Hue Jackson Unloads on Team

Added on Jan 02, 2012 by Scott in

NFL

Raiders head coach Hue Jackson didn’t pull any punches on how he felt about his team’s 38-26 loss to rival San Diego, a defeat that ultimately cost them a playoff berth. Jackson, who guided Oakland to a 7-4 record before dropping four of their last five, vented his frustrations loud and promised to take on a much larger role within the organization to enure the Raiders aren’t on the outside in 2012.

While not excusing his own culpability, Jackson didn’t give his players a free pass from blame.

“I’m pissed at my team. At some point in time as a group of men you go in the game and you can say whatever you want about coaches, you win the game. Here’s your time. Here’s your time to make some plays,” Jackson said in initially unloading on his players. “We didn’t get them stopped and we didn’t make enough plays. Yeah, I’m pissed at the team. Like I tell them, I always put it on me, but I am pissed at my team because when you have those kind of opportunities, you’ve got to do it and we didn’t do it.”

Apparently he’s “pissed.” He was also none too pleased with his team’s overall attitude throughout the season.

“I know one thing, this team needs an attitude adjustment,” Jackson said. “The killer instinct has got to exist here. It’s something I’ve talked about. When you don’t finish games at the end like we haven’t, this has been going on all year. I mean, this feeling I’ve had has been there all year and you try to change it, change it, change it and I haven’t been able to get it changed. I know what needs to happen and we’ll move forward.”

For Jackson’s sake, he better hope that change doesn’t include a new head coach. Should he be retained, putting his own stamp on the team will be a top priority.

“Let me tell you something, I’m going to take a stronger hand in this whole team, this whole organization. There ain’t no way that I’m going to feel like I feel today a year from now. I promise you that. I ain’t feeling like this 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, I’m going to take a hand in everything.”

Getting Darren McFadden to play a full schedule, reducing Carson Palmer’s turnovers and eliminating all the stupid penalties are good places to start. As good as Michael Bush played in relief of McFadden, he lacks explosiveness. Palmer’s poor decision-making plagued him in Cincinnati, so it’s unclear whether or not he can improve. And a NFL record for penalties in a season is not a sign of focus and discipline.

Instead of “Just Win Baby,” perhaps the Raiders should adopt “Just Think Baby” as their new motto.

Source: ESPN.com