Ya, I really miss Gruden

[SoCalRaider]

quoted from...

[b:86260e8d15]Raiders add new offense for playoffs[/b:86260e8d15]

JANIE McCAULEY
Associated Press

OAKLAND, Calif. - Coach Bill Callahan wants to make sure Oakland's offense provides at least a little mystery to the New York Jets in their fourth meeting in just more than a year.

Callahan's gigantic playbook became even bigger during the top-seeded Raiders' bye week.

"We built it up and added a whole new offense again," Callahan said. "We just can't help ourselves."

[RaiderBlitz]

I really love Callahan. I must admitt I was beginning to doubt him during the skid but he showed he new what to do. He's going to take the West Coast offense to a hole new level. You don't know what to expect and it is one thing to have a fat play book but another to be able to have it exacuted. Gruden was good but he doesn't have the vision Cali has nor the agressiveness. Tampa really got robbed. Sure they got a good coach but look what they paid and we end up with a better coach.

[DarthRaider]

[quote:84aef4da92="RaiderBlitz"]I really love Callahan. I must admitt I was beginning to doubt him during the skid but he showed he new what to do. He's going to take the West Coast offense to a hole new level. You don't know what to expect and it is one thing to have a fat play book but another to be able to have it exacuted. Gruden was good but he doesn't have the vision Cali has nor the agressiveness. Tampa really got robbed. Sure they got a good coach but look what they paid and we end up with a better coach.[/quote:84aef4da92]

Gruded who??? Even if we didn't get the draft picks and the cash we still made out a helluva lot better than Tampa. This is the time of year when Gruden pusses it. You don't win SB's by being conservative. I am extremely happy with what Callahan has accomplished in his first year as head coach. I can only hope that Al feels the same way.

[Raider34]

[quote:274a6f6d41]Gruded who???[/quote:274a6f6d41] hehehehe

My take exactly, he didn't want to be here, don't let the door hit ya where the good Lord split ya.

[BK]

Who is this chump Jon everyone is referring to? All kidding aside, Gruden was never a Raider, I used to have a lot of respect for him, but he wanted to leave, Al left it up to Jon. He disrespected all his former players without saying bye and had Porter in his personal doghouse for whatever reason.

This year, the focus is on the players and how the well the team is doing, not about some coach who was just itching to leave to coach somewhere else. **** him and all his conservative play calling that probably cost us at least one ring, if not 2.

[Raiderrooter]

Case in point 2 teams last week had huge leads and went conservative and ended up losing the games. Calli will keep the pedal to the metal I'm sure of that much whether the Raiders are up or down in thegame. That's all you can ask for the players need to do the rest.

[DarthRaider]

[quote:d1e8397754="raiders2002"]Who is this chump Jon everyone is referring to? All kidding aside, Gruden was never a Raider, I used to have a lot of respect for him, but he wanted to leave, Al left it up to Jon. He disrespected all his former players without saying bye and had Porter in his personal doghouse for whatever reason.

This year, the focus is on the players and how the well the team is doing, not about some coach who was just itching to leave to coach somewhere else. **** him and all his conservative play calling that probably cost us at least one ring, if not 2.[/quote:d1e8397754]

Amen to that. Now he's screwing the pooch in Tampon Bay!!!! Snicker..

[BK]

[i:3f032dc760]SOLID AS A ROCK 1-9-2003
By John Ryan
Mercury News[/i:3f032dc760]

Surely he would become a Raiders coaching caricature. The only question was, which one? Would he be another Chucky, his snarling predecessor, who could rattle the walls with his tirades? Or would he be Bewgs, everybody's pal, who lost control of his charges during his only season?

In November, staring at a four-game losing streak, a bickering team and a snickering populace, Bill Callahan showed exactly who he was. It's the same guy he was when he walked in the door in 1998. The same guy he was at Northern Arizona in 1988 and Oak Lawn (Ill.) High in 1978.

Stone-faced. It doesn't make for billboards the way Jon Gruden did, but these Raiders needed some calm.

``I'll be honest with you, that stretch of October, everyone was looking at Bill,'' quarterback Rich Gannon said. ``I was looking at Bill. I was looking to see how he'd respond, how he'd react. He didn't waver.''

Two months ago, Callahan was one loss from the Raiders' first five-game losing streak since the end of the Joe Bugel Error in 1997. Now, his team is on a 7-1 roll heading into a second-round playoff game against the New York Jets on Sunday. That contest plus one more home game stands in the way of the franchise's first Super Bowl appearance in 19 years.

During four seasons as offensive-line coach, Callahan received praise and deflected it. What's different now? Only that he has more players to credit.

``To have a year like this and be surrounded by the quality of guys that I'm around, I feel very fortunate,'' he said. ``And I'm very humbled by it. These are excellent pros and good people. It just makes for a smoother and very easy ride.

``You know, we've had hard times. During that four-game stretch, the guys were very supportive and wanted to do anything they could to win.''

That skid is a fading memory, but as the team has charged ahead, players have hinted at just how close they came to falling apart.

Callahan spent all of training camp talking about re-establishing the power running game -- then unveiled the real plan when the season started. The Raiders were the NFL's high-wire act, passing 65 times in one game and scoring 162 points in the first four. But in the next three games -- all losses -- opponents stalled Oakland in the red zone and/or on third downs, and the Raiders showed little interest in the ground game.

Turning it around

Tim Brown began to question his declining role. Jerry Rice said after one game that he needed more chances to get into a rhythm. Charlie Garner asked to carry the ball more.

