Raiders fire Cable? Really?

The Oakland Raiders have broken ties with Tom Cable, sending the head coach careening to the unemployment line.

Really, Al Davis? Really

You’re going to hire the guy even though he goes just 4-8 after replacing Lane Kiffin five games into the 2008 season?

You’re not going to fire the guy in August 2009 when he allegedly punched assistant coach Randy Hanson?

Or after he leads the team to another inept 5-11 record during that 2009 season?

But you’re going to fire him now? After the team had eight wins for the first time since the 2002 Super Bowl season? After Darren McFadden finally displayed some semblance of the talent that caused the team to draft him in the first round three years ago?

The reports indicate that the leading candidate to replace Cable is Hue Jackson. Jackson has a good resume and I’m sure he contributed a lot to the team’s turnaround this year.

But that’s just it – the team made a ton of progress this year. Instead of winning four or five games, the team improved to eight wins, including going undefeated in the AFC West division with sweeps over rivals Kansas City, Denver and San Diego.

The team looked far more competent than it has in nearly a decade and, though it does not yet have playoff talent, looked as though it was on the way toward again competing for the postseason with a couple of tweaks.

And the players looked like they wanted to play for the guy. Hue Jackson might end up being a great coach. That’s not the point. The point is that this is a team that appears to be on the upswing and now the owner has inserted a major, dramatic unknown. You know what you have in Cable. He’s not perfect. But for all the stuff Cable could have been fired for over the last couple years, he wasn’t. And, again, he appeared to have the Raiders going in the right direction.

Is this a shrewd move? Or is it Al Davis making one more mistake upon dozens of mistakes he’s made in running this team in recent years?

Based on the recent past, Raiders fans, I’d be less than anxious to find out.