ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) -The last time the Oakland Raiders went into the offseason on a winning note, they ended up claiming division titles the next three seasons.
Interim head coach Tom Cable believes the team is again in position to do that and is hoping owner Al Davis will take away the interim label and let him lead the team in 2009.
“This team will be in the playoffs. I believe that,” Cable said at a season-ending news conference Monday. “Every great franchise has gone through hard times. … Hopefully this is just a step in the right direction to come out of it and get back to being a champion.”
Oakland (5-11) won the final two games of the season under Cable, giving him a 4-8 record since taking over for the fired Lane Kiffin on Sept. 30.
previous years had. Oakland ended the past three seasons with losing streaks of six, nine and four games.
Two of those slides were followed by coaching changes with a third coming a quarter of the way through this season when Kiffin was fired.
“For this team we need some stability, something consistent that we can rely on and build on and I think we’ve established something good here this last half of the season and hopefully we can continue to build on it,” running back Justin Fargas said. “I’d like to see him come back. He has a lot more to offer this team and it would be good to give him a full season to see what he can do with it.”
Cable did not have a chance to meet in person with Davis after Sunday’s 31-24 victory at Tampa Bay that knocked the Bucs and former Raiders coach Jon Gruden out of the playoffs.
Davis missed just his second game ever since joining the franchise in 1963, as doctors advised him against flying cross country following a fall earlier this month in San Diego that left him with an injured knee and ankle. Davis, who also missed one game in 1979 while his wife Carole was in a coma, feels fine otherwise and was ecstatic about the final game, senior executive John Herrera said.
ame plan and roster moves.
Cable and Davis are expected to meet again this week to discuss the full-time coaching job. Davis has to interview at least one minority candidate to comply with the Rooney Rule before making a decision, but Herrera said the team hopes to resolve the situation quickly.
After lobbying for the job publicly last week, Cable declined to answer most questions about it on Monday.
“I’m like everybody else in this league. I love coaching in the National Football League,” he said. “My contract will be up just like all the rest of the assistant coaches here in a short time. We’ll see what the future holds. And that’s really all I want to talk about in terms of the job.”
The season-ending victories over Houston and Tampa Bay marked the first time that the Raiders go into the offseason with two straight wins since winning the Super Bowl following the 1983 season.
The only times since then that they have won their final game before the offseason came in 1992 and 1999. They hope this season is like ’99, when a win over Kansas City on the final weekend knocked the Chiefs out of the playoffs, salvaged an 8-8 record and helped Gruden keep his job.
chise history. Oakland is 24-72 since the start of 2003, the worst team in the NFL over that period and the only one in league history to lose at least 11 games in six straight seasons.
“We need to play like we did the last couple of weeks, consistently throughout the year,” offensive lineman Robert Gallery said. “The challenge next year is to come in and be a playoff team and play like we did the last two weeks, play more consistently throughout the year, and we will be a playoff team.”
After taking over for Kiffin, Cable lost five of his first six games as the team struggled to overcome the distraction of the nearly yearlong feud between Kiffin and Davis.
But the team showed marked improvement down the stretch, especially after Cable took over play-calling duties from offensive coordinator Greg Knapp, and went 3-3 over the final six games.
Franchise quarterback JaMarcus Russell played his best football after Cable took over the play calling, completing 61.2 percent of his passes with seven TDs, four interceptions and a passer rating of 88.5 in seven starts.
“He brought us from one direction and took us up the ladder,” Russell said. “He always told us that deep down inside he always thought we were a good football team. By him becoming coach, he guided us in a different way. He talked to us about what needed to be done, we need to make some changes and within that, I think we did.”
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