Such a scene seemed unthinkable some 30 minutes earlier. The Raiders trailed 24-14, on the road, against a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team playing for a shot at making the NFC playoffs. This was a game the Raiders lost so many times this season and the five preceding ones.

Yet, something happened on the way to a second straight 4-12 season that propelled the Raiders to a stunning 31-24 come-from-behind victory, and interim coach Tom Cable to exit Raymond James Stadium feeling as if he hasn't coached his final game with the team he inherited three months ago.

Cable called it his team's best effort this season. He also called off his three-month audition, saying his effort speaks for itself.

"It's all I can do," Cable said, when asked if his team's victory bolstered his case for being hired by managing general partner Al Davis on a permanent basis. "It's the best I can do. It's all I can do. I want to be the head coach of the Raiders, but it's not in my hands. But I certainly know I put this team together and got it going in the right direction, and (this game) proved that."

Now, it's up to Davis to decide whether the Raiders (5-11) are better off building upon the foundation laid by Cable the past 12 games or turning to a fifth coach in six seasons.

Davis watched the game from his Bay Area home for one of the few times in his 46-year association with the Raiders. He didn't accompany the team on a road trip for only the second time on the advice of his doctors so that he could rest the knee and ankle he injured in a fall earlier this month.

Davis' son, Mark, left no doubt as to how his father was feeling after seeing the Raiders win a game against the franchise that launched the Raiders into this 24-72 tailspin with a 48-21 thrashing in the Super Bowl after the 2002 season.

"I'm sure he's feeling a lot better now," Mark Davis said between belting out spontaneous bursts of "Wow!"

Al Davis and the Raiders have every right to feel giddy.

They won back-to-back games for the first time this season and only the sixth time in six seasons. The Raiders also won a road game in the final month of the season at a stadium outside of California for only the second time since they returned to Oakland in 1995.

And they won without Pro Bowl cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha and both starting wide receivers, and with top running backs Justin Fargas and Darren McFadden on the sideline for most of the game with nagging injuries.

"Eight weeks ago, I don't think it would have happened," quarterback JaMarcus Russell said.

For that, players said, all the credit goes to Cable for piecing together a fractured team players and coaches on the heels of coach Lane Kiffin being fired four games into the season.

"We definitely stuck it out through the tough times, the different distractions and things that could have torn us apart as a team," Fargas said. "Coach Cable kept us together."

That's ample reason for Al Davis to bring back Cable next season, Fargas and others said.

"If (Davis) wants to ask or if he's interested in our opinion, I'm sure any man in this locker room would vouch for him," Fargas said. "He's my coach."

Two people familiar with the situation said Davis hasn't shared with anyone where he stands in his decision-making process about the coaching job.

However, both people said Sunday's performance enhanced Cable's chances of keeping the job.

"We became a team last week," Cable said. "We proved it (Sunday)."

Now it's only a matter of discerning whether it's still his team anymore.

Contact Steve Corkran at scorkran@bayareanewsgroup.com.INSIDERunning back Michael Bush proves a relief specialist. Page 4 Raiders' 2009 schedule is set after the Jets' loss. Page 4