the coaching staff as a whole. But does anybody really think the Raiders and GM Reggie McKenize will fire Dennis Allen after one season?? Remember, this is not Al Davis' Raiders anymore. Al Davis would not question be showing Allen the door. But I am not so sure Reggie will do the same, he is trying to rebuild and will most likely give Allen another season to try and improve the team. But If we keep losing by a margin of 20 or more points every week like we have been I do not see Reggie having much of a choice.

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Authored by: Oak_Raid on Wednesday, November 28 2012 @ 06:51 PM CST

McClain on his way to the curb!!

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Authored by: 0tt0 on Thursday, November 29 2012 @ 10:14 AM CST

Now that this season is completely lost Reggie and DA will be in full CYA mode....they will take 2-3 years to get rid of all old regeim players and use that as an excuse for their poor performance...not denying some players must go but the players reggie picked up weren't exactly studs....briesal was our big prize FA this past offseason and he is no better than the guys we got off the street...he picked up new corners that were injured and guess what they are injured again....the veil will come off reggie and DA in due time but they will blame it on someone else as long as possible

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Authored by: AutumnWind77 on Thursday, November 29 2012 @ 10:42 AM CST

Had high hopes for you. But I guess when a punter runs by you for a 6 yard TD you gotta go.

You made it onto Mt. RAIDER Bustmore with JaMarcus, Todd and the late great Eldridge Dickey.

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Authored by: 0tt0 on Friday, November 30 2012 @ 09:35 AM CST

If we dump McClain that will be about a 7.5M hit against the cap next year plus who Evers salary replaces him...this is a Hugh move and reggie and Davis need to make sure DA is here next year before the cut McClain ....suspend him rest of year if possible and let it play out next year

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Authored by: eastcoastraider on Saturday, December 01 2012 @ 04:01 PM CST

At least we aren't the Chiefs...to soon? lol

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Authored by: barryybonz on Saturday, December 01 2012 @ 04:16 PM CST

Here you go girls, McKenzie is telling you what a few have been telling you on this site, and you still don't understand....read what he says and tell us what your thoughts are, this should be a laugh and a half.

Reggie McKenzie......

On the gaps being a coaching issue, or a disconnect with the players:

“I’ve played. I know some of my responsibilities. A lot of that is on the players. Do your job. Just do your job. If you’re going to attack, you shed off the block; you’re responsible for this gap. It’s been preached. This is your job, this is your gap. Most of it is that. Now, sometimes I’m sure certain plays, whether it’s a slant or whether it’s this, that’s a call. Whether slanting or blitzing, maybe that takes him out, because he wasn’t good enough to beat a guy across his face, or wasn’t the right call at that time. For the most part, it’s just being able to just do our job. So, you can live with that, because you can fix it. You can coach it up and say, ‘Hey, you know what you did.’ But the ‘my bads’ kind of get old after a while.”

On how you go about fixing gap discipline, whether it’s a bad habit of players having played under the previous staff:

“Everybody’s trying to make a play, so you try to be the guy going around the opposite way. I understand that, but the guy next to you, the guy behind you, everybody’s got to be on the same page. You spoke of Warren Sapp, but I’m sure his teammates knew what he may do, so you’ve got to compensate for that. Is it innate? I couldn’t tell you that. Some players get used to doing what they do, yeah. But hopefully, that’s what my quest to change the culture of this thing, that part of it you can’t change overnight, because you just can’t change a guy. Some guys, you just can’t change.”

On the lack of pass rush:

“Two things: I want to win up front, and that’s on both sides of the ball, the big boys; but I also want to somehow affect the quarterback position. That’s with good coverage, good corners, a free safety that’s going to pick him off, or with somebody hitting him in pass rush, a good push up the middle, somebody that’s he’s going to be scared of. We’re going to get that. Guys, we’re going to try to upgrade a lot of positions, depth-wise, and get some impact players. That’s going to be on me.”

On an emphasis on getting players that love football, as opposed to people that just tolerate their job, and whether he thinks he has 53 players like that:

“I hope that the guys come to that. I can’t say that everybody is totally like that, no. I really don’t think there’s an NFL team like that. The bottom line is you have to have the majority of them like that, and you got your leadership, players that are strong that way, so when you’ve got some that deviate, then you’ve got a leader that can check them, show them the right way, ‘This is how we do it here.’ When you look at a Ray Lewis, you can pretty much bet, whether it’s a defensive player who’s not totally into it the way he is, I doubt if he shows it much. You know what I’m saying? Your surroundings. That’s part of the whole culture thing, as far as, do you have to have a coach saying, ‘Don’t do that; do this.’ You don’t want that. You want the players to take it upon themselves and run it. We’re not at that level.”

On whether he was surprised at the lack of that this year:

“You scout guys from other teams. You hear about stuff. So, I knew some of those players we had in those leadership positions. But I’ve also been around the LeRoy Butlers, the Reggie Whites, Brett Favres, Aaron Rodgers, you talk about natural leaders, doing it that way, no, I can’t say I have that. Knowing that coming in, no one came to me to tell me, ‘You have a great leader in him.’ So, to answer that question, no. Going in, I didn’t have a bunch of great leaders.”

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Authored by: RaiderSteve8294 on Saturday, December 01 2012 @ 08:14 PM CST

I think Dennis Allen is safe for 2013 as he probably should be even though there are people I would like to see take his place. But does anybody think there is a chance that Greg Knapp will be returning in 2013? If not, who would you like to see taking his place? I myself would love to see a big name coordinator come here. I personally would love if we got Mike Martz out of retirement, I always been a fan of his offense.

Funny situation: Norv Turner is in all likelihood not going to be the head coach of the Chargers in 2013. Who would like to see him come back to Oakland as our OC?? The man clearly cannot run a whole team but is successful every place he goes when he is a OC. It is a interesting Idea, it beats having Greg Knapp running this offense. haha

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Authored by: AutumnWind77 on Monday, December 03 2012 @ 11:03 AM CST

It was the sound of the RAIDERS hitting rock bottom.

That team lost 12 straight road games. They played the game with a concussed quarterback. WTF ??

I'm convinced Palmer is on dope. In these after games interviews I'm waiting for a reporter to ask "Are you high right now Carson?"

I have seen enough. This team is impossible to watch.

Where the F is DMAC? Damn that guy is such a PUSS!!! And we don't have a tough coach that can get him to play.

The entire team plays like a bunch of *censored*es!!! What the hell is this coach doing in practice??? We learned from McClain that he can't get them to do drills. That is why we can't tackle I don't think we even practice tackling.

This team looks like total crap. I can take losing, but it's how we are losing that I can't take. The Donkey not being able to prepare the team or get them to play with desire is shinning like a turd in a punch bowl.

They have a look of hopelessness on the field just expecting to lose.
With all the bad coaches we have had over the years I have never seen this team look this bad. We were moving forward and now we are back at square one.

I backed Allen when he got hired and thought maybe his defensive mind set is what we need. But through 12 games it's clear that he is simply NOT UP TO PAR to do the job.

Those of us who have played football see that this guy is way out of his league and never gained control over this team. They are so obviously in need of a strong leader. Have you ever seen the RAIDERS look this soft?

I would rather go 0-16 with a head coach that has control of the team, players respect and shows some if just a little progress.

What the hell are the Donkey supporters seeing in him? What? He is soft as hell and just repeats his puss lines after each game.

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