TAMPA, Fla. — The sounds of hooting and hollering spilled forth from the
locker room. Hugs, backslaps and handshakes were exchanged freely. The
managing general partner's son declared the six-year drought all but over.
Such a scene seemed unthinkable some 30 minutes earlier. The Raiders
trailed 24-14, on the road, against a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team playing
for a shot at making the NFC playoffs. This was a game the Raiders lost
so many times this season and the five preceding ones.
Yet, something happened on the way to a second straight 4-12 season that
propelled the Raiders to a stunning 31-24 come-from-behind victory, and
interim coach Tom Cable to exit Raymond James Stadium feeling as if he
hasn't coached his final game with the team he inherited three months ago.
Cable called it his team's best effort this season. He also called off
his three-month audition, saying his effort speaks for itself.
"It's all I can do," Cable said, when asked if his team's victory
bolstered his case for being hired by managing general partner Al Davis
on a permanent basis. "It's the best I can do. It's all I can do. I want
to be the head coach of the Raiders, but it's not in my hands. But I
certainly know I put this team together and got it going in the right
direction, and (this game) proved that."
Now, it's up to Davis to decide whether the Raiders (5-11) are better
off building upon the foundation laid by Cable the past 12 games or
turning to a fifth coach in six seasons.
Davis watched the game from his Bay Area home for one of the few times
in his 46-year association with the Raiders. He didn't accompany the
team on a road trip for only the second time on the advice of his
doctors so that he could rest the knee and ankle he injured in a fall
earlier this month.
Davis' son, Mark, left no doubt as to how his father was feeling after
seeing the Raiders win a game against the franchise that launched the
Raiders into this 24-72 tailspin with a 48-21 thrashing in the Super
Bowl after the 2002 season.
"I'm sure he's feeling a lot better now," Mark Davis said between
belting out spontaneous bursts of "Wow!"
Al Davis and the Raiders have every right to feel giddy.
They won back-to-back games for the first time this season and only the
sixth time in six seasons. The Raiders also won a road game in the final
month of the season at a stadium outside of California for only the
second time since they returned to Oakland in 1995.
And they won without Pro Bowl cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha and both
starting wide receivers, and with top running backs Justin Fargas and
Darren McFadden on the sideline for most of the game with nagging injuries.
"Eight weeks ago, I don't think it would have happened," quarterback
JaMarcus Russell said.
For that, players said, all the credit goes to Cable for piecing
together a fractured team — players and coaches — on the heels of coach
Lane Kiffin being fired four games into the season.
"We definitely stuck it out through the tough times, the different
distractions and things that could have torn us apart as a team," Fargas
said. "Coach Cable kept us together."
That's ample reason for Al Davis to bring back Cable next season, Fargas
and others said.
"If (Davis) wants to ask or if he's interested in our opinion, I'm sure
any man in this locker room would vouch for him," Fargas said. "He's my
coach."
Two people familiar with the situation said Davis hasn't shared with
anyone where he stands in his decision-making process about the coaching
job.
However, both people said Sunday's performance enhanced Cable's chances
of keeping the job.
"We became a team last week," Cable said. "We proved it (Sunday)."
Now it's only a matter of discerning whether it's still his team anymore.
