FanHouse Rob Ryan

When asked to explain what he would like to see from his team, first-year Browns head coach Eric Mangini offered this: "Aggressive, intense, tough, physical, finishing ... consistency, execution (editor's note: I'm in favor of it!), communication ... good, solid, sound, fundamental, tough football. Physical football. Intense football. That's what I want every week."

He made these comments shortly after the Browns lost their sixth game in seven tries, this one a steady-as-she-goes 31-3 defeat to the Packers. Last month, after an 0-3 start, fans started an online petition begging owner Randy Lerner to sell the team. Nothing came of it, so the sights have been set a little lower: fire Mangini. This time the Akron Beacon Journal's Patrick McManamon is leading the charge.

It took almost five weeks, but finally something other than awful news for the Cleveland Browns. Even though it won't show up in the standings, there's a good chance they tied the Bengals last Sunday.

During a Friday press conference, Browns defensive coordinator Rob Ryan said that it looked like Bengals kicker Shayne Graham missed the game-deciding 31-yard field goal attempt that the officials ultimately ruled good. Via the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Mary Kay Cabot:

Earlier today, MDS informed us that the Cleveland Browns are prepared to name Eric Mangini their new head coach, replacing Romeo Crennel. This comes just two days after reports surfaced that Mangini, who had not yet been named the Browns head coach, was already beginning to assemble his staff.

Well, tonight, NFL.com's Adam Schefter is reporting that Mangini -- who still hasn't officially been named the Browns head coach -- has named Rob Ryan as his defensive coordinator. Ryan had been the Raiders defensive coordinator since the 2004 season, and was apparently a favorite of owner Al Davis. During Ryan's tenure with the Raiders, their defense ranked 27th, 22nd, 3rd, 27th, and 30th, while he also had a less-than-stellar working relationship with former head coach Lane Kiffin.

He was also responsible for one of the best quotes of the season, when he informed the Oakland media that this is the "National F[reaking] Football League."

While football fans (and perhaps owners) in Washington and Cleveland are having dreams about Bill Cowher leaving the confines of the CBS studio and leading their teams to glory, the Oakland Raiders seem to be setting their goals a little lower. Perhaps more realistic, mind you, but definitely lower. Much, much lower.

According to ESPN's Chris Mortensen (via PFT) Raiders owner Al Davis, supposedly, is a big fan of New York Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride. Seriously? Kevin Gilbride? This is the name you can come up with? Granted, in the efforts of fairness, this is just a report of a name that might be considered -- but Kevin Gilbride?

Gilbride is, perhaps, most famous for the run-and-shoot offense in his days as Houston Oilers offensive coordinator -- when he was punched on the sidelines by Buddy Ryan, father of current Raiders defensive coordinator Rob Ryan -- and going 6-16 as the head coach of the San Diego Chargers during the 1997 and 1998 seasons.

Perhaps the most interesting individual matchup in Sunday's Patriots-Raiders game will be New England wide receiver Randy Moss taking on Oakland cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha. In theory, anyway. Asomugha has quietly -- because he plays for Oakland -- become one of the league's best corners, while Moss continues to be, well, Randy Moss. Granted, he's not going to haul in 20+ touchdowns this season, but he's still a force to be reckoned with in the passing game.

One would think that since Asomugha is the best in the business at shutting down opposing receivers, and because Moss is still one of the NFL's best big-play threats -- even without Tom Brady -- the Raiders would use their franchise player to shadow Moss everywhere he goes. But, since they're the Raiders, they won't.

Earlier this week, Asomugha told the media in Oakland that he won't be used as a shadow on Moss, and instead, will be chasing around Wes Welker.

File this under: this is why you're 3-10.

Perhaps the most interesting individual matchup in Sunday's Patriots-Raiders game will be New England wide receiver Randy Moss taking on Oakland cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha. In theory, anyway. Asomugha has quietly -- because he plays for Oakland -- become one of the league's best corners, while Moss continues to be, well, Randy Moss. Granted, he's not going to haul in 20+ touchdowns this season, but he's still a force to be reckoned with in the passing game.

One would think that since Asomugha is the best in the business at shutting down opposing receivers, and because Moss is still one of the NFL's best big-play threats -- even without Tom Brady -- the Raiders would use their franchise player to shadow Moss everywhere he goes. But, since they're the Raiders, they won't.

Earlier this week, Asomugha told the media in Oakland that he won't be used as a shadow on Moss, and instead, will be chasing around Wes Welker.

File this under: this is why you're 3-10.

