Tom Cable reveals side of Raiders that;s been hiding for half-decade

The ; Week 7 overtime nail-biter against the New York Jets proved to be more than just an ordinary win for the silver and black.It was a game -- if you;ve followed the team long enough -- you;d expect the Raiders to lose. It had all the signs of a typical Raider screw-up:; Oakland was leading, 10-3, heading into Jets 6 Sanchez Jersey
the fourth quarter. The choke scenario was set.; The offense was stagnant, but the defense was keeping the team in the game for three quarters. The late-game defensive collapse was due.; The Jets rallied with a tying field goal in the final seconds of the fourth quarter to send the game to overtime.; New York won the OT coin toss.; Brett Favre was the opposing QB.Still, the home crowd remained in the game. It was a loud, chaotic environment for New York to deal with. Fans were hoping -- not so much expecting -- their team would win.But, if Favre and Jets effortlessly went down on the first drive of OT and kicked a field goal to win, there;d be no surprises. It simply would have been the Raiders; 66th loss in 5 1/2 years. After witnessing so many late-game collapses over the past half-decade, they start to become mind-numbing, routine losses. They;re second nature.The last time the Raiders had won a game in overtime was over five years ago, on Sept. 28, 2003. Dating back to the beginning of that ;03 season, Oakland has lost 27 games -- 41 percent of the team;s total losses since that time -- by a touchdown or less, and has already blown fourth-quarter leads twice this season.This time around, though, things were different.Oakland looked like it wanted to win. The defense refused to break; the offense didn;t commit its usual late-game blunder; and the special teams refused to choke in the clutch. Yes, all three of those things happened simultaneously. Even an uncharacteristic fake punt worked out -- one that led to tie-breaking field goal 12 minutes into the fourth quarter.It was a side of the Raiders that;s been in hiding for five years. They were grinders; they were resilient; they were ; yes, clutch ; for once.That;s all a part of interim head coach Tom Cable;s new mantra. After being re-assigned from offensive line coach to head coach prior to Week 6, Cable took down ex-head coach Lane Kiffin;s ;I;m in; sign in Alameda, Calif., and replaced it with a ;1-0; banner.;We;re 1-0 and we;re going to enjoy it,; Cable said after the game.In reality, Oakland now sits at 2-4, and Cable is 1-1 as a head coach, but the 44-year-old;s new one-game-at-a-time philosophy is just what the young Raiders need at this point in the season.Even after calling a timeout to ice Jets kicker Jay Feely in the final seconds of the fourth quarter -- a horrible backfire that allowed Feely to re-kick a game-tying ball he missed on the first attempt -- Cable admitted: ;I called it ... But we just kept grinding.;Grinding is right. The Oakland ;D; stopped the Favre-led Jets; offense three times in overtime and it wasn;t until 12 minutes and 25 seconds into the extra quarter that the Raiders were able to seal the deal with a 4 Brett Favre White jersey
57-yard Sebastian Janikowski field goal.;In previous times, if we had been in this situation, guys would have been pointing fingers, or saying why did this happen, what;s going on, or here we go again,; second-year defensive end Jay Richardson told the Sacramento Bee. ;But no one had that attitude this time.;;Everyone was together. I think it;s the first time since I;ve been here that I;ve seen the whole team have the same feel about something like that.;The Raiders don;t get to enjoy the feeling of being 1-0 very often. For now, it seems Cable is bringing that mentality back to Oakland, and it;s refreshing. (28)