Score to Settle

By Sam Farmer

Aug. 10, 2007 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

NAPA, Calif. -- Daunte Culpepper, once so prolific he was featured on the front of the Madden video game, could find himself in a far more challenging position this season -- as quarterback of an Oakland Raiders team that finished 2-14 in 2006.

Dominic Rhodes was a Super Bowl standout for the Indianapolis Colts. Now, the Raiders are hoping he has the legs to juice up their sputtering ground game.

Jerry Porter, who last summer wore a T-shirt portraying his disposition -- two hands, one pointing straight ahead and the other with its middle finger raised -- will now be asked to put his own hands to good use.

For a franchise normally fixated on its past, the Raiders are more than happy to let the memories of 2006 flutter away.

With new Coach Lane Kiffin at the helm, they’re looking to finally recover from the league’s worst Super Bowl hangover; the Raiders are 15-49 since losing to Tampa Bay four years ago.

In their quest to repair last season’s abysmal offense, the Raiders have made changes both dramatic and subtle. They averaged 10.5 points a game last season, fifth-worst in the league’s modern era.

“We know exactly where we want to go,” Kiffin said. “Now the guys have to go out there and prove it.”

The Raiders were very good on defense last season -- they ranked third overall and first against the pass -- but on offense the nagging questions still far outweigh the easy answers. Among issues unknown:

When will the club sign No. 1 pick JaMarcus Russell, and how soon will the Louisiana State quarterback be ready to play in games that count?

Will receiver Mike Williams, the former USC star, ever realize the potential so many people saw in him when Detroit selected him 10th overall two years ago?

Can the Raiders somehow patch their porous offensive line, one that surrendered a league-high 72 sacks last season, the most since the Houston Texans allowed 76 four years earlier?

How will Rhodes, who rushed for a game-high 113 yards in the Super Bowl victory over Chicago, respond to being suspended for the first four games of the season after violating the league’s substance-abuse policy?

And will Culpepper be the best short-term answer at quarterback, despite his knee problems? Or will the job go to Andrew Walter, who started eight games for the Raiders last season, or Josh McCown, acquired in a draft-weekend trade with Detroit? The team’s first depth chart, released Tuesday, offered few clues about which way the team is leaning. Russell wasn’t on it, and Culpepper, McCown and Walter were all listed as the starter.

Walter took such a pounding last season, his plight recently evoked the sympathy of Raiders owner Al Davis.

“Andrew went through -- what did Nolan Richardson call it down there at Arkansas, 30 minutes of hell or 50 minutes of hell in basketball?” Davis said. “Well that poor Andrew Walter last year got hit so many times, I don’t think he knew where they were coming from.”

Charged with fixing that is Tom Cable, the former UCLA offensive coordinator who last coached the Atlanta Falcons’ offensive line. Now he brings his zone-blocking scheme to the Raiders, who last year struggled with Art Shell’s in-your-face, power-blocking approach.

“Cable is as good as I’ve ever been around,” said center Jeremy Newberry, who played for him at California. “He understands the game and has played the offensive line. There’s a lot of people who have ideas and fundamentals that they’ve learned from other people but he’s actually played at the college level so he understands what it takes to do it.”

There’s a big step up, of course, from college to the pros. No one understands that better than Williams, who was a spectacular receiver at USC but has yet to make his mark in the NFL. In two seasons with the Lions, he started six games and scored two touchdowns. In two seasons with the Trojans, he scored 30 touchdowns.

The Raiders are also looking for Porter to return to form. He was essentially a non-contributor last season, warring with Shell from the start. Not only did he demand to be traded, but he was suspended for conduct detrimental to the team, played in only four games, and finished the season with one catch. This after catching 76 balls the year before, and scoring nine touchdowns in each of the 2002 and 2004 seasons.

Porter’s confidence seems unshaken by last season, and Williams sounds as if he’s ready to make the splash so many people have expected him to make. As for Culpepper, he could have been talking about the entire Raiders offense when he spoke of his determination to prove doubters wrong.

“Any time you’re a great competitor and people doubt you, it’s absolute fuel to overcome whatever they’re saying,” he said. “Or shut them up.”

sam.farmer@latimes.com

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Poor offense

Oakland’s problems on offense show statistically:

Fewest points per game, since 1978:

1992: Seattle…8.8

1991: Colts…8.9

1998: Philadelphia…10.1

2000: Cleveland…10.1

2006: Raiders…10.5

2007 second-half scoring