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Raiders Drop Another One “Defensively we had our chances, got a couple of turnovers,”---Coach Tom Cable
By Barbara Mason 11/15/09
Inside of three minutes, on the first drive of the game, the Oakland Raiders marched downfield culminating with a one yard romp by Justin Fargas into the end zone for the early 7-0 lead. Kansas City started their first drive deep in their own territory. That drive did not go the Chiefs way and Oakland took back possession. The game then turned into a see saw battle between the two teams with the Chiefs able to kick a field goal to draw closer, 7-3. A plethora of penalties started to hamper the Raiders progress. A fumbled punt recovery by John Condo set the Raiders up on the KC 37 yard line. Unable to make any forward progress, Sebastian Janikowski stepped in to kick a 50 yard field goal giving the Silver and Black a 10-3 lead. Well that was the first quarter, a good one for the Raiders. The second quarter flip flopped in this game as Kansas City came to life scoring on a 44 yard run by Jamaal Charles to tie up the game at 10. Later in the quarter it was yet another penalty that negated a long pass that would have put the Raiders inside the KC 5. The Chiefs took the lead 13-10 off a 25 yard field goal by kicker Ryan Succop. The half ended with no change on the scoreboard. The magic that had started on the Raiders first drive of the game had all but vanished. A Thomas Howard recovery in the third quarter of a Matt Cassel fumble gave the Raiders yet another golden opportunity. Nearing the end of the quarter, a quarterback change resulted as Bruce Gradkowski took the field in place of the struggling Russell. The Howard recovery was all for naught as Oakland was unable to advance the ball. The Raiders series for the rest of the game were exercises in futility. While the defense was giving the ball back to the offense, that faction didn’t seem to know what to do with it. Good plays were followed by bad and then there were those pesky penalties. With 6:17 left in the game, the Chiefs were in the lead 16-10. Although this was still a very winnable game for Oakland it was just not in the cards for the team. While the defense played well, it’s the offense that puts up the points and that’s just not happening right now. “I want to be out there helping the guys to win,” said quarterback JaMarcus Russell who was pulled in the waning moments of the third quarter. He just has such a long way to go and the middle of the season is not the time to start anything from scratch. “Defensively we had our chances, had a couple of turnovers,” said Coach Cable after the game. “We defended the run ok but gave up some big plays in the passing game. Really that was the difference in the game.” It gets very challenging the rest of the season for the Raiders. They will take on the Cincinnati Bengals next Sunday, followed by the Dallas Cowboys, Pittsburgh, Washington, Denver, Cleveland and finishing the season at home against the Baltimore Ravens. That’s just about as tough as it can get. |
Coming
off a bye week, the Oakland Raiders took on the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday
afternoon at the Coliseum. Both of these teams have been struggling all
season long. After having a two week timeframe to work on an overwhelming
number of issues how would the Silver and Black look in week nine; would
the extra preparation time make any difference?