Cable excited about Raiders play in loss to Chargers

Tom Cable said in his weekly news conference that Sunday's loss to San Diego was a "good effort" by the Raiders, and he was "very excited about that." The Raiders are now headed into their bye week with the hope that their injured players come back healthy and that they can turn the tide and avoid this becoming yet another lost season.

(AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Coach Cable expects that most of the Raiders will be out of sick bay when they face the Chiefs after the bye. Robert Gallery, Chaz Schilens, Darren McFadden, and Nick Miller should all be back. Jon Alston had a neck sprain and a minor concussion, so the Raiders are going to play it safe with him, and Ricky Brown is expected to still be out. Greg Ellis is going to have his knee scoped, so Cable won't know where he is at until next week. Tony Stewart, Chris Johnson, and Gerard Warren are day to day with minor ailments.

The Raiders entered the game with a plan to run the ball, and they did stick to the run consistently. Cable lamented their inability to break off any 'chunk' plays, but they did stick to their game plan. "In regards to the game, really we had a plan to go in and run the
football. Needed to make two or three chunk plays in terms of getting ourselves in some plays of substance offensively. Weren't able to do that. Were able convert fairly well in 3rd and short. "

Cable saw a definite improvement in the run defense, but noted the lack of execution against the pass, "Run defense-wise much better, gave up the three runs that pop but none of them really none of them had a real huge effect on us. One of them was for a third-down conversion and we wanted to see it turned over to our secondary and have them cover their receivers. We didn't do a very good job of that."

Coach Cable feels that the best improvement for the Raiders struggling offense will come from the return from injury of key players. "I think change will come with us getting very healthy on offense. You're going to get two starting offensive linemen back, you're going to get a starting tailback back, arguably your best receiver back, another kick returner in Nick Miller back. I think all those things are conducive to us having a little better success offensively so we're going to start with that." The second prong will be to "self scout" and determine where they are struggling. "The second thing is self-scout. In terms of where we have been struggling and break it down. It's hard to do that as you get into the game weeks and you're worried about the next opponent. We've worked on that already, have some ideas and then there'll be some new things that we want to add offensively."

Cable did pin the vast majority of the offensive struggles on injures, "you're losing your best offensive lineman. That gives you a lot of solidity inside. It will help open up the run game even more. You're getting a receiver that can impact the game. Those are all things that lead, not only just to more yards, but, obviously, to more points...If you remember when they all kind of went bang, bang, bang and it started with Chaz, losing him in the preseason that that was going to impact us, albeit a preseason game against Dallas, I think we scored 31 points when he was in the lineup. Now I'm not saying we're going to score 31 points every time, but it gives us a guy who's proven it. Last year, particularly in the last few weeks, he really came on as a football player and I thought he picked it up in camp where he left off."

For more info: Check out  RaiderNews.com for the latest on the Oakland Raiders.

You can also find Patrick Patterson on Thoughts from the Dark Side.