Oct 13th 2008 8:30PM by Adam Gretz (author feed)
Filed under: RaidersAfter one game, the Tom Cable Raiders don’t appear to be all that different from the Lane Kiffin Raiders. Actually, they might be a little bit worse, seeing as how Kiffin at least had them playing somewhat competitive football.

Perhaps that’s because Kiffin wasn’t asking second-year quarterback JaMarcus Russell to “empty the playbook,” sort of like Cable did on Sunday afternoon when the Saints bulldozed the Raiders back to Oakland.

But, hey, give the new Raiders coach some credit. He seems to have learned from his mistake and now realizes that Russell is still in a “developmental stage,” and perhaps throwing the kitchen sink at him wasn’t exactly the best game plan. From Raiders beat writer Jerry McDonald of the :
“We certainly put him in a lot of situations, moving him around, move the pocket, three steps, five-, seven-steps and play-action, and really kind of ran the gamut with him,” Cable said. “And I think we really found out a lot about where he is. And it’s obvious he’s still in a stage of development. It’s obvious maybe he can’t handle that much. But it doesn’t changJaMarcus Russell e the fact that we need to continue to throw the football and continue to find ways to get completions and throw the ball down the field.”Continue Reading