The members of the Raiders offense coaches and players are beyond help right now.

They have one goal each week and that is to reach the end zone. That's it. Doesn't matter how they get there or who gets there or what it takes to find it.

The defense tried to obscure the offense's ineptitude Sunday and, as usual, could not. The special teams attempted to come to the offense's rescue and, as usual, it wasn't enough.

The offense can't do it. Couldn't do it two weeks ago against Atlanta, when the Raiders were shut out, couldn't do it last week against Carolina, when field goals accounted for their six points, and they couldn't do it Sunday in a 17-15 loss to Miami at Dolphins Stadium.

"It's tremendously frustrating," running back Justin Fargas said. "I don't even know what to say. You can't play offense and not score points.''

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The Raiders have gone 13 quarters without an offensive touchdown and have only two in the six games since Tom Cable was promoted to interim head coach. Nine offensive touchdowns in 10 games tabulates to 0.9 per game. Oakland is the worst red-zone touchdown team in the NFL, with six in 23 chances inside the opponent's 20-yard-line.

For the Raiders, the goal line has become like the moon generally visible to the naked eye but impossible to reach by foot.

Is Oakland really where Jim Fassel, a veteran offensive mind, would like to be?

Against a Dolphins team much improved from last season but hardly a juggernaut, Oakland reached the red zone twice. A 27-yard connection between JaMarcus Russell and tight end Zach Miller gave the Raiders first-and-goal from the Miami 5, with 3:28 left in the first half.

After Fargas plowed for 1 yard, the Raiders began their retreat. A Kwame Harris false start cost them 5 yards. Darren McFadden was tackled for a 5-yard loss on a play phoned in from Tom Walsh's bed-and-breakfast. Another false start by Harris and the next thing you know, a 16-yard Russell-Miller hookup was needed to get the ball back inside the 5, allowing for Sebastian Janikowski's 21-yard field goal.

The other time Oakland got inside the Miami 20? When Russell led a 73-yard drive, including four first downs, that stalled at the 19-yard line before Seabass booted one through from 37 yards.

Oakland's defense accounted for two points, when Jay Richardson sacked Dolphins quarterback Chad Pennington in the end zone for a safety in the third quarter.

Special teams accounted for the other 13 seven from the foot of Seabass and six on a dazzling 93-yard punt return by Johnnie Lee Higgins, providing for a 15-14 lead with 4:30 left to play.

"In my mind, I said if we can give the defense at least 10 points and keep them off the field a little bit, we can win,'' wide receiver Ronald Curry said.

Actually, six might have been enough to put away these drowsy Dolphins, who had won three in a row and likely were looking ahead to next week, when AFC East rival New England visits.

But the Raiders couldn't find their way. Though Russell's play was satisfactory (15-for-22 passing, 156 yards, no touchdowns or interceptions), Oakland couldn't sustain drives long enough to break out one of those touchdown celebrations it's been known to practice during the week.

It's all becoming so tedious, this offense. It reeks of the weekly futility experienced in 2006, the year that Walsh was summoned out of retirement to remind the Raiders that owner Al Davis likes his offense vertical.

"I actually asked Justin personally about that,'' cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha said. "I asked what was the difference between now and 2006. He said it's much better than in 2006, that the playbook is much better.''

Maybe it is. Maybe the playbook authored by former head coach Lane Kiffin, revised by nominal coordinator Greg Knapp and now being edited by Cable, is rich with schemes and options designed to reach the end zone.

But two offensive touchdowns in six games don't lie.

Cable is calling plays like a former offensive lineman who has spent his coaching career tutoring offensive linemen. It's light on creativity, heavy on predictability.

And it's going to cost him an opportunity to be Oakland's next head coach assuming he wants the misery that comes with it.

Contact Monte Poole at mpoole@bayareanewsgroup.com