Post by TheShadow on Dec 9, 2003 20:31:42 GMT -5
www.sacbee.com
By Gregg Bell -- Bee Staff Writer
ALAMEDA -- Really, what is there to ask a 3-10 team that expected to be 10-3 right now, that expected to be contending for -- if not on its way -- to a fourth consecutive AFC West title and perhaps a return to the Super Bowl it squandered last January?
A team that instead is limping into the Christmas season facing the three most meaningless Raiders games since December 1997, the end of the 4-12 Joe Bugel disaster that today's edition will need two superlative efforts to surpass.
What else is there to ask but, "Do you still care? Are you still trying?"
From coach Bill Callahan, through team captain and 16-year Raider Tim Brown, seven-year veteran guard Frank Middleton and rookie Tyler Brayton, the answers were all the same after Sunday's 27-7 beating by the previously beaten-down Pittsburgh Steelers.
We are not quitting.
"We didn't perform with consistency. But I thought overall our guys played hard," Callahan said in yet another Monday what-went-wrong session. "We're playing a lot of guys. Let me just reiterate the fact that there are a number of guys that did not play yesterday. I think there were 12 starters that were out of the lineup, and with that being said, I think it's awfully hard to get your continuity and consistency established from an execution aspect."
Sunday, the Raiders gained just 53 yards in the second half against the 5-8 Steelers. And its NFL-worst run defense allowed recently broken-down Jerome "The Bus" Bettis and Pittsburgh's 31st-ranked rushing offense to roll to 133 yards -- 48 above its average.
More daunting challenges lie ahead. Sunday, NFL rushing leader Jamal Lewis and the North Division-leading Baltimore Ravens get to test the Raiders' motivation, pride and effort. Then come Green Bay's 1,400-yard rusher, Ahman Green, and San Diego's LaDainian Tomlinson, who rolled the Raiders for 187 yards in a 34-31 Chargers overtime loss Sept. 28.
"You're really making my day," Callahan said when reminded of the upcoming trio.
And there are continuing signs of discontent.
First-year Raider and 11-year NFL veteran Dana Stubblefield was far more revealing when asked about the team's attitude after 13 of the most underachieving games ever for a team that reached the Super Bowl in the previous season.
"This team is going a couple different directions," Stubblefield said Sunday, about 20 minutes after playing on his sprained left ankle for the first time in six weeks. "Some guys are going here. Some guys are going there. Even coaches, too."
Indeed, some Raiders coaches are "going there," a pre-emptive move to possibly getting fired en masse after the season. Quarterbacks coach and former NFL player Jim Harbaugh is a finalist for the head-coaching job at the University of San Diego. And Harbaugh isn't the only assistant coach who has inquired about collegiate openings.
Even Callahan brought up life after the Raiders on Monday, if only indirectly.
"This has been a great learning experience, good, bad or indifferent, for us as a coaching staff to learn from and to draw from," Callahan said. "And to really allow us to catapult the resources as coaches that we have into the next week, into the next game plan or into our careers -- or into the next experience, for that matter."
When asked what specific, different directions players are going in, Stubblefield became vague. Then he climbed back on board the public relations train.
"With all that has been going on and everything that's happened with this team, everybody's frustrated -- the team, the players, the coaches," Stubblefield said.
Et cetera -- Quarterback Rick Mirer said Monday that his sprained left ankle is better and intimated that he will be ready to play Sunday against the Ravens.
• Callahan said that defensive tackle John Parrella, who has unsuccessfully tried to come back from the groin muscle tear he suffered Oct. 5 at Chicago, is probably finished for the season.
By Gregg Bell -- Bee Staff Writer
ALAMEDA -- Really, what is there to ask a 3-10 team that expected to be 10-3 right now, that expected to be contending for -- if not on its way -- to a fourth consecutive AFC West title and perhaps a return to the Super Bowl it squandered last January?
A team that instead is limping into the Christmas season facing the three most meaningless Raiders games since December 1997, the end of the 4-12 Joe Bugel disaster that today's edition will need two superlative efforts to surpass.
What else is there to ask but, "Do you still care? Are you still trying?"
From coach Bill Callahan, through team captain and 16-year Raider Tim Brown, seven-year veteran guard Frank Middleton and rookie Tyler Brayton, the answers were all the same after Sunday's 27-7 beating by the previously beaten-down Pittsburgh Steelers.
We are not quitting.
"We didn't perform with consistency. But I thought overall our guys played hard," Callahan said in yet another Monday what-went-wrong session. "We're playing a lot of guys. Let me just reiterate the fact that there are a number of guys that did not play yesterday. I think there were 12 starters that were out of the lineup, and with that being said, I think it's awfully hard to get your continuity and consistency established from an execution aspect."
Sunday, the Raiders gained just 53 yards in the second half against the 5-8 Steelers. And its NFL-worst run defense allowed recently broken-down Jerome "The Bus" Bettis and Pittsburgh's 31st-ranked rushing offense to roll to 133 yards -- 48 above its average.
More daunting challenges lie ahead. Sunday, NFL rushing leader Jamal Lewis and the North Division-leading Baltimore Ravens get to test the Raiders' motivation, pride and effort. Then come Green Bay's 1,400-yard rusher, Ahman Green, and San Diego's LaDainian Tomlinson, who rolled the Raiders for 187 yards in a 34-31 Chargers overtime loss Sept. 28.
"You're really making my day," Callahan said when reminded of the upcoming trio.
And there are continuing signs of discontent.
First-year Raider and 11-year NFL veteran Dana Stubblefield was far more revealing when asked about the team's attitude after 13 of the most underachieving games ever for a team that reached the Super Bowl in the previous season.
"This team is going a couple different directions," Stubblefield said Sunday, about 20 minutes after playing on his sprained left ankle for the first time in six weeks. "Some guys are going here. Some guys are going there. Even coaches, too."
Indeed, some Raiders coaches are "going there," a pre-emptive move to possibly getting fired en masse after the season. Quarterbacks coach and former NFL player Jim Harbaugh is a finalist for the head-coaching job at the University of San Diego. And Harbaugh isn't the only assistant coach who has inquired about collegiate openings.
Even Callahan brought up life after the Raiders on Monday, if only indirectly.
"This has been a great learning experience, good, bad or indifferent, for us as a coaching staff to learn from and to draw from," Callahan said. "And to really allow us to catapult the resources as coaches that we have into the next week, into the next game plan or into our careers -- or into the next experience, for that matter."
When asked what specific, different directions players are going in, Stubblefield became vague. Then he climbed back on board the public relations train.
"With all that has been going on and everything that's happened with this team, everybody's frustrated -- the team, the players, the coaches," Stubblefield said.
Et cetera -- Quarterback Rick Mirer said Monday that his sprained left ankle is better and intimated that he will be ready to play Sunday against the Ravens.
• Callahan said that defensive tackle John Parrella, who has unsuccessfully tried to come back from the groin muscle tear he suffered Oct. 5 at Chicago, is probably finished for the season.