Back to the future: Raiders turn the corner

It looked like just another late-season win against a mediocre division rival, but the ' 20-17 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs will someday take on historical importance. Down the line, Nov. 25, 2007 will be remembered as the day of the great franchise's turnaround.Hyperbole? Perhaps a bit, but viewers of 4 Brett Favre White jersey
Oakland's futility-snapping play - the oft-cited three-year, 17-game losing streak against AFC West teams may now be shelved - on Sunday needn't have squinted too hard to envision a potential great-looking short-term future for the Silver and Black.First of all, of course, there was Justin Fargas. Back in the offseason, who would have thought that Fargas would emerge as a viable go-to guy? Fargas' Chief-crushing 22 carries for 139 yards made for his third 100-yard performance since getting called upon to run over Miami in Week 4.Though Fargas looked like a true third-stringer against Minnesota two weekends ago, going for an anemic 2.7 yards per on 22 carries, he redeemed himself well. Since Fargas has been a better blocker than Dominic Rhodes or LaMont Jordan and is averaging 4.8 yards per carry, surely he's earned himself at least the No. 2 spot on the depth chart for 2008.Who needs Rhodes and Jordan? The Raiders, but only until draft weekend. Oakland fans are hoping they get more than a fourth-rounder if something like this happens.The defense, too, again showed more than a glimmering of future success. While providing no answer for the freak show at halfback on Sunday, the Raiders did hold all Chiefs not named Kolby Smith to just 140 yards and zero TDs. Important as well was the defense's clutch stop of Smith on the fourth-quarter, fourth-down run to nearly ice the game for Oakland. Smith aside, several Raider defenders continued to look great. Future star Kirk Morrison (25-years old) continued to pad his great season with 11 tackles, 10 of them solo. In his seventh season, Derrick Burgess appears to be entering his prime in this second half and turned in his best show of 2007 with a bunch of tackles and two sacks. With Burgess and Morrison putting on one-man shows, the remainder of the 'D' functioned as a unit, assisting on the tackle time and again. Raider fans gotta love the way sophomore NFLer Thomas Howard and sixth-year man Robert Thomas have been finishing plays off near the line. Together with Morrison, these guys are maybe the most promising three-man linebacker set for 2008.(This observer is not exactly sure why there wasn't even more pass rushing by the Raiders against a ragtag Kansas City O-line averaging just over three sacks per game. Wunderkind head coach Lane Kiffin has become increasingly more impressive in his decision-making prowess throughout the season, however, so we'll cut him some slack here. Wait 'til next season when the Raiders apply a blitz on every play in the first half against Kansas City ...)From the Ho-Hum Department comes the news that Sebastian Janikowski booted in a monster 54-yarder and rookie TE Zach Miller was a one-man roadblock on the line while also managing to haul in four receptions.And then there's JaMarcus Russell. Hilariously, the NFL's official highlight clip of the game actually opens with Russell, who, we are informed, is "still not playing." (No kidding.) The Dallas Cowboys jersey
fact that Daunte Culpepper can win on any given Sunday these days is less a testament to the old guy's waning abilities than a mark of the truly impressive improvement shown by last year's joke of an offensive line.When Russell finally gets the start, the sports world's talking heads will no doubt trip over one another's tongues in the rush to usher in a new era in Oakland, particularly with the AFC West's other three teams in such disarray. (That one-year Art Shell experiment now seems an even more disastrous step backward. Without the setback and with Randy Moss, these Raiders might be in contention right now.) Those who were paying attention, though, will be able to say they saw the dawn first break one Sunday in Kansas City.Your 2008 AFC West champion , anybody?Endless gridiron speculation at ...