Plea for Patience (to The Nation)

Here's one thing we know for sure: after today, the Raiders will either be 1-5 or 2-4. Neither record is what any of us hoped for, and very few of us would have predicted. Here's another thing we know for sure, this is a time of transition for the team and organization, and patience may be required.

On that note, below is a Guest Take submitted by The5er (let this also be the gameday thread for today's game against the Jaguars). Props to The5er for his thoughtful take:

I’ll be the first to admit it. I’m as guilty as anyone for allowing it to happen. The universal force that is today’s NFL does a tremendous job creating build up and fan interest on a week-to-week basis. The media coverage, the analysis, predictions, power rankings, etc… it really is something to behold. All of these experts weigh in with what each game means, who beat who, are the buying or selling one team or another, how far did they fall in the power rankings... And you know what? Generally speaking, most of it is just hype.  I’m not sure yet whether these guys do most of it for effect (because it drives ratings) or if they truly buy into their own palaver. Either way, the result is the same. All of you who are married are familiar with this tactic... My wife uses it often as well. It's affectionately regarded as overreacting

Here’s another way to look at it… Unless you are a big shot Wall Street day trader or hedge fund manager, any good investment broker would tell you not to get overly attached to the peaks and valleys or changes in value of your stock over a short period of time. They would tell you to keep our focus and energy on the big picture. The real question we should be asking is how is your stock performing, or capable of performing over the course of a year, or even longer?

So with that in mind, my plea to the nation this week is for exactly that… patience.

To get re-aligned, lets all take in a couple of big deep breaths of the fresh Autumn Wind. With me know, 1,2,3 inhale… exhale. Again, inhale… exhale.

Ok, I feel much better… you?

The bottom line is that more than ever, I think we need to be looking at our teams and our franchises in a different way… as in, what does the overall trajectory look like? Rather than get overly distracted by a couple of plays here and there or single game performance, let's focus our energy on looking for clues which can tell us whether DA and Co. have the tools to put us in a position to win over the course of an entire season. Let's evaluate the core elements such as: Is our system capable, do we have the key personnel, do we show poise in critical situations, what is the culture like?

If the level of parity in the NFL has taught us anything in the last 5 years, it’s that regular season win totals are pretty much insignificant. The most notable teams with the best records (Patriots/Packers) finished with the same number of rings as the Raiders (0) and Rodgers and Co. watched the Super Bowl last year from the same place I did… the living room. Perhaps more importantly, 3 of the last 5 rings went to Wild Card teams, which finished no better than 10-6. (If I remember correctly, the Giants and Packers each needed to win on the final day of the regular season just to make the playoffs)

For me, this all reverberates one central theme… patience. All you need to do in today’s NFL is keep from steering the ship into the shore in the first 8-10 games in order to give yourself a chance in late November and December. From there, its all about getting into rhythm and finding a way into the post season dance. Hell, even the value of home field advantage has diminished over the years. Again, 3 out of 5 Wild Card teams collecting Super Bowl rings after running the table on the road further demonstrates this point.

Now that we have the cleaned the lenses on our hypothetical spectacles, lets come back and re-evaluate the outlook for the remainder of the season. First, I have a hard time believing that SD or the Donkeys are poised to run away from the pack in the West.  Both still have challenging games ahead and I would expect them to be no better than the 4-4 or 5-5 category come mid November. With that being said, as bad as it’s been, I think the Raiders are still very much in this thing. We have 3 very winnable games in front of us so as far as overall trajectory goes, if we can anyway continue to resemble the team that showed up in Atlanta last week I believe 4-4 and even 5-5 is a distinct possibility. That being the case, it will be anyone’s division heading into December. Which, as I’ve tried to outline above, is really all that matters.

GO Raiders.