Idaho

There was a place I always went to when visiting College Station that had really good pizza rolls. Can't recall the name, but it was a local chain and I always had to be rolled out the door. I think the most intimidated I've ever been when visiting a football stadium was walking into Kyle Field as an Aggie whoop went up. Mostly because it was pretty creepy. And loud.

But that's Texas. This post is about Idaho, which is where we all thought our offensive woes had returned to after last season. Yet here we are at 2-7 with an offense featuring Ronald Curry, Jerry Porter, Justin Fargas, Daunte Culpepper, and Zach Miller. With Curry and Fargas the primary threats to score, it feels a little too much like late last year.

The offensive display against Chicago was not good. Throwing out the final Raiders drive as an anomaly, out of 21 first-down plays, 8 were 1-yard runs by Justin Fargas. The Raider O never overcame a sack to gain a first down, and only once overcame a penalty (that was a half-the-distance-to-the-goal false start on our own 2). This offense can't overcome much adversity at all, and defenses are stacking on early downs knowing that 2nd-and-9 might as well be 3rd-and-20.

Why? At the risk of sounding old fashioned, the Raiders do not have a deep passing threat. Last year the offense was built only to throw long. This year that is the one thing it absolutely cannot do. The most terrifying thing about it is that Kiffin bet the house on Johnnie Lee Higgins, and thus far he hasn't delivered. And if you believe all the theories, Kiffin was hired to rebuild this team around his keen eye for talent.

Don't worry, "I'm in." I think Kiffin has found an offense filled with players not quite good enough, and he's cleaning house. But I'm not sure it was the right move for this season to strip the WR cabinet bare, and now the same seems to be happening at RB with Jordan in sweats, Rhodes returning the odd kick, and Bush not yet in the mix.

Culpepper's back in because at least he can get the ball downfield. Now let's see if we can find a WR who can be there to catch it.