Raiders interim head coach Tom Cable looked like a proud papa Sunday,
talking about how his kids are growing up right before his eyes.
Rookie running back Darren McFadden, 21, showed he can handle a big
kid's workload. Wide receivers Johnnie Lee Higgins, 25, and Chaz
Schilens, 23, acted like experienced touchdown-makers. Left tackle Mario
Henderson, 24, played like he has a future in football yet.
Above all, there was 23-year-old quarterback JaMarcus Russell, leading
his unproven teammates to their seats at the grown-ups' table during
Sunday's 27-16 victory over the visiting Texans.
"You saw a lot of our young players show up and have an impact," Cable
said. "That's the future of our organization and that's the direction
we're headed. The kids played their tails off."
That alone should give fans reason for hope for better days after the
season ends at Tampa Bay on Sunday. Sure, the Raiders don't have a
permanent head coach in place and only one assistant is under contract
next year.
At least the young side of the roster is getting better, baby steps and all.
"In the years to come, how good can we be?" Russell said. "I think those
guys out there are showing it."
McFadden, for one, was dying for a growth spurt.
He didn't play in the first quarter of the past two games, which means
he didn't get in the game until after the Raiders were out of it.
McFadden played Sunday by the second snap. He had 12 rushes for 46 yards
and a team-high five catches for 41 yards.
Better yet, McFadden changed the game by simply being on the field 30 of
60 snaps. He lined up as a wideout nine times in the first quarter,
drawing away defenders as a sideline decoy.
He ran a deep route on the second play of the game, pulling two
defenders with him. That created an open void in the middle so tight end
Zach Miller - he's only 24 - could catch a 21-yard pass.
"You get explosiveness on the field, you get speed," Cable said. "You
can't do anything about the inexperience, they just have to grow through
that. But you get play-makers that can put the ball in the end zone."
For the first time Schilens, a seventh-round draft pick, is part of that
list.
On the game-opening drive, Schilens sped to the end zone and curved
outside to the right sideline. Russell timed his touch-throw just right
for a 20-yard touchdown pass, giving the Raiders their first
game-opening touchdown of the season.
It was Schilens' first career score, and he showed it. He chucked the
ball aside, barked a few times and leaped into the end-zone seats.
"I finally scored," Schilens said after catching three passes for 52
yards Sunday.
"We took a lot of big steps. The more we can get out there, the more
good things can happen for us. Things can only be better for the future."
Higgins is having a pretty great here and now. He returned a punt 80
yards for a touchdown, his team-record third this season. He also caught
a 29-yard touchdown pass, breaking a 13-13 tie on the team's first drive
of the second half.
To think, the Raiders came into this game with three veteran receivers
on the injured list and a fourth hurt and on the inactive list.
"I'm the vet at wide receiver and it's my second year," Higgins said.
"It's a building block. My mom always tells me when something ain't
going right, the world wasn't built in a day. I just look at that."
As for Russell, he completed 18 of 25 passes for 236 yards with two
touchdowns and no interceptions. His 128.1 passer rating was the
second-best of his first season as an NFL starter.
He was sacked once, and that on a busted naked bootleg run. Some of that
credit goes to Henderson, a second-year player protecting Russell's
backside in the tackle's fourth career start.
If the Raiders can keep this up, "Wait till next year" could be
something more than a desperate hope.
"The way things went, I really think it can push a lot of things
forward," Russell said. "It shows guys what we have deep down inside if
we really go out there and play."
