Category: Oakland Raiders

NFL Playoffs commentary & podcast: Seahawks to be a tough customer for Panthers this Saturday

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by David Zizmor

It’s always tough at this stage it’s about one team that gets hot at the end of the season and into the playoffs and kind of rolls through the post season you saw the New York Giants a few years ago and the Baltimore Ravens which used to go in against the San Francisco 49ers teams that you don’t normally expect to go into the playoffs but end up getting there. We don’t know if we have that team yet and it’s tough to say when you have a divisional playoff game.

There are still four teams from the AFC and NFC of each conference that haven’t played yet. It’s tough to envision anyone knocking off the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC. They were just too good, they were just muddling along from the early part to the middle part of the season. Bobby Wagner came from an injury and a couple other guys came back.

The ball started going down hill and things didn’t start clicking for the Seahawks and you saw in late November starting with that 49ers game and through December the Hawks were just knocking everybody’s heads in. There was just no chance when you took the field against them, they played some teams that were just weak and the 49ers weren’t playing well.

The Hawks faced Arizona when the Cardinals quarterback Ryan Lindley was facing them and the Seahawks are playing as good of football as they have been all season. This is a team that gets their home field advantage and as good of a home field advantage as anybody has in the league and their playing the Carolina Panthers whose been despite their 7-8-1 record playing actually relatively well for the season.

The Hawks aren’t going to be scared by the playoffs because the Panthers had to play them the last two years and they were in the playoffs and it’s not something new to them anytime you got to play in Seattle in the post season it’s always a real uphill battle and I don’t think Carolina is talented enough to hang with the Seahawks. Whether it’s Green Bay or Dallas Seattle would end up facing one of them in the championship the Packers and the Cowboys are flawed teams.

Green Bay and Dallas have very strong offenses and very weak defenses and maybe Seattle is not as quite as dynamic as either of those teams they have an amazing defense that have an answer for the other teams offenses. The Packers quarterback Aaron Rogers is the best quarterback in the NFL right now but Rogers doesn’t have what it takes to get through the Seattle defense. I love Aaron Rogers if somehow Carolina knocks off the Seahawks then all bets are off.

Listen to David Zizmor’s podcast below and David covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary with podcast: Rams taking a look at moving back to L.A. and so are the Raiders

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–A couple of years ago I saw the plans for the new football stadium in downtown Los Angeles and I’m sure their going to build it but I don’t know if the Raiders are going to go there. The Raiders have considered moving back to L.A. they do have more fans there than they do in Oakland. Mind you the L.A. area is a huge area so you can draw more people and the have twice as many people down there as they do here in the Bay Area.

As far as the poor conditions of the Oakland Coliseum I sympathize with Raiders owner Mark Davis and if I was him I would be looking for a new facility it’s no secret the Oakland A’s play there for six months for 81 games and their looking for another place and everyone knows they want to move to San Jose. So why not the Raiders? For a football fan it’s not as bad because you only play ten games at home compared to 81 games for the A’s.

It’s conceivable for a Raiders fan who can fly to L.A. for the weekend and stay their not going to follow the team all over the country. It’s not that bad for a football fan compared to a baseball fan if they lose the team. That’s what people don’t talk about, if you have money to go to the NFL you can go on a plane from Oakland to Los Angeles and watch your team because you take your family and friends and make a weekend out of it.

So it’s very possible that it could happen and I would not be surprised if the Raiders are the team going down to the Southland. I know their going to build sooner or later a brand new downtown stadium in L.A. for most likely the Rams. The TV market is a huge market and it’s only number two to New York. It’s just a matter of time that they build a park and I saw the proposed sketching of the park years ago and yes it will be there by Figueroa Street right next to the Staples Center.

They probably will have to close the whole area down and right across the street from the Staples Center is a huge plaza that has LA Live that they do TV and radio broadcasting. They will close a couple streets down in the area on Saturday and Sundays and if they build a stadium and an NFL team goes back to LA I’m sure the whole area will be closed. Even in the football season when there is no basketball the Staples Center is busy everyday, you always have some event there.

