If the Raiders pull out anymore of these head-scratching moves they’ve been pulling lately, I might have to jump ship and start writing about the Rams. Have you heard that head coach Tom Cable doesn’t know who the starting center is right now? It’s Friday and the Raiders do not know what direction is up regarding their center position. Why would you start Jared Veldheer on the road after he’s only started one preseason game at the position and then pull him for the home opener against a team that doesn’t even compare to the level the Titans are on?
The least they could do is say, ‘Yeah, um…we’re thinking about putting Satele in the center position and moving Jared out to right tackle because, let’s face it, Langston Walker belongs at left guard because we don’t have Robert Gallery this week. And frankly, Walker isn’t that great on the outside.’Hue Jackson said, “The most important thing is our execution and our consistency on a daily basis and also on a play”ly” basis. We want to go out there and put forth a very consistent game and that’s what we’re gonna do.”
But so far for the first two weeks of the season, the Raiders have been anything but consistent. Switching what would be the fourth starter in two weeks in not consistent, it is sporadic and uncommitted. When the head of the snake acts that way, the body of the snake will follow.
Somebody needs to man up…Tom Cable. I used to like you, but now you are starting to get on my nerves.
“The crowd isn’t going to put our helmets on…and our shoulder pads,” says Cable. “We have to go take care of business.”
Hey, it all starts with you my man. You have to take care of your business; like in the off-season would be nice. I keep hearing people in the organization saying, “It’s a group…We’re a unit” blah, blah, blah…shut-up!
Everybody who has ever played football knows it all starts up front and Tom Cable and Jim Michalczik get a giant F for Failure in week one. Now Cable wants to toy with the line some more, plug in Daniel Loper and possibly Samson Satele. What we have here is second guessing and it cannot happen. Granted, the Loper thing is due to injury, but the Trevor Scott thing wasn’t, the Quentin Groves thing wasn’t, and as far as I know, Jared Veldheer isn’t hurt either.
Jason Campbell said during his time at the microphone that the thing he liked about Veldheer is that he didn’t back down. This is a trait that he must have brought with him because he sure as heck didn’t inherit it from Cable. Cable isn’t standing behind his choice for starting center this year, only the most important job on the offensive side of the ball next to the quarterback.
Now the Raiders are indecisive, just the same as their fearful leader. Cable better find his fortitude before he has to start looking for another job in addition to his lost manhood. Everybody always wants to attack the players, “Get Campbell out” or “It’s Mario Henderson’s fault” but this is obviously a Cable problem and until he gets the static out of the signal he is providing, nothing will get fixed for this team.
You make a decision to start a Division II tackle as your center in a hostile environment, you’d better be ready to dodge bullets right alongside this man when the fit hits the shan, you catch my drift?
I don’t care what Cable says, it’s obvious that Veldheer is better than three of the starters from last year that are on this line just based on his heart alone, let alone his skill level. The Raiders need to fix this line situation, and they’d better figure out how to do it right now for two reasons. Number one, they don’t have a first round pick next year, and number two- there might not even be a next year at this point.
When Cable took over, he said he would bring a winner back to Oakland. SO BRING IT CABLE!
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