Decent debut for coach Kiffin

ALAMEDA – The Raiders' win total is only four this season.

That means the best first-year coach Lane Kiffin can do is win five games, equaling Norv Turner's 2004 team for the most Raiders victories since the 2002 Super Bowl season.

The win total keeps the Raiders near the bottom of the NFL and in line for another top-10 draft choice.

Overall, the Raiders remain a bad team. But that doesn't mean Kiffin's first season has been a failure. It just means he needs more time.

The Raiders have begun to show signs of organization and planning. Players have started taking responsibility for what happens on the field and stopped always blaming others, such as coaches or officials, for their troubles.

Despite another season filled with losses and the mistakes bad teams make, allowing Kiffin to put his imprint on the team helped this season and will continue to help in the future.

Since Jon Gruden left for Tampa Bay following the 2001 season, no Raiders coach has lasted more than two seasons. Kiffin is the fourth coach since 2002.

He inherited a team that's not used to winning and is adept at pointing fingers. Kiffin's influence on the morale has been evident the past few weeks, as the Raiders were obliterated on the road by playoff-bound teams (Green Bay, Jacksonville) but narrowly lost at home to Indianapolis.

Last week's 49-11 thrashing in Jacksonville was the first time a Kiffin team wasn't competitive for most of the game.

Kiffin looked for signs of players quitting late – players that would go to the top of his list of those he would purge from the roster. Kiffin said he couldn't find any.

"I know it sounds weird to say, but I thought our effort was actually good in the fourth quarter," Kiffin said. "Guys were still playing hard in the game. We just obviously didn't play very well, but it was not an effort thing late in the game."

One reason this season has been better is offensive-line coach Tom Cable. He turned possibly the worst offensive line in the NFL into one that isn't sending anyone to the Pro Bowl but no longer allows as many easy sacks.

Kiffin found his running back, Justin Fargas, and wants him re-signed. JaMarcus Russell is the quarterback of the future, but Kiffin loves Josh McCown, so don't be surprised if he's back next season, too.

Kiffin held onto several members of the defensive staff from previous coaching regimes. That could change this offseason.

"I'm continuing to evaluate everything and look at everything and make us as good as we can be," Kiffin said. "We'll make those decisions on a number of things, but no decisions have been made at all on any of those things."

Linebackers Kirk Morrison and Thomas Howard made big leaps in their play and development this season, and Nnamdi Asomugha continued to be one of the NFL's best cornerbacks.

Kiffin has yet to say whether defensive coordinator Rob Ryan will return next season. The defense has been the biggest disappointment of the season, going from third in the NFL last year to 26th in 2007. But the unit as a whole has been bad. The defensive line is dominated too often in the running game. The tackling – especially of the secondary – has been shoddy most of the season.

"I'm sure anything's a possibility here, especially when you don't win games, so you never know whose job is on the line, players included," Asomugha said. "But I have no idea what they're going to do. Lane's always expressed how much faith he has in Rob, and the players have, too."

But Kiffin won't keep things the same just to keep everyone comfortable. That has been one of his strengths. From benching an ineffective LaMont Jordan and allowing Fargas to blossom to tinkering with the defense, Kiffin is too fixated on winning to let anyone feel comfortable.

Given the chance, Kiffin should coax more wins out of the Raiders in 2008 because four won't be good enough next season.

Right now, it's a good start.

About the writer:

• Read Jason Jones' Raiders' blog at www.sacbee.com/blogs.