There’s the ice show, RV Show, the circus, concerts there is always something going on at Staples Center and in basketball season when the Lakers are on the road the Clippers are home and vice versa. The Staples Center is one of the busiest places in the country there’s always something going on. There are only two or three days a year that they don’t have anything scheduled. They do maintenance those two or three days.

It’s very likely that the Raiders could leave Oakland and move to L.A. that would make a lot of sense especially the Raiders by the time they conclude the time is right they can head to L.A. that would be the perfect fit if he Raiders can go down to L.A.

Hear the rest of Amaury’s commentary & podcast below click on the sound cloud ikon. Amaury does News and Commentary each week right here on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Raiders podcast commentary: Sparano sets up for last game a win could get him coaching job

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by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–The Oakland Raiders will have to wait and see on their decision to retain head coach Tony Sparano, Sparano won three out of his last five games and that’s great. Like we’ve been saying the last couple of years what you really want to see from this Raiders team is gradual improvement. The talent level is something that their still trying to figure out and as you see the team improved their results you will see them improve in their actual talent level and quality of play.

You have to give Sparano some credit the Raiders are definitely playing a lot better than they were under former head coach Dennis Allen. Sparano has been a head coach in the NFL before he was the head coach of the Miami Dolphins and coincidentally he happened to be coach of the Dolphins about three and half years ago when both the 49ers and the Dolphins were trying to sign current 49er head coach Jim Harbaugh.

If you remember there was a big flurry of meetings between owners and Harbaugh, where the owner of the Dolphins actually stuck Harbaugh on his private jet and flew him out to Miami in a last second attempt to woo him to the Dolphins and when that didn’t work he announced his support for Sparano for the Miami job and the Sparano barely lasted the remainder of that season before he was fired. Sparano has some experience he just wasn’t very good with the Dolphins that’s why he got canned.

Sparano is doing a good job so far at the Raiders the talent level isn’t that deep and it’s not known yet if Sparano will be a good long term choice for Oakland as a head coach. Anybody who came in after Allen was going to do better, he had a few organizational skills in order to get the team to play with the playbook they were going to look better. The one thing you notice at the end of the Allen era they just weren’t executing at all.

When you have a team with little talent and they can’t execute their going to look terrible on the field. Let’s be fair there have been a couple of instances the Raiders looked terrible on the field remember they lost just a few weeks ago to the Rams 52-0. So it’s not it’s been wine and roses for the Raiders under Sparano. It’s great that they beat the 49ers and the Chiefs those are big games for them you always like to go against rivals and come out on top.

Sparano in those wins did well in that regard and he’s now put himself at least in the discussion as a head coaching candidacy and you have to look at what the Raiders are planning to do in the next few years. What do the Raiders want out of a new head coach? They want to make sure that Sparano is their guy. The fact of the matter is this is a team that doesn’t have any superstars, there is no player on this team that defines the Raiders.

If you look over at the 49ers quarterback Colin Kapernick is the guy or Patrick Willis, Frank Gore is a free agent but Gore is the guy. There is a handful of players on the team who represent the 49ers, in the future the Raiders might have quarterback Derrick Carr or Latavius Murray or Khalil Mack. It’s all up and comers but on a national level when you think of the Raiders you don’t think of anybody because there is nobody good whose established themselves.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen below for David comments on the 49ers and Raiders

Raiders head to Mile High for regular season finale

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By Joe Hawkes-Beamon

Follow Joe on twitter @JLHB510

OAKLAND — After dispatching the visiting Buffalo Bills 26-24 at O.co Coliseum in Week 16 behind two touchdown passes from rookie quarterback Derek Carr and four field goals from Sebastian Janikowski and extending the Bills playoff drought to 15 years, the Raiders travel to Denver Sunday to take on the AFC West champion Broncos in both team’s regular season finale.

Oakland (3-12) dominated the time of possession over the Bills (8-7), 33:47 to 26:13, and rushing yards, 140 to 13.

After starting the season 0-10, the Raiders are 3-2 in their last five games with victories over Kansas City, San Francisco, and now, Buffalo.

“I can’t say enough good things about this team,” interim coach Tony Sparano said. “I love the guys in that locker room. They’re fighters. Anytime somebody counts them out, they bounce back. It’s a great sign of character.”