In the wake of Lane Kiffin's hiring at the university of Tennessee, reports began to surface that Buccaneers defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin -- Lane's dad -- would be joining him to run the Volunteers defense. It appears that there's plenty of fire to go along with that smoke, as ESPN's Chris Mortensen mentioned today that Kiffin is leaning towards going that route.

There are only two possible holdups to such a deal. The first one being, (Monte) Kiffin is still under contract with the Buccaneers after signing a contract extension a year ago.

The second possible hold up is: are we sure the Tennessee athletic director isn't a senile old man that will refuse to let (Lane) Kiffin fire the current defensive coordinator to bring in his pop to coach alongside him? Okay, perhaps that's not going to happen. If you'll recall, Lane, reportedly, tried to bring Monte with him out to Oakland prior to this season, until Al Davis decided that Rob Ryan was the greatest defensive coordinator ever. Obviously, that's not going to be a problem here, as I'm just looking for a reason to make another Al Davis joke.

What a difference a win makes for the morale of a football team. The Raiders, fresh off their 16-13 overtime win against the Jets, not only find themselves within shouting distance of the top spot in the AFC West -- it's true -- but the coaching staff is actually getting along. Crazy. I know.

Defensive Coordinator Rob Ryan, always at odds with former coach Lane Kiffin, called the new boss, Tom Cable, "a breath of fresh air" this week, and went on explain why he was sick and tired of having his defense blamed for everything that went wrong in Oakland. From David White of the San Francisco Chronicle:

To the point, Ryan thought Kiffin was too quick to blame the defense for the failures of his 5-15 stay. "To be honest, I felt a lot of stuff was pointed at the defense that I wasn't necessarily agreeing with. It's been well-documented, we lost six games giving up one offensive touchdown last season and it seemed like every single game was the defense's fault. "Attribute that to whatever it is. Bottom line is, I think we've got a damned good leader in front of the group now and everything's fine."

Excellent. It's important to have such a strong leader when you're playing in the National F(reaking) Football League, and it's great to see some sort of unity on the Raiders coaching staff.

Better yet, it's important to keep in mind that the Raiders are still only a game-and-a-half back of the AFC West leading Broncos,who suddenly don't look as strong as they did a few weeks ago. As crazy and dysfunctional as this season has been out there, the Raiders are still, technically, very much in this thing. Imagine if they could have held onto those fourth quarter leads against Buffalo and San Diego.

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that the Raiders will fire head coach Lane Kiffin as early as this week and name defensive coordinator Rob Ryan in his place.

The word on the street was that Kiffin would be fired if the Raiders lost to the Chiefs. Well, Oakland won that game, leaving the organization in a weird decision. A decision that may already have been made.

After last week's loss to the Broncos, there was a public war of words between Kiffin and Ryan over Al Davis' involvement in the gameplanning of the team. According to the Chronicle, once Kiffin fired on Davis and Ryan, Davis told Ryan to strike back ... which led to his public F-bomb laced tirade.

Davis has Ryan in his pocket (which he loves) and he's already drawn a letter of resignation for Kiffin to sign (which Kiffin wouldn't). It is quite obvious that Kiffin knows he will be fired at any time and is trying his best to facilitate it:

"We don't have a general manager; everything goes through the owner," Kiffin said Wednesday. "That sets up a difficult situation at times. Knowing who the owner is, you know from Day 1 there's no job security."

Of course, Davis may bite on his impulse ... but try to get out of paying Kiffin his salary.

It's pretty much been decided that Lane Kiffin is a short-timer in Oakland. Owner Al Davis unsuccessfully tried to push him to quit this offseason, and following the Raiders embarrassing showing in the season opener, coupled with an uninspiring four-win effort a year ago, he'll probably be looking for work in the near future.

In fact, according to the Mercury News' Tim Kawakami, that could be as soon as next week.

It happened to Mike Shanahan in 1989 after four games. It could happen to Lane Kiffin in 2008 after two games. Gone. See ya.

I hear it could happen to Kiffin on Monday or Tuesday, if the Raiders do not put up a half-decent effort in Kansas City on Sunday. Wouldn't surprise me if people around the Raiders are all but planning the firing press conference–whether it comes next week, the week after or in two weeks.

Because it's coming. The Rob Ryan Blow Up on Thursday–dictated, I'm sure, by Davis himself and directed at Kiffin and Kiffin's supporters–told us all that things are at a boiling point in the Raiders offices right now and the only way to ease it up is to fire Kiffin.