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2012 was always going to be a difficult year for the Oakland Raiders franchise. There was no way around it. No team in the history of football had the sort of reconstruction the Raiders faced last year. Al Davis was the alpha and omega of the Raider franchise for decades. The number of men hired to replace all of the duties he did speaks volumes.

With that said Reggie McKenzie and Dennis Allen took great liberties with the positions each was in during this past year.

McKenzie had a salary cap mess that permitted the removal of players no matter their importance to the franchise.

Allen had a roster with talent but no depth that allowed for a learn-on-the-job approach.

But that was then and this is now.

Then Allen thought he could somehow reinvent the wheel by scrapping an offensive system that produced for one he simply preferred. We all know how that ended and if Allen ever tries to prove he’s the smartest man in the room again it could likely be the end of his head coaching career.

Simply put the training wheels are off. You rarely get an entire year in pro football to figure things out. If you’re not sure coming out of camp then more than likely you won’t be given a full 16 games to do so. Allen had that luxury but the increasing angst of Mark Davis has made the leash even shorter.

In the first game of the season Allen’s team looked unprepared as evident by the long snapper debacle that derailed the season opener.

That too is something that cannot happen again. With all due respect to Allen his predecessor, Hue Jackson, didn’t even have an offseason due to the lockout yet he was able to get his team ready to go for the start of the season.

Allen has the respect of his players which is a good thing. But so too did Tom Cable and Jackson. We know where they ended up. If Allen wants to avoid a similar fate he’ll need to get with the program and understand that coaches on scholarship are only accepted in San Diego.

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It’s all too easy to blame Greg Knapp for the inexplicable regression of Oakland’s offense this season. That Knapp and three other coaches were fired today about says all you need to know. There is no way around it, Knapp’s second tenure in the East Bay was more disastrous than his first and there was no argument to be made for keeping him around next season.

To be sure Greg Knapp’s firing was long overdue. However the reality is Dennis Allen should have never made the call in the first place. Allen’s inexperience showed when he arrogantly assumed Knapp’s previous failures in Oakland were the result of the old regime and not due to Knapp’s inability to maximize talent.

Before Knapp arrived Hue Jackson had transformed the Raiders into a lethal offense whose bread and butter was the running game. But that apparently wasn’t good enough for the new regime. Like most who come to power for the first time first year GM Reggie McKenzie and rookie head coach Allen desired to do things their way regardless of past success or failure.

Therein lies the real problem with this failed season.

Blaming Knapp is easy because his name is on the offense. But Knapp is as Knapp does. Had the Raiders hired a high school volleyball coach to coordinate the offense the results would not have been much different. So the ultimate blame falls at the feet of the men who not only made the hires but also allowed them to stick around when nothing was working as it should.

Allen was wrong to ignore Knapp’s track record in Oakland and his general manager was equally culpable for sitting on his hands as the season unraveled largely because the Raiders simply could not run the rock.

Knapp’s zone blocking scheme was never a good fit for Darren McFadden. We all learned that some years ago. Too bad Allen and McKenzie were blinded by their own selfish desires. From the start of the preseason it was obvious that the Raiders were having trouble adjusting to the new scheme.

However after every woeful showing the term “patience” was preached. The problem is you don’t get patience from fans when they’ve seen the same parts work in harmony in a better system.

So instead of scrapping the failed ZBS Knapp chose to incorporate some power blocking principles. Mind you that likely only came about once owner Mark Davis urged McFadden to talk to Knapp about his ill-fitting scheme. But even that didn’t help.

Fundamentally Knapp’s design was flawed from the start. McFadden’s struggles were the most obvious but even Carson Palmer was never meant to play in an offense designed for mobile throwers. Palmer’s numbers might look nice but at no point during the season did the Raiders have a pulse when it came to stretching the field.

Whether or not McKenzie liked the roster he inherited is irrelevant. This team was built for power running and vertical throwing. Maybe that’s not the type of football McKenzie and Allen wanted to play but that is selfish on their part. Whatever it takes to win in the NFL it what the job requires. John Fox scrapped his entire offense and installed the Tim Tebow system a year ago. In the end Denver won the AFC West then changed systems all together when they landed Peyton Manning this year. Once again the Broncos are best in the West. The lesson is simple – work with the pieces you’ve got and adapt to them so as to maximize their talents.

Allen was in Texas with his father after departing from the Raiders shortly after Sunday’s game. He is expected to rejoin the team for Thursday’s clash with Denver but one could certainly understand if he has a change of heart.

Sadly, Allen’s father was only 66 years old at the time of his death.