| Christopher Reina. 15th September, 2008 - 5:55 pm
 Following Week 1's excruciating loss on Monday night against the Broncos, it looked mathematical that the Raiders would finish the season with at least 10 losses for the sixth consecutive year.
They may still be six hard wins away, but the Raiders were a very competent football club in Kansas City on Sunday, as they rushed for 300 yards while limiting the Chiefs to just 190 yards of total offense.
1. McFadden ahead of Peterson’s pace
McFadden had 7.8 yards per carry on Sunday and is now averaging 7.0 for the season, trailing just Earnest Graham, Selvin Young, and Michael Turner.
While McFadden (210 yards) certainly has a long way to go from matching or even coming close to his 1,341 yards, Adrian Peterson had 169 yards rushing (4.3 YPC) through the first two games of his rookie season a year ago.
Among McFadden, Chris Johnson, Felix Jones, Jonathan Stewart, Matt Forte, and Kevin Smith, this is a stunning rookie class at running back.
He has great burst to the line of scrimmage and, hopefully, his turf toe does not limit his effectiveness through the Buffalo and San Diego games ahead of the bye in Week 5.
2. A step back for Russell?
One week after JaMarcus Russell had a promising second half and a 111.1 QB rating that made most people come away with little doubt of his high talent and readiness to be a competent NFL starter, he went just 6-for-17 for 55 yards and a 45.0 rating.
The statistics are slightly misleading because there were several positives that came out of his performance:
He stayed upright as the offensive line gave him time to throw and wasn’t sacked once. Russell was sacked three times against Denver and was hurried on countless other occasions. Their run blocking is obviously their strength, but unless they can protect Russell, blocking an eight man front guarding against the run will be impossible.
His receivers did very little favors for him, dropping several catchable passes. Russell has an absolute gun for an arm but needs to put a little more air under his throws to make them easier to handle. It is clearly easier to dial down a passer with too strong of an arm than the opposite (ex: Pennington, Chad); Russell is still in the stage of his career where he is learning the speed of the game and just how much speed he needs to put on a ball to get it through secondaries to his intended receiver and that timing will come from more and more game reps.
Russell only completed one pass to a wide receiver, an 11-yard pass to Ashley Lelie to the left out of the shotgun in the second quarter.
3. A very different offense in Kansas City
The Chargers came into 2008 with one of the most vaunted defenses in the NFL and with or without Shawne Merriman, they have a very good unit. But Jay Cutler got Brandon Marshall back and cut up the Chargers for 39 points.
Tyler Thigpen came in for the injured Damon Huard and completed 14 of his 33 pass attempts for 151 yards and a late Tony Gonzalez touchdown.
The Raiders also limited Larry Johnson to a dreadful 1.8 yards per carry, only the third time since his rookie season in which he has had fewer than two yards per carry.
DeAngelo Hall rebounded from an appalling Monday against Eddie Royal to record six tackles and an almost interception. He allowed four catches and although he still looks like an incredibly bad investment, he was certainly not a detriment.
Thomas Howard had seven tackles, a first half sack, and a forced fumble while Derrick Burgess had a great first half sack coming off the edge nicely. |
