Raiders' Porter-Moss duo was supposed to be fabulous but turned out to
be fowl
Column by Carl Steward
www.insidebayarea.com
THEY WERE supposed to fly up the field like twin eagles. They had size,
speed, style and no small amount of snarl. They were going to shake up
scoreboards and frighten opponents like no other receiving tandem in NFL
history.
Uh-huh, right. Pass the cranberries and just wince, baby. The Oakland
Raiders' receiving tandem of Randy Moss and Jerry Porter have teamed up
to lay the biggest egg on the football planet this year.
For our purposes, it's one that yields a double-yoke Turkey of the Year
honor.
Yep, we're bringing back Mr. Moss for a second day of roasting after
Monte Poole stuck a fork in his care-not carcass on these pages
Wednesday. But in our 21st annual bird baste, we wouldn't want Moss to
feel unduly picked-on or lonely, so we're throwing Mr. Porter in the
oven with him.
Then we're setting the dial to "incinerate."
Moss and Porter really are inseparable, even though it seems they don't
even care for each other very much. They are partners in gross
underachievement, combining for 34 catches, 474 yards in 10 games in
2006. You can't even blame Tom Walsh's offense for those pathetic totals.
After all, Ronald Curry and Alvis Whitted, the guys who were supposed to
be the backups, have 42 catches and 574 yards between them. That doesn't
even factor in Doug Gabriel, who was traded, into the ugly equation.
Winning? The Raiders are now 6-20 (0-10 against the AFC West) since
Porter signed a new contract at the beginning of last year —
guaranteeing him at least $10 million — and Moss joined the club at
beginning of 2005 as one of the highest-paid players in the NFL. Sadly,
the only thing they've gobbled up is the cash.
Porter destroyed his standing in coach Art Shell's eyes in a
much-publicized off-season meeting in which he shot his beak off, and
except for one brief 19-yard catch against Pittsburgh four weeks ago,has
been MII — missing in inaction.
Moss, on the other hand, has run his mouth more than his feet on his
weekly radio spot with Fox Radio's Chris Myers. But rancid Randy doesn't
really have to verbalize it for us. His body language says it all, as do
his numbers. Moss has one catch for 8 yards in the past two games to
match his idiotic uniform number.
The Raiders' real problem is how they chase off these two turkeys after
this season. They'd surely love to banish both bad birds with one big
stone, but who wants them?
