Feeling Good

Hopefully Al Davis can say the same this weekend. It's been a long time since the Raiders have been 5-4. I've found myself marveling at the unfamiliar look of that combination of numbers all week. Raiders, 5-4. Nice.

What's also nice is this SI article courtesy of Jerry. Definitely a feel good article about Richard Seymour and the resurgent Raiders defense. The maturation of Matt Shaughnessy and reemergence of Tommy Kelly have turned around the run D 180 degrees. When reading the article, though, I do get that funny feeling that something doesn't add up. How can they just try a little bit harder and suddenly be a great D? Despite my previous distaste for him, Warren Sapp's analysis of the run defense continues to echo in my mind. Scheme must be important.

But then I remember Rich Gannon. Gannon came into the challenging organizational world that is the Raiders and willed that team to greatness. Perhaps Seymour is doing the same with the defense?

For the past 8 years or so, bye week has been welcomed by saying, "Well, at least the Raiders aren't going to lose this week." This year we can simply say, "5-4."

He Looks Good Getting Off the Bus

Old news, I know...but gotta get the CLOAK fired up a bit now that it's August. Hopefully our many readers did not miss this one about Richard Seymour. When camp kicked off, he was the first one off the rookie bus, making statements like this: "Camp is the foundation you build your success on."

This is the culture change that has been a frequent Cable topic of late. As in every season, there are many question marks but after a terrific "Raider season" this year, there are at least as many reasons for optimism. And thankfully, we don't have to wrestle with answers to questions like, "Are Art Shell and Tom Walsh the right guys?" or "Is JaMarcus ready to take the next step?" this year.

It's that time of the year

We're heading down the homestretch into the what is usually the most exciting part of the year for our beloved Oakland Raiders, the off season.

With that, several local writers attended a pretty interesting Tom Cable press conference yesterday, with most of them focusing on what he had to say about JaMarcus. It also sounds like Tom Cable is making the case for his job, and putting a lot of the blame on #2.

Gwen Knapp discusses the JaMarcus portion of the interview, goes through all the accusations of violence leveled against Cable, and then wonders at this exchange:

The most revealing moments came when Cable responded to questions about whether he'd received feedback from his boss. He either said he hadn't or simply shook his head. It all sounded and looked very familiar.

Lowell Cohn dwells on Cable's statements about JaMarcus, and says that Cable is calling into question JaMarcus' morality. Not that he's a degenerate or anything, at least off the field, but in football terms. This sentence stuck out:

As I understand it, the coach said the player has abundant talent but instead of nurturing the abundant talent, he has squandered it. This is a moral criticism. It means Russell has not been a right guy. It means he makes bad choices and he is defined by those choices — bust. The moral criticism is especially harsh when you remember the money Russell willingly took without giving effort in return. This is a devastating criticism and it doesn’t come from me. It comes from the player’s own coach.

Cam Inman cuts Russell some slack and calls out Richard Seymour, saying he's been a bust, too. So there's suckage all around, and I'm still pretty convinced that Al needs to go away and let somebody who cares about winning football games more than he cares about lawsuits and he-said, we-said BS. Happy New Year.

I'm a sucker for these kinds of things

Check out Jerry Mac's latest. I agree with him that Seymour "guaranteeing" a playoff spot is 8,000 times better than "things are fishy around here."

But what got to me was the talk of the pigeon. We've all seen this video:



In fact, my daughter loves it. But this almost made me choke up:

“You see that pigeon?,” Green said to teammate Sam Williams. “That was Marquis.”

Indeed, even the mother of Marquis Cooper, the Raiders linebacker and special teams standout who was lost at sea on March 1 and presumed dead, thought the same thing.

Williams checks in with Donna Cooper regularly.

“She said, `That was Marquis out there with you guys,’ ” Williams said. “That was something else. I just saw it on the field, wondering why it was there. Once I saw it with us, covering the kick, it was special.”

So here's the deal. I've been a hater. And I don't take any of it back. I'll hold Tom Cable to his standard of three wins a row before I start thinking this team has turned a corner. But you'd have to be heartless not to be touched by the pigeon story.

Seymour May Stop Screwing Raider Fans UPDATE: Or Not?

Schefter is reporting tonight that Richard Seymour is en route to Oakland and will play against the Chargers on Monday night. Apparently the Raiders did send the letter and Seymour had the proverbial 3.7 million reasons to go ahead and stop being a baby about the trade.

More good news is that no ridiculous promise not to franchise him was made, increasing the chances that the Raiders will be able to keep him longer than this year. Gwen Knapp's complaints notwithstanding, this is good news for the fan even if it prevents Seymour from buying 10 more luxury cars with all of his loot derived from playing a game.

UPDATE: Spoke too soon. Jerry points out a Boston Herald story that Seymour has filed a grievance through the NFLPA attempting to block the Raiders' ability to force him to report, and thus unravelling the trade. Until he tackles LT for a loss on Monday night, Richard Seymour is on a fast track to Randy Moss status with this Raider fan. No, that does not mean I am going to draft Seymour also in my fantasy league. Ugh.