... on your luck and you feel like you've reached rock bottom, that there's nowhere to go but up. Against all odds, you try to maintain a positive outlook on your prospects, while still keeping a realistic perspective on things, and you fully embrace the notion that when your back is against the wall, you are not one to be reckoned with.

Forgive me if I'm beginning to read like a self-help book, but for many Raider fans, this was the battle cry of sorts prior to the start of the 2009-2010 season.

It's not so much that a lackluster preseason was considered a slight misstep or that the past six years have been ignored or forgotten, but considering the maturation of JaMarcus Russell during the offseason and the tumult of a newly shaped AFC ...

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