Defensively, Oakland got key contributions from middle linebacker Miles Burris, who recorded a team-high nine tackles (4 solo) and cornerback D.J. Hayden, who had six tackles.

With Oakland trailing Buffalo, 7-0 in the second quarter behind Bills rookie wide receiver Sammy Watkins’ 42-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter and Buffalo driving into Oakland’s territory, veteran safety Charles Woodson out-muscled Bills tight end Scott Chandler for the ball to record his 60th career interception. Woodson’s interception, proved to be the play that provided Oakland with the momentum to carry them through the rest of the game.

“This team has never really gotten down to the point where we were ready to give up,” safety Woodson said. “It’s always been an upbeat attitude with the guys on the team, and it shows out there each week.”

There is no doubt that Woodson has played at high level this year at age 38, leading the team in tackles (106) and interceptions (4), to go along with eight pass defensed and a sack.

Woodson, along with rookie linebacker Khalil Mack (tied for the team lead with four sacks), were named as alternates in the upcoming Pro Bowl. According to Pro Football Focus, Mack rates as the the best 4-3 outside linebacker in the NFL.

Fullback Marcel Reece was named a starter for the Pro Bowl, his third overall.

Denver is coming off gut-punching 37-28 loss in Cincinnati before a national televised audience where quarterback Peyton Manning threw a season-high four interceptions.

“I shouldn’t have thrown it,” said Manning, who was 28 of 44 for 311 yards with two touchdowns. “Four interceptions, you’re not going to beat many good football teams.”

With the loss, Denver (11-4) are locked in as the No. 2 seed as New England wrapped up home-field advantage throughout the AFC Playoffs. Denver also failed to clinch a first-round bye.

 Players to Watch

Oakland, QB, Derek Carr

There is no doubt that Carr is the Raiders’ quarterback of the future, and his play has definitely gotten better as the season gone on. Carr leads all rookie quarterbacks in passing yards (3,112) and touchdown passes (20). If it weren’t for Cincinnati rookie running back Jeremy Hill (199 carries, 1,024 rushing yards, 9 TDs) and New York Giants’ rookie wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. (79 catches, 1,120 receiving yards, 11 TDs) Carr would be walking away with the NFL Rookie of the Year award.

Denver, QB, Peyton Manning

Manning appeared mortal against Cincinnati with his season-high four interceptions, prompting many pundits to question whether Manning was injured. The Bengals was up in the future Hall of Famer’s grill, confusing Manning with an array of pressuring blitzes and knocking him down throughout the game. Rarely does Manning play poorly in back-to-back weeks and with the playoffs just one week away, one will expect Manning to have a bounce back performance. In Denver’s 41-17 demolishing over Oakland in Week 10, Manning threw for 340 and five touchdowns.

Make it three in a row at home

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By Jeremy Kahn

OAKLAND-With the playoffs long gone, the Oakland Raiders have been playing with over the last four weeks with pride.

In three of those games, the Raiders defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, the San Francisco 49ers and now the Buffalo Bills.

Derek Carr threw two touchdowns, and veteran kicker Sebastian Janikowski kicked four field goals and the Raiders made it three straight home wins with a 26-24 victory over the Bills before a crowd of 53,436 at the Coliseum.

With the victory, the Raiders eliminated the Bills from the playoff race in the AFC and won their third game in their last four games.

This is the 15th consecutive year that the Bills will miss the playoffs with their playoff game coming in the “Music City Miracle” game against the Tennessee Titans in January of 2000.

The Raiders have the second longest non-playoff appearance streak, as they last made the playoffs after the 2002 season, when they lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 48-21 in Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego.

Carr went 17-for-34 for 214 yards and those two touchdowns against one of the top defenses in the NFL.

James Jones was on the receiving end of Carr’s first touchdown pass just four seconds into the second quarter, and his second and final touchdown of the game came with 2:51 remaining in the game, as he found fullback Jamize Olawale from one yard out that essentially clinched the game for the Raiders.

The Bills would not give up, as Kyle Orton found Robert Woods for a 30-yard touchdown pass that cut the Raiders lead down to just two with 1:09 remaining in the game; however Jordan Gay’s onside kick was recovered by Charles Woodson to end the game.

