The Raiders Web site had a picture of Art Shell with a big smile on his face during his weekly press conference last week the day after their first win of the season against the Arizona Cardinals.
A week later, despite a rousing 20-13 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers at McAfee Coliseum, those smiles were in short supply.
“Winning is great, but you’ve got to look at the whole thing and take care of the things you didn’t do well and you’ve got to address things things,” Shell said. “While everybody else just enjoys it and fans have a wonderful time as we as coaches have to take a look at everything.”
As much as Shell enjoyed talking about the overall performance of his defense and special teams, rewinding the film of an 89-yard offensive game had to be painful.
There were plenty of questions, and not a lot of answers. And if there’s anyone out there who thinks the solution includes a return to health of Aaron Brooks, a quarterback switch this week is unlikely.
Brooks said he would be on the field Wednesday, but was so vague about his availability the general impression is that his return is a ways off.
“The breakthrough could be Wednesday, it could be Friday, it could be the final week,” Brooks said. “I’m still in the process of recovering. It’s not to the point where I can tell coach, you know, `Put me in.’ ”
Said Shell: “Right now, Andrew is the quarterback. Aaron has to do a lot to show me he’s ready to play. It’s not like you come out, `OK, I’m ready to go.’ I have to see it.”
There’s also the question of whether Brooks would be the quarterback even if healthy, and that’s one issue Shell has no intention of touching until it’s necessary. Just a week earlier, Walter had the best game of his career against Arizona, so it’s worth seeing what transpires in Seattle.
As for the other issues Shell was asked about, none of them got the sort of answers which would salve the wounds of fans who demand more from an offense.
When asked directly if he was happy with the play calling of Tom Walsh, Shell replied, “Yes I am.”
I asked Shell about the position groupings for the goal line sequence that eventually resulted in a 19-yard field goal by Sebastian Janikowski at the end of the half, when the Raiders had their best playmakers off the field and threw incomplete to tackle Chad Slaughter and Courtney Anderson.
“At the time we felt we had the personnel grouping in we wanted,” Shell said. “The first play we were a yard from the end zone but we had no timeouts. I tforced us to use play-action with the personnel grouping at the time. You can go to different personnel groupings but still felt godo about that at that time.”
When told Moss appeared agitated on the sideline _ he kicked a table in frustration _ Shell said, `Hey, so be it,’ and said Moss had said nothing to him about the matter.
There is no guarantee that Moss would have caught the ball had he been in the game, given his performance in recent weeks. He had two more outright drops against Pittsburgh after getting three or four (depending on who’s counting) against Arizona. When asked about why it was happening, Shell said he had no idea.
“I really don’t know,” Shell said. “It’s unusual, very unusual for him to drop passes like that. Normally his hands are like glue. But when it happens it’s a shock to all of us.”
Shell said Moss would be coached like any other player.
“These guys get coached. Even though he’s an all-pro, he gets coached,” Shell said. “We’ll coach him and talk to him about certain things, what he needs to do, to concentrate on, and he’s very acceptable to coaching. He listens to Fred (Biletnikoff).”
Monday news at notes:
– SS Michael Huff was seen with his right shoulder wrapped. Shell said an MRI was negative and Huff is expected to face Seattle.
– LG Barry Sims has an abdominal strain, and as much as a lot of you would love to see him have a seat, the replacement options are Corey Hulsey and rookie Paul McQuistan.
– McQuistan may one day be a fine player, but he serves as an example of how fruitless it is to come to a decision about whether or not someone is or is not a player during non-contact minicamps.
No one had any idea back in April that the rookie contributor on the offensive line would not be McQuistan, but sixth-round pick Kevin Boothe of Cornell. All those comparisons by organization insiders about how McQuistan resembles Steve Wisniewski now seem pretty silly.
– Shell gave the players Monday off, the first non-scheduled day off since they reported for training camp. The players around the facility were there for treatment or to get in a workout on their own. Players won’t watch the Pittsburgh film until Wednesday before practice.
“I felt they needed something, so I gave it to them,” Shell said. “What do they call it, victory Monday? I decided we’ve got we’ve got a Monday night game, so it’s OK to do it. Give them a little rest.”
Defensive end Derrick Burgess, who was in the largely empty locker room for a brief period, wasn’t going to ask too many questions.
“The man just said, `See you Wednesday,’ ” Burgess said. “That’s all I know.”
