ShareThisFew observers expected the rebuilding Oakland Raiders to waltz into Nashville on Sunday and easily knock off a tough Tennessee team.
But even fewer anticipated seeing such a flat, uninspired effort by the Raiders in a disheartening 38-13 beatdown by the Titans.
Three explanatory themes have emerged from Oakland's season-opening debacle:
-- Horrid offensive-line play.
-- A tentative quarterback.
-- And, as one player shockingly -- yet refreshingly -- suggested, good old fashioned nerves.
And actually, the somewhat timid play of new quarterback Jason Campbell could be directly attributed to the sieve-like offensive line.
It was shocking how quickly the Titans' defensive linemen got into the backfield. Several times they seemingly jumped offside. Or they had Campbell's cadence down.
"It's loud," coach Tom Cable said Monday of the LP Field crowd. "It's really loud. Maybe they see something, but that's kind of the deal in that stadium.
"That's a great crowd. Seriously, if you do your homework, they've led the league for years now in opponent's false starts, pre-snap penalties."
At the forefront of the O-line's troubles were left tackle Mario Henderson and right tackle Langston Walker getting beat repeatedly. Plus, the Raiders started a rookie center, Jared Veldheer.
Any question, then, that Campbell seemed to be running for his life? He was sacked four times, fumbled twice, threw an interception and had four balls batted down.
Twice when he scrambled, he awkwardly slid a yard short of the first-down marker. Known for relying heavily on safety valves -- running backs out of the backfield and tight ends in the flat -- Campbell had neither the time nor the inclination to throw downfield to his wideouts.
"It's tough," Campbell said. "A lot of our plays are designed to go downfield. It makes it a lot harder, those guys getting a good rush the way that they did. There are plays out there that can still be made."
Titans defensive tackle Jason Jones told Tennessee reporters Campbell was telegraphing on passing plays by leaning back before the snap.
And Titans defensive coordinator Chuck Cecil said Campbell was holding the ball too long in the pocket.
Yet those are tangible issues that can be addressed physically. What linebacker Quentin Groves suggested was tantamount to heresy in the macho world of football.
"We were, I'd say, somewhat nervous," Groves said. "Nervous for the simple fact that with a young team, you never know how we're going to handle expectations. And there's been a lot of expectations placed upon this team, and we handled it with nervousness, and that's one thing we've got to get out of our system."
Cable did not appreciate that summary.
"We're kind of (peeved) off, if I can say that," the coach said. "We're not feeling sorry for ourselves. It's a setback. It's part of life, so that's the way we're dealing with it. We're really kind of angry about what happened."
The key is not allowing any residue to impact Sunday's home opener against the woeful St. Louis Rams.
"It's fixable," Walker said. "The world isn't caving in on us."
No, it just felt like it after one wholly unexpected kickoff-weekend flop.
(Contact Paul Gutierrez at pgutierrez(at)sacbee.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
columnMust credit Sacramento Bee