Orton and the Bills opened the scoring in the first quarter, as he found rookie sensation Sammie Watkins for a 42-yard touchdown pass.

The Bills failed to capitalize on the Raiders second successive three-and-out, as Orton’s pass was intercepted by Woodson, it was the 60th career interception by the future Hall-of-Famer.

On the afternoon, Orton went 32-for-49 for 329 yards passing with three touchdown passes and two interceptions.

Latavius Murray carried the ball a team high 23 times and gained 86 yards on the ground, while Darren McFadden carried the ball nine times for 54 yards, including a 25-yarder that setup Carr’s second and final touchdown pass to Olawale.

The Raiders rush defense held the Bills to just 13 yards rushing on 13 carries.

Raiders commentary: While NFL welcomes relocation bids will Raiders seek L.A. or San Antonio?

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by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–What’s been going for along time there hasn’t been an NFL team in Los Angeles going on 20 years now and there are three teams that have had a history in Los Angeles the Rams, Raiders and the Chargers. The Chargers date back to the early days of the AFL back in the days of former Charger receiver Lance Alworth before moving down to San Diego. The Rams were the original team in L.A. they played there from the beginning of the AFL before becoming part of the NFL.

The Rams moved from L.A. in the mid 90s to St.Louis and the Raiders moved to L.A. in the mid 80s and moved back to Oakland in the 1995. All three of those teams have a history in L.A. all three of those teams have situations with their stadiums that could allow them to move back to L.A. The Raiders lease is up at the end of the year at the Oakland Coliseum, the Chargers lease is up at Qualcomm, and at Edward Jones Stadium the Rams lease is up as well.

The Chargers have had a lot of talk about leaving San Diego and they look serious about leaving San Diego. The big problem of course is that there is no NFL stadium in Los Angeles and they’ve tried to build a brand new stadium there for years and years. Nobody there has been able to pull it off, it’s very similar to the Bay Area that no public entity wants to pay for it and their not able to blackmail anybody.

It’s not like other cities where teams just threaten to move and the local government finds local funding to save the team. That won’t happen in this case public funding for a new stadium won’t work in California and the tax payers won’t accept it and they won’t listen and they won’t give into the threats of a team leaving. That’s one of the reasons why you have a couple of privately financed stadiums in the Bay Area namely Levis Stadium and AT&T Park in Santa Clara and San Francisco.

Dodgers Stadium was privately financed in 1959, AT&T Park in San Francisco was one of the only privately financed Stadiums in all of baseball. Then the 49ers Stadium Levis Stadium that as well is privately financed, so an NFL team who plans to move to L.A. will most likely will have to privately finance a new stadium. There have been a lot of potential plans out there that have never come to pass.

Some of the reasons why some new stadiums run upwards into a billion dollars to build is that an NFL caliber stadium averages at a billion. What NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said is he is accepting applications from teams that would potentially like to move. That really doesn’t mean a whole lot because there is not anyone place to move. You could move but if there is no stadium it doesn’t make any difference.

All three of those teams the Rams, Raiders and Chargers anyone of those teams could move and it seems two of them is likely to go back to L.A. as L.A. is big enough to handle that as they did in the past. Right now all of this speculation being that no team can move until 2016. You have to look at all those particular cities if there is stadium plans that would keep those teams in place.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Raiders commentary: Harbaugh sweepstakes heating up and he could show interest in Oakland

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by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–The University of Michigan has made a definite offer to San Francisco 49ers head coach in the neighborhood of $48 million and the Oakland Raiders are getting ready to make a bid for Harbaugh who has three more games left to coach at the 49ers. If you had to put a percentage on it it’s tough to say which direction he’s going to go.

Here’s the thing with the Raiders and any coach at the Raiders, the Raiders stink and they’ve stunk for a long time. They haven’t been a relevant team in terms of success in the NFL for over a decade now. It’s been frequent poor drafting, it’s been an unorganized front office, it’s an ownership situation that’s muddy.

The location situation (the Coliseum) that’s muddy, there are a lot of uncertainty that involve the Raiders. Frankly we don’t even know if the Raiders are going to be in Oakland in the short future that’s how muddy the situation is. There were rumors as recently as two days ago that the Raiders were going to have their lease end this season and they were going to end up playing at the Rose Bowl in the Southland until a new stadium was figured out for the Raiders.

