The Raiders are Still Retarded

Big things. That's what the Raiders promised everyone before the 2010 NFL season began, as they had one of the most productive off-seasons in the league. Not only did they finally ditch modern day Ryan Leaf, Jamarcus Russell, but they were able to get Jason Campbell from the Redskins for next to nothing. Combine this with their first smart draft in years, and Oakland now has a chance to win their division. Of course, things did not turn out that way as the season began. The Raiders lost two of the first three games of the season to Tennessee and Arizona, eventually leading to the Jason Campbell being benched in favor of Bruce Gradakowski.

However, the season began to look brighter when the Raiders were finally able to defeat the San Diego Chargers for the first time since 2003. A win such as this, along with Darren McFadden finally coming into his own as a NFL player gave Oakland new hope for their season. Despite an embarrassing loss to San Francisco the next week, Al Davis' team was able to bounce back and defeat their rivals, the Denver Broncos, by an outstanding margin of 59-17. It was the most points that the Raiders had ever scored in a single game in the 50 years their franchise has been intact. In just this past week, the boys in silver and black continued on their path of destruction with a 33-3 victory over the Seahawks.


Of course this new found prowess was aided throughly by Jason Campbell, who replaced Gradakowski after he had been injured. In the past two games that the former-Redskin started, he has passed for  514 yds as well as 4 touchdowns, with no interceptions. Of course, individual stats do not mean much in football, but this success is not solely limited to Campbell, who has a carrer high qb rating, or McFadden, who is averaging 111.3 rushing yards per game. The statistics which matter are of course the team stats, which have been just as impressive. For the past two weeks the Raiders have had over 500 yards of offense, a feat which Oakland has never achieved. It seems that this team is finally living up to their off-season hype.


With everything going so well for them, you would think the Raiders would let the good times keep rolling, as the AFC West is up for grabs now because of the Charger's recent struggles. Of course Coach Tom Cable has to remind everyone that they are still the Raiders. According to ESPN, "Cable said, Bruce Gradkowski will be the starter once he returns from a shoulder injury that has kept him out of the past three-plus games." Yep, instead of making the guy who has lead your team to victory for the past two weeks, as well as lead your franchise to levels of dominance it has never known, the Raiders are going to start a guy who has had a interception for every touchdown thrown in his games as a starter this year. 


The worst part of all this is that Campbell only started one game at the beginning of the season, as he was benched week 2 due to his poor performance the previous week. Now, when he's playing the best football of his career you're going to pull the plug on him? This is logic only a coach hired by Al Davis could understand. It is unknown if Gradakowski will be healthy to play this upcoming week, but everyone wearing silver and black had better hope he stays on the sideline. The Raiders will be facing off against the Chiefs in a pivotal division-game which could decide the winner of the west. In circumstances such as this, the Raiders cannot afford to not start Campbell, lest they wish to again be known as the three-stooges of the NFL.