Just Decide, Baby

Don't get me wrong -- I do think new Raiders coach Lane Kiffin is going to improve the team. (Then again, they were 2-14 last year, and are a league-last 15-49 since their epic choke in Super Bowl 37, four seasons ago. Technically I could probably help them improve.) But there are some gaping holes that were self-inflicted in this offseason/preseason, starting with the draft back in April, and culminating with Kiffin's week-long game over who will start at quarterback this Sunday.

It's all but official: Josh McCown is the starting quarterback for the Oakland Raiders in Sunday's season opener.

Three team sources confirmed the ever-leaking secret Thursday after McCown took 90 percent of the first-team snaps for the third straight practice, with Daunte Culpepper offering occasional relief.

Raiders coach Lane Kiffin won't say who the starter is until Sunday, even as national and local media outlets continue to report McCown won the monthlong quarterback competition with Culpepper and Andrew Walter.

"You look at it this way," Kiffin said Thursday. "If you gain a competitive edge, great. If you don't, it didn't matter, you weren't going to get one anyway. That's all it is."

That's stupid. For one, we're talking about the Raiders facing the second-worst team in the league last year, the Detroit Lions. The Lions have never won in Oakland, and if I recall correctly, they haven't even won a game in California in something like fifteen years. They're a consistently bad team in general, but an even worse road team. So these silly circumlocutions do not inspire confidence in the team's vaunted new direction. It looks like a fucking ant farm that fell off a high shelf and shattered on the floor, marginally controlled chaos. Just pick somebody, dude. It's fucking Detroit. This is the Toilet Bowl; let's quit shitting ourselves and pretending it's something bigger. New direction starts with defining what that direction will be, and who you will be counting on.

Kiffin hasn't even decided who his center will be, and this o-line gave up 72 -- yes, seventy-two; that is not a typo -- sacks last year. Free-agent pick-up Jeremy Newberry performed well in his preseason action, but he's entering his 11th year, had multiple surgeries, the last of which led to his release from the 49ers. If you're rebuilding, then rebuild. Go with the young guy (in this case, Jake Grove), give him an occasional breather with the talented veteran, but recognize that your center is the key to the success of your o-line and your QB. This should have been settled last weekend at the absolute latest; you can't even make the lame "competitive advantage" argument over leaving your center undecided.

More and more I have started observing football not just for the on-field action and strategery, but for the off-field management tactics. And the Raiders' management has been sloppy as hell. There is no excuse for last-minute jerking off over crucial positions, and there is no excuse for not having JaMarcus Russell signed as the season is beginning. If they keep dicking around, they may as well bench him for the year and deal him in the offseason. This is ridiculous.

[Update (9/9 4:30 PDT): Same old Raiders. After spotting the Lions 17 points in the first half with utterly incompetent play (and uh, Newberry went down in the Raiders' very first series), the Raiders briefly tantalized the die-hards with nearly twenty minutes of solid play, even grabbing a one-point lead for a minute or two. A missed tackle on a 3rd-and-long with about six minutes left made the difference between forcing the Lions to punt and allowing them to continue their drive, which they naturally scored a touchdown on. After that, it was back to deer-in-the-headlights time for Josh McCown, who will always just be a pretty good backup.

It's not entirely McCown's fault -- this is an organization that has now become accustomed to losing, systemically, like the Cardinals or (until recently) the Bengals. Poor talent management inevitably results in poor coordination of that talent. They could have drafted Matt Leinart last year and started developing that position more long-term; instead, they took the overrated Michael Huff, who got burnt several times today by Joe Montana Jon Kitna. And they're still trying to sign JaMarcus Russell, who now reportedly wants $35 million guaranteed on a 6 year/$61 million package. Again, that should have been nailed down back in fucking April, and if not, you take Calvin Johnson, who made the Raiders pay today.

Incompetence from the top down. Probably another 4-12 year in the making here, with very little actual positive momentum to show for it. It's easy to blame Al Davis, but he's not the one missing tackles and blowing coverage. And it's time to cut bait on Sebastian Janikowski, who sat out the preseason and still can't help shanking field goals and fucking up kickoffs, costing field position several times. You can get a low-rent rookie to do that shit.]