This is a strange situation for any new coach to walk into and Harbaugh is going to be no different. The fact also that Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie is also on the hot seat and may not survive the off season. There is no way to really know what is going to happen. The Raiders right now are hosting Buffalo who are 2-12 in week 15 this coming Sunday, with Mark Davis the Raiders current owner we know very little about him.

With the late former owner Al Davis we knew plenty about him and his ways of running the Raiders. He was kind of mysterious but we had 40 years of Al Davis to draw upon to figure out what he was going to do. Mark Davis has no clue and were not really sure if McKenzie is going to get fired. It would appear that he should be fired based on the way the team has performed and the way he assembled this current team that has lost 12 games out of their last 14.

Without no one knowing the status of the general manager it’s hard to say what’s going to happen with the coaching situation. There is no reason to think that Raiders head coach Tony Sparano will survive as head coach of the Raiders after this season. He has done an admirable job getting this team to play after McKenzie fired former coach Dennis Allen. Sparano has this team working harder than they did under Allen.

The harder effort also might be from players realizing that their jobs are all on the line and that they have to pick up the pace. From Harbaugh’s prospective he’s got to take a look at he talent on the Raiders and then consider if he would want to join them. The Raiders are a complete rebuilding project, he would keep Derrick Carr who appears to be the real deal at quarterback. It’s not known if Carr is ever going to be like a Tom Brady or Peyton Manning but he might be one of the reasons why Harbaugh may want to coach in Oakland.

Daivd Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Raiders to host Bills in home finale

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By Joe Hawkes-Beamon

OAKLAND — Raider Nation will get to see their team at home for the last time this season when the Silver & Black host the very tough Buffalo Bills Sunday at O.co Coliseum at 1:25pm PDT. Oakland looks to rebound from a 31-13 defeat to the Chiefs in Kansas City in Week 15.

Oakland battled Kansas City tough, trailing the Chiefs 10-6 early in the third quarter but the roof caved in on Oakland as Kansas scored three unanswered touchdowns.

Chiefs’ running back Knile Davis ran in a score from 3-yards out, then after a fumble by Raiders quarterback Derek Carr, quarterback Alex Smith found tight end Travis Kelce for a 20-yard touchdown. Then Smith hooked up with Davis on a quick go-route for a 70-yard touchdown that ended Oakland’s day.

“You just can’t blame one area,” Carr said after Oakland’s (2-12) 10th straight road loss. Oakland fell to 0-2 in Missouri this season, who were dusted 52-0 in St. Louis in Week 13 by the Rams.

Carr finished the day 27-of-56 for 222 yards passing, and one touchdown late in the fourth quarter when the game was out of hand. Oakland’s signal caller was sacked four times.

Buffalo (8-6) kept their AFC playoff hopes alive with a gut-wrenching 21-13 home victory over the Green Bay Packers, thanks in large part to the Bills’ fifth-ranked defense.

Bacarri Rambo came off the bench to replace backup safety Duke Williams and made life miserable for Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, intercepting Rodgers twice on back to back drives, while defensive end Mario Williams forced a Rodgers’ fumble into the end zone for a safety with 1:51 left in the game.

Buffalo’s defense held Rodgers in check, limiting the Packers quarterback to 17-of-42 passing for 185 yards and the two interceptions.

“It was a testament to what we do,” said defensive tackle Kyle Williams after Buffalo’s win. “We’ve played against great quarterbacks, so the only expectation that we had was to play well and win a football game.”

Players to Watch

Buffalo, WRs, Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods

The Bills’ top pick in 2014 (No. 4 overall), has had a tremendous season for Buffalo leading the team in catches (59), yards (850), and touchdowns (5). His 14.4 yards-per-catch ranks in the Top-10 among rookie wide receivers.

Woods has taken some of the pressure off Watkins with his 54 catches, 608 yards receiving, and three touchdowns. If Oakland decides to double team Watkins, Woods could hurt the Silver & Black’s secondary.

