Oakland Raiders at the Crossroads of Their 2010 Season: Who Are You?

"Who are You?", so sang Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend of The Who during the half-time show at the last Superbowl. It has been made famous by CSI but perhaps the Oakland Raiders could adopt it as their new theme?

Because when it come to the Silver-and-Black in 2010, I feel we are all entitled to ask "tell me, who are you? 'Cause I really wanna know"

Is this the team that played near perfect football against Denver, scoring eight TDs along the way and amassing 500+ yards of offense? Or are they the team that could only score three FGs and a pitiful 179 yards of offense against the otherwise winless 49ers?

Is this the Raiders who allowed Tennessee to rack up 24 unanswered points in the space of 16 plays or the Raiders who kept Denver off the scoreboard until the game was already won?

Is this a defense that limited Larry Fitzgerald to two catches for 26 yards and Brandon Lloyd to one catch for 46 yards; or is this the defense that gave up eight receptions for 213 yards to Malcolm Floyd?

Erratic does not come close to summing up the 2010 season for Oakland. Jason Campbell has highlighted this perfectly by book-ending his worst career game (10.7 QB rating against San Francisco) with the best two games of his career (117.6 QB rating against San Diego and 127.9 QB rating against Denver). You can not get more erratic than that!

Sir Winston Churchill said in 1939 "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma". The same could be said of Tom Cable’s Raiders – how can they soar so high and yet fall so low? Which is the real Oakland?

In a 2009 "Inside the NFL show" Warren Sapp gave an interesting insight into Raider life:

Warren Sapp: "But Oakland plays worse when they have confidence.  Oakland plays worse when they feel good about themselves."

Chris Collinsworth: "Wait, wait, wait. ...