Raiders owner Mark Davis said after Sunday’s loss to the Saints that he expects to see progress, and right now his team isn’t giving him that. Raiders coach Dennis Allen said today that Davis is right to be upset.
“Hey, I’m right there with him,” Allen said today. “I’m frustrated. I’m disappointed. You know, you wake up this morning and your gut hurts. But, at the same time, when a man gets knocked down and man gets up and fights. And that’s exactly what we intend to do. I understand his frustration; I can appreciate that. And let me tell you, there’s nobody that’s going to work any harder to get it corrected than I will.”
Allen said, however, that changing things in Oakland is as simple as playing better in the Raiders’ next game, on Sunday against the Bengals.
“When you lose, it hurts. Rips your gut out,” Allen said. “But a win turns everything around. A win makes everybody feel a lot better. And that’s what we need to do. We need to come together as a football team and we need to all make a decision that we’re going to do whatever it takes to win football games.”
NFL head coaches are rarely fired after just one year, so Allen’s job is probably safe. Then again, the Raiders haven’t always given coaches two seasons to prove themselves: Hue Jackson was fired after just one season in 2011, Art Shell was fired after just one season in 2006, Joe Bugel was fired after just one season in 1997 and Mike Shanahan was fired just four games into his second season in 1989. Davis’s comments may have given Allen a renewed sense of urgency about doing whatever it takes to win football games right now.