I wonder if Tom Cable would like to go back in time and turn down Al Davis' offer to take over as head coach of the Raiders. If he wasn't thinking about it before, he very well might be after his team was absolutely manhandled today, as the Saints cruised to a 34-3 win over the hapless silver and black.
Drew Brees was unstoppable, hitting on his first 16 passes of the game, and finishing 26-of-30 for 320 yards and three touchdowns to three different players. And he did it, once again, without Marques Colston. Scary. And ridiculous.
In the end, Brees connected with nine different receivers, including seven passes to Lance Moore, who registered a game-high 97 yards receiving.
As for the Raiders ... ugh. They picked up only 12 first downs, mainly because JaMarcus Russell went 13-of-35 throwing the football. He was intercepted once (should have been more), fumbled, and for the most part was simply awful. On the plus side, they had a 3-0 lead after the first quarter, so they at least had that going for them.
Darren McFadden returned to the lineup after battling some turf toe issues and was held to just 30 yards on eight carries, while Justin Fargas also returned for the Raiders and was equally ineffective, picking up 35 yards on ten carries.
For the Saints, Reggie Bush didn't really have a chance to score touchdowns returning punts, but he did manage to score on a 3-yard run in the second quarter and a 15-yard reception from Brees in the third quarter.
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New Orleans improves to 3-3 as it attempts to keep pace in the NFC South, while Oakland falls to 1-4 and Cable can officially begin looking over his shoulder, waiting for Al Davis to fire him.
Getting back to Brees for a moment, it's pretty obvious that, as of right now, he is the best quarterback in the NFL. He entered the game with a 97.7 passer rating, and put up a 144.4 mark on Sunday. And he's been doing it without his best receiver.
