Sunday, August 26, 2012

Mcfadden and Palmer Looking to Lead The Raiders To The Playoffs

The Oakland Raider fans have been waiting for their team to make it the playoffs for nearly 10 years. The last time the Silver and Black made it to the playoffs was in 2002, which happened to be the year they made it the Super Bowl, but unfortunately lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Since then, it has been a black hole for the Raiders in which they have gone through seven head coaching changes and over five different starting quarterbacks and losing seasons one after another. However, in the past two seasons the Raiders have looked like a much better team finishing 8-8. A huge improvement from the previous seasons, but still no playoffs. Last season the Raiders' owner, Al Davis, passed away at the age of 82. In week 5 of the 2011-2012 season, the Raiders had a huge win over the Houston Texans, just a few days after the death of their owner. It seemed as if the Raiders were headed in the right direction and would finally finish with a winning record. They were leading their division and the fans were ecstatic. In week 7 the Raiders would lose their starting quarterback, Jason Campbell, to a season ending injury. Hue Jackson, head coach at the time, decided to make a trade for quarterback Carson Palmer, who was sitting out the season because he demanded the Cincinnati Bengals to trade him. After the Raiders were able to acquire Palmer, the season would go downhill from there. The Raiders would also suffer a major blow which was losing their star running back, Darren McFadden, for the rest of the season do to an injury and Carson Palmer would struggle at the quarterback position and finish the season with 2,753 passing yards, 13 touchdowns, and 16 interceptions in the 10 games he played. After the season ended the Raiders decided to fire their head coach, Hue Jackson and hire former Broncos' defensive coordinator, Dennis Allen.

With Darren McFadden being back from injury and healthy and Carson Palmer looking to bounce back from last season, the Raiders are looking forward to become playoff contenders this season. Mcfadden has had his struggles due to injuries the past two seasons. If he is able to play at least 10 games or more, Raider fans should not worry about him at all. If it is any Raider the fans should worry about, it would have to be Carson Palmer. He has been a good quarterback throughout his career, but what has set him back from being a great quarterback is his decision making. Palmer has a tendency to throw too many interceptions in a season. The Raiders have a pair of good wide receivers in Derrius Heyward-Bey and Denarius Moore and if Palmer is looking to have a great season he should have no more than 16 interceptions and find his pair of wide receivers with ease. The AFC west division is always up for grabs, but with Palmer and Mcfadden looking to turn things around, they can definitely clinch their division for the first time since 2002.

No comments:

Post a Comment