Oakland Raiders: A Framework for 2010 Expectations

When a person comes from a great family, often the parents will advise that person of the outstanding achievements of their forefathers. That same discussion can be applied to the Oakland Raiders.

Their heritage is a commitment to excellence. Embracing the pursuit of excellence would restore the continuity of the history of the Oakland Raiders franchise.

Sometimes young people are not aware of the history of an organization or of a franchise. They sometimes have a vague understanding. The elders need to inform the young people.

Here is an attempt to inform. Look at the graph of the John Madden-Tom Flores era, starting in 1978.

Madden coached only the first year of the 16 game regular season.

Flores coached from 1979 to 1987. His final coaching year with the Raiders had five wins.



 

Here is the data:

 

Oakland delta O Coach 9 Madden 9 0 Flores 11 2 Flores 7 -4 Flores 8 1 Flores 12 4 Flores 11 -1 Flores 12 1 Flores 8 -4 Flores 5 -3 Flores  

Madden-Flores Average Win Total

During the Madden-Flores era, we observe that there were two years when the Oakland Raiders had 12 wins. Also, there were two years with 11 wins. That era had a quad-modal distribution. In other words, there were two years with 12 wins; two years with 11 wins; two years with nine wins; and two years with eight wins.

The average number of wins during that era is 9.2. The minimum number of wins was five, in the last year of Flores career with the Oakland Raiders.



 

A Goal for 2010

A reasonable goal for the 2010 Raiders, I believe, is to aim for at least the average of the Madden-Flores era. A goal of at least nine wins would be impressive, moving up from five to nine.

 

It's Been Done

It is possible to ...

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