It all came to a head Nov. 3 against the 49ers. Leading up to the game, while answering criticism from the media and, more so, the locker room, Callahan acknowledged the need to establish the run. The Raiders tried but failed in their 23-20 overtime loss.

``Everybody was saying we should run the ball more,'' Brown said. ``Some of the guys on our team were saying we should run the ball. Our defensive guys were saying we should run the ball a little more.''

After that game, Callahan took control. ``He said it's his team,'' guard Frank Middleton recalled.

Did he have to say it?

``I think he did,'' Middleton said. ``Tailbacks want to run the ball, and receivers want to catch. So you've got different people you've got to talk to, people you've got to please. Sometimes you do have to say it.''

Eight days later in Denver, the Raiders threw 38 times, ran 14, won 34-10 and never looked back.

``I think that game was a learning experience in that our guys know what they're good at, they have confidence in what we do,'' Callahan said.

No shouting, no Rockne

Any old statistic can explain how the Raiders took flight. But the most important number is zero: tantrums Callahan threw in hopes of waking up his players.

Right tackle Lincoln Kennedy knows the coach as well as any player, having had him as a position coach for four seasons. He appreciates dealing with the same personality he got to know during that time, regardless of the title.

Even more, he appreciates that his coach didn't get all Tony Robbins on him.

``When you've got an older team, it helps to take that approach,'' Kennedy said. ``It's not like you're going to walk into that locker room and give us a rah-rah speech we haven't heard before. If veterans don't know how important this is, not only do you have the wrong veterans in the room, but you're not doing a good job of coaching.''

That thought doesn't seem to come up too much anymore. Callahan is on most short lists for NFL coach of the year.

The man still coaches, too. Don't mistake his cool outward appearance for a lack of passion. He can teach in the four-letter lexicon that sometimes is the only vocabulary players understand.

``He's cussed me out,'' Middleton said. ``I think he's pretty much cussed everybody out on the O-line this year. He's always hard on the O-line.

``Winning, losing. You could blow somebody out and he'll cuss you out.''

Since taking over in March, Callahan has been more notable for who he isn't: Gruden. After the playoff victory over the Miami Dolphins in January 2001 -- Gruden's first as a head coach and the Raiders' first in seven years -- Gruden took a trip to the Black Hole and slapped hands with the lunatic fringe.

Callahan takes pains to give Gruden his due credit, going so far as to say the team will use the playoff routine his predecessor initiated.

Except for that celebration.

``I think it's the players' game,'' Callahan said. ``And I believe that the players need to enjoy that experience.''

After all, he has never jumped in there before. And what's different now?

[crizpynutz]

We all had our doubts about Callahan before the season. Let's face it, the guy never head coached at any level before. He has done a tremendous job for the Raiders and for one season at least, I am a very, very happy person to have Bill Callahan, Phillip Buchanon and Langston Walker for Jon Gruden. I loved Gruden, and I still do. Do I hold some contempt towards how he exited the Raiders? Hell yes, but I do recognize what he did for our team and if it was not for Gru we wouldn't be here. Let's all thank Jon Gruden for:

The WCO
Rich Gannon
Jerry Rice
Charlie Garner
Marc Trestman
and most of all .... Bill Callahan

Thank you, and good bye Jon!!

[Raider34]

Yea, I thank him for getting things turned around, my gripe (at least one) is for not sticking around to finish the job he started. :x

[DarthRaider]

[quote:32ebb3752c="Raider34"]Yea, I thank him for getting things turned around, my gripe (at least one) is for not sticking around to finish the job he started. :x[/quote:32ebb3752c]

Ya, I second that. Too many distractions last year by Gruden may well have cost us a SB. He should have been glad to have been hired as a head coach and honored his contract. Gruden got too big for his britches. Egos have no place in head coaching, it clouds judgement.

[dbucfan]

Originally posted by RaiderBlitz
I really love Callahan. I must admitt I was beginning to doubt him during the skid but he showed he new what to do. He's going to take the West Coast offense to a hole new level. You don't know what to expect and it is one thing to have a fat play book but another to be able to have it exacuted. Gruden was good but he doesn't have the vision Cali has nor the agressiveness. Tampa really got robbed. Sure they got a good coach but look what they paid and we end up with a better coach.

the better coach...lmao...i love these old threads!!!
WE WERE ROBBED!!!!LMAO!!!!

[dbucfan]

Originally posted by RaiderBlitz
I really love Callahan. I must admitt I was beginning to doubt him during the skid but he showed he new what to do. He's going to take the West Coast offense to a hole new level. You don't know what to expect and it is one thing to have a fat play book but another to be able to have it exacuted. Gruden was good but he doesn't have the vision Cali has nor the agressiveness. Tampa really got robbed. Sure they got a good coach but look what they paid and we end up with a better coach.

[dbucfan]

Originally posted by DarthRaider
[quote:d1e8397754="raiders2002"]Who is this chump Jon everyone is referring to? All kidding aside, Gruden was never a Raider, I used to have a lot of respect for him, but he wanted to leave, Al left it up to Jon. He disrespected all his former players without saying bye and had Porter in his personal doghouse for whatever reason.

This year, the focus is on the players and how the well the team is doing, not about some coach who was just itching to leave to coach somewhere else. **** him and all his conservative play calling that probably cost us at least one ring, if not 2.[/quote:d1e8397754]

Amen to that. Now he's screwing the pooch in Tampon Bay!!!! Snicker..

This is just too funny!!!!

[Rhode Raider]

your days here are numbered.........ban this asshole