Cable, hired as the interim head coach when Lane Kiffin was fired for "cause" on Sept. 30, made it clear Monday it's his wish to remain in charge of his "dream job." He sees considerable progress despite a 3-8 record since he took over.

Cable stressed the need for continuity in an organization that has gone through Bill Callahan, Norv Turner, Art Shell, Kiffin and now Cable since the start of the 2003 season, during which time the Raiders have an NFL-worst 24-72 record.

"In order for it to move forward and be a playoff team next year -- which I believe it will be -- hopefully things will go in the right direction that way," Cable said regarding stability. "I think it's very important at this point."

The Raiders are coming off a 27-16 win over a Houston Texans team that had won its previous four games. It was Oakland's best performance of the season, and top to bottom may have been its best game since a dominant win over Tampa Bay in Week 3 in 2004.

Coincidentally, the Raiders face the Bucs on Sunday in Tampa, with the home team still hoping to secure a wild-card playoff berth despite losing its last three games.

There are plenty of side stories, including former Raiders coach Jon Gruden coaching the Bucs, and defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin -- father of Lane Kiffin -- serving his last regular-season game as Tampa Bay's defensive coordinator before joining his son at the University of Tennessee.

"You can talk about it, but at the end of the day it's really about us," Cable said. "If we go out and get better this week and have a good trip and get ourselves ready to play on Sunday and do it the way we need to do it, that will probably take care of itself."

Cable allowed that the Raiders' history of losing has made his job more difficult.

"The culture of negativity, of losing, of frustration, all those things," Cable said. "Human beings have a choice. You can either go that way and become negative and become basically a loser. Or you can say enough's enough and find out how to flush your mind, how to get yourself back right and do that collectively as a group, and you'll get what you got (Sunday)."