Raider Nation
Devil's Advocate
Well, I'm convinced! 
LINKYep.... we're pretty much on the clock.Raiders' Offense Looks Inept
By JOSH DUBOW, AP Sports Writer
Last Updated 3:56 pm PDT Thursday, September 21, 2006
ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) - Skeptics snickered when Raiders coach Art Shell turned his offense over to a bed and breakfast operator who hadn't coached in the NFL in more than a decade.
Yet even the biggest doubters couldn't have imagined Oakland's performance under coordinator Tom Walsh would be this bad.
Six points, no touchdowns, 15 sacks, seven turnovers, a league-low 291 yards, and three fumbled snaps in two games have made the Raiders the laughingstock of the league.
Running back LaMont Jordan summed up the season best after the team was outscored 55-6 in two games: "The best thing about the season thus far is the fact that we have a bye week and we don't have to play (Sunday)."
Unfortunately for the Raiders, they do have 14 games left. And unless Walsh and Shell alter their philosophy or find a new offensive line, there's little hope for a rapid turnaround.
Shell promised a return to the past when he was hired, with a focus on power-running and deep-strike passing. But that doesn't work when it's Robert Gallery and Paul McQuistan blocking against modern zone blitzes, instead of Hall of Famers such as Shell and Gene Upshaw against 1970s defenses.
The Raiders have been blitzed on 33 of their 61 pass plays, according to STATS LLC. But they've utilized few of the tools most teams use to counter that.
They have thrown only two passes to running backs, completing none; have not used a single shotgun formation; have called only one rollout; and have used predominantly five- and seven-step drops that give the defense plenty of time to pressure quarterbacks Aaron Brooks and Andrew Walter.
"Right now, we've got one area of our team that's not playing well right now," Shell said. "But I truly believe we're going to get this thing turned. I'm a very optimistic person."
Shell said he would like to throw more passes to his backs and might use the shotgun next week, but it shouldn't have taken that long to consider those options. Then again, Walsh didn't face many zone blitzes when he ran the Hansen Guest Ranch and was the mayor of Swan Valley, Idaho.
Even though Walsh hadn't coached in the NFL since being fired by the Raiders along with Shell following the 1994 season, Shell said his old friend was his first choice because he was comfortable with him.
Since leaving the NFL, Walsh was head coach for two seasons at Idaho State and worked as director of operations and coach of a minor league franchise in Mobile, Ala. He has been out of football since 1999, with his only connections being a few announcing assignments, designing playbooks for video games and informal meetings with college coaching staffs who came to his ranch.
"It's not like I ever went away," Walsh said during training camp. "You know, I could be mayor, on the governor's board for tourism council in Idaho or whatever, that doesn't mean that my brain was erased. If you're out there bucking hay, you're still going to think about (football)."
To be fair, the Raiders did try to hire offensive guru Bobby Petrino from Louisville. But when he turned down their offer to become head coach, owner Al Davis went with Shell, who had been out of coaching himself since 2000.
The offense has also been hamstrung because its second best playmaker has been inactive the first two games despite being healthy. Receiver Jerry Porter hasn't played after clashing with Shell over offseason workout programs and demanding a trade at the start of training camp.
While this feud has little in common with Marcus Allen's benching that was one of the lasting memories from Shell's first stint as Raiders coach, it is starting to divide the team.
Some defensive players called for Porter's return after the latest loss, with safety Jarrod Cooper offering this not-so-ringing endorsement: "No one's got to like him, no one's got to love him, you don't even have to look at him. If you put his uniform on him and put him on the football field, he's going to do something. He's not an idiot. He may act like an idiot, but he's not."
Shell's right that the blocking is a problem, but it's hard to justify benching one of your best players and starting Alvis Whitted when the team is struggling this much.
The biggest problem on the offensive line is that the team's best blockers might be on the coaching staff with Shell, Jackie Slater and Irv Eatman. Four of the starters are in different spots than they played last year and Gallery has struggled as much in his natural spot at left tackle as he did last year on the right side.
The Raiders took Gallery with the No. 2 overall pick in 2004 ahead of Larry Fitzgerald, Philip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger and Tommie Harris. It's the biggest bust in a stretch of weak drafts that have generated only one Pro Bowler since 2000, punter Shane Lechler.
Shell knows that overcoming those drafts will take more than a coaching change, but that's little comfort for Raiders fans who haven't enjoyed a winning season since 2002.
"It takes time," Shell said. "It doesn't happen overnight."
I mean they get to line up 11 defenders against 11 offensive players. Maybe their schemes are complicated and what-not but the Raiders have player the Ravens and the Chargers. The Bucs are getting killed worse than the Raiders are right now. Did Jon Gruden open up a nail salon over the summer or something? No, it happens that the Bucs have played the Ravens and the Falcons. Seriously, it's going to come to a point where the Raiders just line up 11 guys and try to push the defense backward.Vince Lombardi said best what I am trying to say here:
