National Football League

Raiders coach unloads after loss

Published Jan. 1, 2012 12:00 a.m. ET

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The autumn wind may be a Raider, but it was a mild zephyr compared with what blew through the home team’s locker room and into a press conference late Sunday afternoon.

That would be Hurricane Hue Jackson.

There was no containing the fury of the Raiders rookie coach after his team squandered its first playoff berth in nine seasons with a 38-26 loss to San Diego that was pockmarked by shoddy defense, a key special teams blunder and the requisite Raiders brain cramp.

Jackson did not pound the table or shout expletives, but he did not need to do so. His words landed on ears like an anvil.

“To say I’m pissed off is an understatement,” Jackson seethed as he sat down to take questions after the game. “I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I thought this team was ready to take the next step and didn’t get it done. At some point in time, as a group of men you go into the game and you can say whatever you want about the coaches, (but) you win the game. Here’s your time. Here’s your time to make some plays. We didn’t get them stopped, and we didn’t make enough plays, so yeah, I’m pissed at the team.”

What gnawed at Jackson was that despite a tumultuous season that included the death of owner Al Davis and the losses of starting quarterback Jason Campbell and tailback Darren McFadden, the Raiders had everything break for them on Sunday: with the Broncos losing to Kansas City, all the Raiders needed to do to reach the playoffs was win at home over a Chargers team that was eliminated last week and whom they had already beaten.

Instead, Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers — who was sacked six times by Oakland in mid-November — passed for 310 unharried yards and three touchdowns, and Richard Goodman returned a kickoff 105 yards for another score. The Raiders deprived themselves of a field goal opportunity when quarterback Carson Palmer, with 11 seconds left in the first half and no timeouts, completed a 6-yard pass to Louis Murphy at the Chargers' 32. The only problem: Murphy was in the middle of the field. He was tackled and time ran out.

But the coup de grace came midway through the fourth quarter with the Raiders charging to within 31-26 and pinning the Chargers inside the 1-yard line. The Chargers effortlessly drove the length of the field to make it 38-26.

“If you can’t stop a team with everything on the line, then you don’t deserve to be a playoff team,” said defensive tackle Richard Seymour, who won three Super Bowl rings with New England.

Shortly after the last score — a 43-yard pass from Rivers to Malcom Floyd with 6:43 to play to cap that 99-yard drive — the sellout crowd tried to spur the Raiders on by chanting “Denver lost” when the Broncos’ 7-3 loss to Kansas City became final. But when Palmer was intercepted, the Broncos’ loss only deepened the wound.

“That’s a kick in the nuts,” defensive tackle John Henderson said. “I know I ain’t watching any playoffs. I’m watching the History Channel and FOX Soccer Channel. We’ve got seven months to chew on this. If it doesn’t motivate you, you need to get out of this sport.”

Whether Henderson and others will be back to rectify their mistakes is another question.

Jackson all but fired defensive coordinator Chuck Bresnahan at his press conference.

“We’ve been hanging on for dear life defensively all year,” Jackson said. “I think Chuck knows how I feel. It’s not like we haven’t talked about it.”

Inevitably, perhaps, in a division that is won by a team that finishes 8-8, there will be other coaching changes as well. Kansas City already fired Todd Haley, and it will surprise nobody if Chargers coach Norv Turner is next to go, possibly along with general manager A.J. Smith.

“I’m going to sleep on this for a couple days,” said Chargers owner Dean Spanos, giddy after the victory. “There are a lot of things I want to think about. You’re so emotional now. I want to take the emotion out of the thought process.”

Spanos praised his team’s determination and the fact that they did not quit on Turner when they were 4-7. Asked whether he was disappointed the Chargers hadn’t played like this when it counted last week against Detroit (they trailed 24-0 at halftime), Spanos said: “Sure, who wouldn’t be?”

Then he noted how close the Chargers were to making the playoffs. “If not for a bad snap (that cost the Chargers a victory in KC on Halloween) or (Chicago running back) Marion Barber stays in bounds (in a Dec. 11 game the Bears lost in OT to Denver) and the whole world changes.”

But there is plenty of company in the AFC Woulda-Shoulda-Coulda Division. If the Chiefs had beaten the Raiders in overtime last week, they would be going to the playoffs.

So every team has a to-do list for the offseason. Though it was rarely an issue Sunday, the Raiders set NFL records for penalties this season — a dubious mark even by their standards. It is something Jackson said “absolutely” must be cleaned up.

“I’m not making no more excuses for nobody,” Jackson promised. “I know one thing: This team needs an attitude adjustment. What I mean by that is that the killer instinct has got to exist here. This feeling that I have has been there all year.

“I’ve got to fix it. It starts with me and I’ve got to fix it. I’m pissed. It will wear on me for quite a while, but obviously it’s going to push me into the next season to make sure everybody understands — because this is going to burn in me for a long time — to make everybody understand what it takes to win consistently in this league. I’m tired of hearing we don’t have good enough players. We have good enough players. Some of these good enough players have to start playing good.”

Jackson was simply airing an inconvenient truth about the Raiders — that until the culture changes, they’ll never win.

Not that there is any news there, but such outbursts within the organization would never have been tolerated with Davis. When Bill Callahan called the Raiders the dumbest team in America, the year after he took them to the Super Bowl, it all but assured he would be fired at the end of the year.

But with Davis gone, who might hold Jackson accountable? The team’s football operations — and who knows what else — remain concentrated in the hands of Jackson. He swung the deal for Carson Palmer, giving two high picks, including a first-rounder in 2012, to Cincinnati for the type of big-armed, defense-stretching quarterback that Davis had always coveted.

“There ain’t no way that I’m going to feel like I do a year from now. I promise you that. No question,” Jackson said. “Defensively, offensively and special teams; I ain’t feeling this way no more. This is a joke. To have a chance at home to beat a football team that is reeling after being beaten in Detroit who’s one of your rivals, and they come in here and beat us like that? Yeah, I’m going to take a hand in everything that goes on around here.”

The determination in Jackson’s voice blew through the room, not unlike the winds of change.

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