With the Raiders going nowhere, their fans growing restless and his job status growing wobblier by the minute, Tom Cable on Sunday made the gutsiest call of his 23-year coaching career.
He yanked Jason Campbell, who was acquired by demanding nfl jerseys
owner/general manager Al Davis, immediately inserted as the starting quarterback and designated as the team's new leader.
Moreover, Cable pulled Campbell at halftime of his home debut.
It was a bold exhibition of manly stones, an exceedingly popular move with the Oakland Coliseum crowd and, undoubtedly, a desperate plea to the job-security gods.
But it worked. Bruce Gradkowski replaced Campbell and energized the team, sparking the Raiders to a 16-14 win over St. Louis before 48,396 victory-starved fans, validating Cable's gamble as a stroke of genius.
"We made the switch at halftime at quarterback basically to give the team a lift," Cable said, adding the decision resulted from a discussion among the coaches. "(We) felt like we needed to change up a little bit."
What was altered, instantly, is the prepared script of the 2010 season. Campbell was brought in to scrub away all traces of the regrettable JaMarcus Russell era. Through a solid work ethic and mature outlook, he had gained respect among his teammates. He recently was compared by Davis to two-time Super Bowl winning quarterback Jim Plunkett.
Campbell had come so far, only to find himself fighting for a job -- a predicament mirroring that faced by his head coach.
Being the coach, however, gives Cable considerably more latitude with which to operate.
Cable entered the game with a 9-20 record as head coach in Oakland. He has been embroiled in a few controversies. He's the first coach in Raiders history to return after back-to-back losing seasons, going 4-8 as interim coach in 2008, then 5-11 last year. With the Raiders coming off an atrocious performance last Sunday in Tennessee (a 38-13 loss to the Titans), multiple NFL sources reported and logical deduction led to the conclusion that Cable's job could be at stake.
He surely coached as if he'd been put on notice and had decided any dismissal would come only after he had emptied his strategic arsenal. Cable, perhaps the most resilient Raiders coach ever, was going to do it his way.
Suddenly, the Raiders were shuttling offensive linemen, notably Mario Henderson and rookie Jared Veldheer alternating at left tackle. Suddenly, passes were finding young wideouts Louis Murphy and Davis favorite Darrius Heyward-Bey -- they combined for 12 catches, the most ever for the second-year tandem. Vikings jersey
Suddenly, blitz packages were flying toward Rams rookie quarterback Sam Bradford.
Boldest of all, though, was Cable's decision -- heartily endorsed by a crowd calling for Gradkowski as early as the second quarter -- to wait no longer than halftime of the second game of the season to replace the new quarterback delivered by his boss.
"Today was about winning the game, what (it would take) to do that," Cable said. "That was the right choice, obviously, and it worked out. Bruce came in and gave us a lift."
Informed by offensive coordinator Hue Jackson that he would start the second half, Gradkowski sprinted onto the field like a frisky puppy racing toward a Frisbee. The crowd roared as he completed his first three passes, each completion followed by a "Bruuuuce" from the audience.
Gradkowski's final statistics, while superior to those of Campbell, were unspectacular: 11 of 22 passing for 162 yards, one interception and a 4-yard touchdown to Murphy that put the Raiders ahead in the third quarter.
The results, however, are inarguable. A Raiders win is such an irregular occurrence it's pointless to quibble about all the maneuvers that were made to beat possibly the league's worst team, with its quarterback making his NFL road debut.
"My job is to win games," Cable said, "and do whatever it takes to do that."
Here, though, is where the going gets juicy. Campbell was brought here to start. Gradkowski, the People's Choice, came off the bench and won. And Cable made no announcement about his starting quarterback next week at Arizona.
"Did I earn the start?" Gradkowski said, repeating a question. "I hope so. I want to be the starter. In my mind, I am the starter."
If Campbell did enough to lose the job in the first half, wouldn't it stand to reason that Colts jersey
Gradkowski did enough to keep the job, at least for now, in the second half?
Cable's call on Sunday sets up a bit of intrigue. When he announces the starting QB, we'll have the latest indication of whether the coach or the GM makes such decisions.
没有评论:
发表评论