Silver and Black Pride readers discuss Dennis Allen

Recently I put up an article about whether or not a 7 and 9 season would be considered a success for this team and if it would make you trust Dennis Allen more. The comments section of that particular post created an excellent conversation about what Raider Nation needs to see from DA to win them over.

What was most enjoyable about the comments that were said was that they were based in reality and not unachievable goals. Some are going to be harder to achieve than others but they were not unreasonable requests. Here is a good one from "All Rebel":

"Teams typically take on the personality of their head coach."

"Where’s DA’s personality? Does he have one? I don’t sense any charisma, grittiness, passion, toughness or swagger. It’s a huge reason why we liked Jon Gruden. It’s the reason many of us liked Hue Jackson. There was something there. You just felt it. I’d follow those guys. Does DA have the type of personality men want to follow? How about the fan base? DA would have to show me something and so far he’s shown me nothing…less than nothing. It ain’t the size of the dog, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. Make me a believer! Inspire me! DA would probably totally have to become someone different. A deep playoff run would help his chances though."

That's whats up

by All Rebel on Jun 14, 2013 | 6:45 PM up reply

This really seems like a point that is going to be harder for Dennis Allen to be able to satisfy because its about who he is as a person, but as he grows as a coach he could become more comfortable outwardly. If he starts off the season well (which is going to be hard because of so many new players) you could start to see a little more swagger and personality out of him. It's hard to be the cocky coach Raiders fans like without the winning to go with it.

Realistically though even if the Raiders show themselves to be a playoff caliber team you still will probably only see the dry version of Dennis. He is who he is, but winning would change the fans perspective about the dry demeanor. It will be a lot easier to be a believer and inspired with DA if he has some valid currency to work with in the form of wins. A promissory note is not going to smooth All Rebel's critique out and win him over, he needs the real deal.

The same thing can be said for “rightnasty” about winning making him feel better but it all comes down to how many mistakes Dennis Allen makes next season. There were a ton of rookie coach mistakes throughout DA's first season and he wont be able to provide comfort to some fans until he proves he can put a better product on the field.



"A record above .500 would be great"

"But it’s less about record, I think, than showing he really knows what he’s doing. We saw him making some huge mistakes his rookie season, and the “he’s learning” thing is not good enough. We need to see some real smarts out of him. This team has to not look like it’s got it’s collective head up it’s collective ass. It wasn’t just that we lost last year, but how we lost. Some games positively disastrous, the team screwed up in most ways possible, and even against weak opponents we struggled. Palmer threw for 4000 yards, and if the Chiefs hadn’t fielded their worst team ever, we might have ended up at 2-14."

"A record above .500 equals turning chicken shit into chicken salad, and that should be enough to inspire confidence."

by rightnasty on Jun 14, 2013 | 2:52 PM up reply

There is no denying that the football team that Oakland fielded last year lacked creativity. Changing up his assistants is going to help him be more creative this season, but let's face it he couldn't drop much lower in the creativity department than where the team was last year. There is only one way to go from here and that is up. With a year under his belt DA should be better prepared for being the head coach.

As for the blowout losses of last year being completely unacceptable, you can practically hear the collective “Hell Yea!” from the fans reading this. Losing is one thing, but the blowout losses were embarrassing. We have gone through enough of those to last a life time, we need the team to be competitive even in losses.

The simplest comment to satisfy is from SLORaiderfan, but it is also one of the most important things to see out of Dennis Allen's 2nd season as head coach:

"Halftime adjustments"

.

For the team to come out of halftime having made good adjustments to the game plan, and having some success to reflect the fact that they had understood what was needed to compete. That would probably do it for me.

by SLORaiderfan on Jun 14, 2013 | 3:36 PM up reply

There were not many things more frustrating than the ridiculously few halftime adjustments in the 2012 season. Winning or losing it seemed you could count on the Raiders last season to not change anything at halftime, while the opposition turned the tables with their adjustments. The lack of halftime adjustments might be the most common complaint heard during last season, it was absurd.

There were other good comments in that comment thread too so if you weren't involved you might want to check it out. I will leave you now with the always poetic Sons of Blanda's request for Dennis Allen:

"Chief One-Feather must take war-path decisively, not lead like squaw"

S-O-B: ITS HOW I ROLL, DEAL WITH IT.

"Freedom cannot abide in a heart dominated by desires, in a slave's heart." St. John of the Cross

by Sons-of-Blanda on Jun 14, 2013 | 7:02 PM up reply

Lead your team decisively Dennis Allen, make your will the reality.