Season Is Over, but Work Is Not

Mike Shanahan watched his football players score 37 points Sunday and still get their skulls and crossbones handed to them. Then he said: “It’s time to take a good, hard look at ourselves.”

The sooner, the better.

First, the Raider coach has to take a good, hard look at everybody on his roster. He intends to, too. Even though his work for 1988 is over, Shanahan said he would report to camp today and meet with every player individually.

“Everybody?” someone asked, trying to imagine 45 to 50 conversations.

“Everybody,” Shanahan said, emphatically.

Then, once that’s done, the coach must take one other hard look.

In a mirror.

He must examine himself objectively and come to certain conclusions regarding things that he, as a novice head coach, must do differently if he is to succeed where, so far at least, he has failed.

Yes, the Raiders did win two more games this season than last. They also played 16 of them, as opposed to last year’s 15. They also supplied their new coach, the National Football League’s youngest, with three first-round draft picks (including one who became All-Pro), an expensive new wide receiver in Willie Gault and an expensive new quarterback in Jay Schroeder.

Even with all this, Shanahan went 7-9.

Because it is better to be safe than sorry, someone felt compelled after Sunday’s 43-37 season-ending loss to Seattle to ask Shanahan if he was confident that he would be coming back next season for another try at the Raiders’ first winning season since 1985.

“What’s that?” the coach asked, somewhat taken aback by the audacity of the question.

It was repeated.

“Well, if you’ve got any doubts, then ask the other guy,” Shanahan said, the other guy being the guy who hired him, Al Davis. “Obviously, you’ve got some doubts.”

Al Davis is announcing no coaching changes at this time.

Maybe now the Raiders should hire another Denver coach. Last winter, they raided the Broncos’ offensive coordinator. This winter, they might consider offering work to the Bronco defensive coordinator. Joe Collier is out looking for a job, even as we write this, having been fired over the weekend, so Shanahan might be tempted to bring the poor guy in off the streets.

The same football team that earlier participated in consecutive games of 13-3, 9-3 and 12-6 closed out its season unable to stop a living soul. Over the final 4 weeks of a season to forget, Shanahan’s Raiders gave up 135 points, or an average of nearly 34 a game. These guys weren’t black and silver. They were black and blue.

Just in time for Christmas came the kind of football game that ought to be manufactured in computer form and marketed by Nintendo. Action-packed excitement for kids of all ages. Batteries and defense not included.

Seven touchdown passes. Nearly 1,000 yards of total offense. Eight field goals without a miss. Altogether there were 80 points scored in Sunday’s carnage in the Coliseum, and it was such a wacky contest, the game’s only rushing touchdown was scored by wide receiver Tim Brown.

Shanahan took it hard.

He described himself as “probably as disappointed as you can get,” even though this is a man whose previous two teams, from Denver, were beaten in Super Bowls.

He said, “In a lot of ways, it’s the toughest year I’ve ever been through. That’s life in coaching. If you don’t win, it’s the toughest business to be in.”

He bemoaned the fact that, right down to the last drive of the last day, the Raiders had a chance to win their division. “Those opportunities don’t come along every day,” Shanahan said. “The bottom line is, they (the Seahawks) got it done, and we didn’t.”

The defense was inadequate. The secondary was semi-useless. There was not much for Shanahan to like, save a 354-yard passing day by Schroeder and another fine afternoon by the team’s most valuable player, Jeff Gossett, the punter, which will give you an idea of what kind of season the Raiders had.

As for the special teams, well, the best tackler they had Sunday also was Gossett, which will give you an idea of what kind of day the Raiders had.

“Our special teams didn’t get the job done,” Shanahan said.

The Raiders tried. They did try. Todd Christensen made a rousing comeback from his injury. Howie Long gave it the old college try. Linden King made a lot of tackles. Ron Fellows busted his hump out there. Marcus Allen paid for a hard day at the office with a concussion. Greg Townsend gave it all he had. Bo Jackson averaged nearly 5 yards a carry. Chris Bahr was his usual precise self. Even Gault got into the act, for a change.

Didn’t matter.

Raider spirit was willing, but flesh was weak. The game was a big letdown, just as the season was. It might have been exciting--old-time, American Football League-like, light-up-the-sky football--but mostly it was a sad failure for a football team that scored 37 points and yet never led after 7-0.

“It’s tough to take,” Shanahan said.

“Like I said, we have to take a good, hard look at ourselves. That’s what this off-season will be dedicated to. Anytime you end up 7-9, you’ve got work to do. We’ve got to get everybody together and start planning for the future. Maybe we can find the magic formula and hopefully find a way to win. Make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

The season did have ups as well as downs, someone mentioned.

“Probably more downs than ups,” Shanahan said.

The Raiders are starting to forget what it was like to have ups.