Raiders Blow 4th quarter lead. Damn it gets old hearing that. 5 times last year and for the 2nd time in 2 games this season, Oakland played 3 solid quarters of football only to come away with a loss. Sitting with a 1-3 record as opposed to the 3-1 that they could have had is a hard pill to swallow.
Who do we blame this one on is the question. Crazy old Al is probably going to going after Kiffin. In his twisted scope of reality he can turn this into the final nail in Lanes coffin, which by the way has about 359 nails in it already. While Kiffin didn't lead us to the promised land against the Chargers yesterday, the blame should not be placed firmly on him.
I look more toward Al's new knight in shinning Armour Rob Ryan. The way I see it to blow 4th quarter leads you need to give up points. Who gives up points? The defense gives up points. Who runs the defense? Buddy's son Rob runs the defense. See where I'm going with this?
Giving up 25 fourth quarter points falls squarely on the D. That the O let down in the 2nd half, but the point is if you have a 15-3 lead with 15 minutes to go you should win the game.
JaMarcus went from looking like a solid QB to a deer in the headlights. I can understand that, he's young and he still gets a pass. The inability to establish a run game didn't help that situation, but we still had a double digit lead and blew it once again.
With the Bye week coming up it is probably the end of the Kiffin era in Oakland. Old Al is going to wake up from his nap, realize he has 2 weeks to come up with a coach, fire Lane and than take 13 days to pick a new coach. While I think firing Kiffin is an awful idea, the only thing that could make it worse would be to put Ryan in charge.
The Raiders have some solid young talent on both sides of the ball, the key is putting someone in charge that knows how to win. By this I mean someone who can close out a game. Rob Ryan is not that person.
