No question Rich Bisaccia deserves a ton of credit for the job he’s done with the Raiders this season. He took over a team in utter turmoil and guided them to their first playoff appearance in five years.
Jon Gruden resigned after several offensive emails surfaced. The team was just five games into the season and had lost two straight games. Then Bisaccia steps in and they won two straight.
Following that second win, everything completely fell apart. The morning after the team’s win over the Eagles to bring them to 5-2 on the season, number one receiver Henry Ruggs III was allegedly driving drunk and struck a vehicle with a woman and her dog in it, killing both and landing Ruggs in jail on several serious charges.
The fallout of that contributed to the Raiders going into a tailspin, losing five of six games. But just when their playoff hopes were on the brink, they started winning. And they didn’t stop. They reeled off four straight wins to finish the season 10-7 and make the playoffs.
Though they would fall to the Bengals, it once again came down to the wire, showing this team’s resilience facing a team that had already beaten them this season and on paper looked far superior.
The whole of this has some wondering if Bisaccia deserves the chance to have the interim tag stripped off and see if he can keep it going. His players made their cases following the playoff loss in Cincinnati.
“If it was up to me, I think everyone in the world knows my decision. I love Rich,” said Maxx Crosby. “I’m biased obviously, but he’s a great coach. He came in and got us to ten wins. We came on the road, on a short week, and gave Cincinnati everything they could handle. It just shows Rich is a great leader. One of the best people I know, one of the most honest dudes I know, and I’ll go to bat for him any day of the week. I love that dude to death. He knows that. And I appreciate everything he’s brought to the table. And I hope we keep doing it.”
The leader on offense also had strong words of support for Bisaccia.
“We all think that he’s the right guy,” Derek Carr said. “Not just one player, not just one side [of the ball], but everybody. People listen to him. Our team listens to him. And I love him so much and I’m thankful for him. All of those things will be decisions that I don’t get to make. I just play quarterback and do my best to complete every pass. But I think that with everything that went on . . . the fact that that staff kept everything together and kept us competitive and kept us winning, finding ways to win football games. I think that’s what our organization is about, right?”
Carr is, of course, speaking of the Al Davis mantra “Just Win, Baby.” Which, despite it never being easy, they did four straight times to get here.
Whether the team thinks Bisaccia is the guy to lead this team after this season could depend more on who his competition is for the job.
The most prevalent rumor has been the possible interest in Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh.
The former NFL coach once led the 49ers to a Super Bowl. He never had a losing season as an NFL head coach and owns an impressive .695 winning percentage over four seasons on the job. He coached his last NFL season in 2014.
There are a good many interesting head coach candidates out there and the Raiders will do their due diligence along with giving Bisaccia his shot to interview to keep the job. Although his four-game winning streak to close out the season and a playoff berth is probably the best interview he has had.
Whether Bisaccia returns as head coach, he earned serious respect from around the league. Respect the longtime Special Teams already had from his players.
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