ASSUMING AL Davis is keeping an open mind regarding the Raiders' head coaching position, Tom Cable had a whale of a day on Sunday.

The Raiders' 27-16 win over the Houston Texans was stunningly decisive and shockingly stylish. It was eerily close to error-free, and it pulsed with promise.

"We got a couple of big plays on defense," Cable said. "The quarterback, this really was his best game. You saw a lot of our younger players show up and have an impact. As I've said for a while now, that's the future of this organization. That is the direction we're headed."

The only question now is: Does what happened Sunday on a dreary, soggy day, in front of perhaps the smallest home crowd since the Raiders returned to Oakland make a difference?

Split into groups militant cynics on the left, clinical optimists on the right. Discuss.

"I don't know," linebacker Kirk Morrison said when asked if he thought Sunday's win bolstered Cable's chances of shedding his interim tag and being hired as the team's permanent head coach. "The way we played today is indicative of the way we can play. We know we've got a good Football team. Today we just proved it."

"Me, personally, that's my O-line coach," tackle Cornell Green said when asked the same question. "I have all respect and love for coach Cable. He treats you like a man. I think he's a great coach. I would think so, but we don't have that power."

Davis, the team's managing general partner, does. And he's not talking. There's no telling if he made up his mind at some point during Cable's first 10 games as interim eight of them losses, five of those outright embarrassments.

There's no telling if he cut Cable any slack for stepping into a chaotic situation, inheriting Lane Kiffin's assistants and playbooks, saddled with Davis' own stable of free agent busts.

There's no knowing whether Davis believes that one game like Sunday's carries more weight than the weeks, months and years of rudderless misery that preceded it.

Cable could make that case without appearing delusional. Sunday's game did, in fact, feature outstanding efforts by young players players you would expect to improve with experience.

Quarterback JaMarcus Russell was decisive, aggressive and accurate, completing 18-of-25 passes for 236 yards and two touchdowns. Johnnie Lee Higgins caught one of the touchdown passes, and returned a punt 80 yards for a score. Darren McFadden had 46 yards rushing and 41 more receiving.

Speaking of rookies, Cable's game-opening script took the Raiders 64 yards for a touchdown and a quick 7-0 lead. The guy who enjoys trick-play flourishes tried only one against Houston, an onside kick after Oakland's second score. It led to Oakland's third score.

Cable declined to call timeout during the Texans' final drive of the first half. It would have come in handy after a Houston field goal, the Raiders drove into field goal position themselves on a Russell pass to Higgins. But the clock expired during the Higgins reception.

Beyond that, Cable was flawless. The Raiders looked like a real team. Optimists would point out that Houston came into the game on a four-game win streak. And Morrison did.

"We went up against a team that was red hot," he said. "We weren't scared at all. We didn't want to back down."

Cynics would counter that despite their win streak and 7-7 record, the Texans came into Sunday's game having been eliminated from playoff contention.

"We didn't play with the same emotion," said Houston coach Gary Kubiak, whom you'd peg as an impartial observer given that he has no emotional investment in how the Raiders' head coaching derby turns out.

In short, the game provided Davis with plenty to consider on the ride home unless he showed up for the game with his mind made up. In that event, Sunday was merely a miserable wet day in which the Raiders neither advanced the cause nor set it back, but provided their most loyal of loyalists with a fine afternoon's entertainment for their money.

And they said it couldn't be done.

Contact Gary Peterson at gpeterson@bayareanewsgroup.com