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The sleeping Giant has awoken...it's party time
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Their first-round weekend bye over, the Oakland Raiders returned to work Monday afternoon. Their swagger's back, too.
At one end of the locker room on Monday, Raiders safety Rod Woodson stood doing a decent Joe Namath impersonation.
At the other end, guard Frank Middleton was holding court, casually dismissing the Jets' resounding playoff-opening victory against Indianapolis while openly relishing another meeting with the New Yorkers.
Somewhere in the middle, Pro Bowl offensive tackle Lincoln Kennedy sat sagely reminding all who would listen that the Raiders are every bit as hot as their highly regarded first playoff opponent -- those upstart Jets.
Here's a sampling of the confidence that was on display Monday, just six days before the Jets and Raiders meet for what figures to be the premier matchup of the NFL's divisional round:
From Woodson, the first-year Raider who has won one Super Bowl with Baltimore and played in another with Pittsburgh:
"I think we can beat any football team in the National Football League, period. Any of them. That's how I feel. ... I just think that if anybody sees the big picture in this locker room, we can beat anybody. If we play on all cylinders, I don't think anybody can beat us, and I don't even know if the games will be real close."
From Middleton, the mouth of the Raiders' locker room, when asked about facing the Jets and if he was impressed by New York's 41-0 destruction of the Colts in Saturday's first-round playoff game:
"This is the game I wanted. I wanted Cleveland to lose [on Sunday at Pittsburgh]. It's a fun team. Every time we play them, we have fun, and I like to have fun. ... [But] the Colts are not one of the better teams in the league. So that doesn't impress me. I didn't even think the Colts should have been in the playoffs."
And from Kennedy, after entertaining one too many questions about the streaking Jets, who have won eight of their past 10 games and three in a row:
"I think we're on a roll, aren't we? There's something to be said for us. Just because we didn't have a game last week doesn't mean we're cooling off. ... We're more hungry than we were in years past. We all feel a sense of urgency to get this done right now."
Oakland's sensitivity to being overlooked in the buildup to Sunday's game is partly understandable. As hot as the Jets (10-7) have been and as well as they're playing, the Raiders (11-5) are the AFC's top seed and have won seven of their past eight games.
"They keep talking about how great the Jets have played the last part of the season," Woodson said. "But we were 7-1 in the second half of the season. We're a good football team. They're a good football team. They're coming here. They blew out Indianapolis. They did their part. Now we'll see what happens come Sunday."
If nothing else, the Jets at Raiders storyline is growing very familiar. This is New York's fourth trip to Oakland in the past 53 weeks and the fourth time the teams have met in their past 20 games. That span includes last year's regular-season finale (won by the Jets 24-22), last January's first-round playoff game (won by the Raiders 38-24) and last month's Week 13 meeting (won by the Raiders 26-20).
"This is their home-field, too," said Middleton in slight overstatement. "They know how to play here, too, because they've been here pretty much more than we have over the last couple of years.
"I think it's better to be playing the Jets than Cleveland because if we played Cleveland, we could have been like Pittsburgh and stayed sleeping until the third quarter. We know to beat the Jets, we've got to start early and we've got to come out on fire."
Even the normally cautious Bill Callahan, the Raiders' first-year head coach, spoke confidently Monday as he began preparing his team for the first playoff game of his head coaching career.
"I feel that this team is hungry to play again," said Callahan, asked if his team had lost any of its edge over the bye weekend. "I feel they're eager to get back on the field and playing. I sense that. I see that on the practice field. I see the intensity level beginning to build. It's definitely a championship caliber-type attitude and work ethic on the field."
The Raiders' bravado was everywhere Monday. While taking pains to respect what the Jets have accomplished, Raiders officials are known to be a little irritated by the overkill that already has grown up around New York and its first-year starting quarterback, Chad Pennington.
"It's like the Jets have won the Super Bowl and Pennington is the greatest quarterback of all time," one Raiders team source said Monday morning. "Maybe they'll come in here and beat us, but maybe they won't. We won't know until they play the game on Sunday."
For his part, Callahan straddled the same fine line between respect and self-confidence, calling the Jets' win against the Colts "a dominant game in all areas." New York, he said, "certainly commands our attention this week. They're a marquee team. They have a lot of confidence right now."
The same, of course, could be said for the Raiders. And was. Repeatedly.
"Anybody who's in this position right now, who's in the elite eight or in the final four of their conference, has some special quality," Callahan said. "They all have an excellence about themselves, and you wouldn't be in this position if you didn't have it. No matter who we played, we'd take on all comers. If we played the Browns, the Colts, or if we played the Jets again."
Translation? Raiders to Jets: Bring it on.
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Jesus was a good guy.... he didn't need this ****
John Prine
Send my mail to the Rosarito beach cafe
Warren Zevon 
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: 10/6/07
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