Oakland, RB, Latavius Murray

Murray finished with just 12 carries for 52 yards on Sunday in Kansas City, but did have a nice 25-yard run after getting the start over running back Darren McFadden. Oakland must establish the run to support Carr and it starts with Murray, who has recorded 49 carries for 301 yards and two touchdowns this season. His 6.1 yards-per-carry are tops on the team.

 

 

49ers and Raiders commentary: Kaepernick will need his A game against Seahawks; Chiefs refuse to be humiliated by Raiders again

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by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–This game in Seattle this Sunday is the big one of for the San Francisco 49ers because if they lose this one will end their season bid to make it in the playoffs. They could actually be eliminated if they lose and Detroit wins. Either way even if they win their in a tight spot they’re assured of missing the post season for the first time in four seasons.

It’s a tough gig because the 49ers just faced the Seattle Seahawks just a couple of weeks ago on Thanksgiving Day and lost to them at Levis Stadium. The Hawks really dominated the Niners in that game 19-3 where the Niners also looked awful on offense. Despite the 19 points the defense played reasonably well the lack of scoring did them in as well as a couple of bad turnovers by quarterback Colin Kaepernick and the rest of the offense.

The Niners had the loss of the Seahawks two weeks ago and the loss of the Raiders last week. The offense has just been sputtering all season long. There’s only been two games where the offense has been confident, it’s not known what is going on with the offense. Kaepernick is not playing particularly well and thats partly due to the fact the offensive line isn’t protecting him very well.

Kaepernick is getting pressured, he’s been sacked more times than any other quarterback in the league this season, they have had injuries up and down the line. The wide receivers haven’t played well, the Niners have more or less abandoned the running game they don’t really focus on it that much by trying to force the ball in the passing game and the running game their making things that much more difficult.

Oakland Raiders at Kansas City this Sunday: Can the Raiders play up to the challenge against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium this Sunday? It’s tough to gauge this Raiders team, they had that big win against the Chiefs three weeks ago, the week after that they lost 52-0 in St.Louis and they come back last week and defeat the 49ers at home pretty easily 23-13.

The Raiders are not a very talented bunch, there’s been some bright spots, their not a talented group and one of the things they’ve had trouble with is winning on the road. They haven’t won on the road on well over a year. They have a consecutive losing streak that spans out to 18 games in a row which is ridiculous at this stage. Their playing at Arrowhead Stadium that’s incredibly difficult to win in.

Arrowhead is probably the loudest outdoor stadium in the NFL and their fans are crazy and we know they hate the Raiders. The Chiefs are playing at this stage of the season, the Chiefs were embarrassed on November 20th by the same Raiders. The Raiders caught the Chiefs in the same trap they caught the Niners in, the Niners were looking ahead to the Seahawks and the Chiefs were looking ahead to the Broncos.

You can’t do that in the NFL, you can’t overlook anybody and the Raiders took advantage of it last time, it was a close game the Raiders pulled it off and got the win on a Thursday nighter at the Coliseum. The Raiders won’t be quite so lucky this week it will be a game against the Chiefs where the Chiefs are not going to be overlooking anyone this week.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Raiders off to KC looking for seconds

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By Joe Hawkes-Beamon

OAKLAND — After a dominating performance on both sides of the ball in a 24-13 victory over their cross-bay rivals the San Francisco 49ers at O.co Coliseum last Sunday, the Raiders look to take that momentum into Kansas City Sunday against their arch rival the Chiefs.

Oakland (2-11) earned their first win of the season with a 24-20 victory over Kansas City in Week 12 at the Black Hole and would like nothing more to take the season series from the Chiefs.

Raiders’ signal caller Derek Carr played more like a 10-year veteran than a rookie, completing 22-of-28 passes for 254 yards and three touchdowns against the 49ers No. 2 ranked defense that gave up two touchdown drives of 80 yards and rarely pressured Carr.

Carr completely outplayed 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who didn’t fair too well against a Raiders defense that sacked Kapernick five times, two apiece by rookie linebacker Khalil Mack and defensive tackle Antonio Smith.

“This week it was preached to us just how important this game was,” Smith said after the game. “This week more and more of us became true Raiders, knowing what the heritage is about, knowing what this game was about, how important it was to this city.”

Safety Charles Woodson sealed the victory (and possibly San Francisco’s playoff chances) in style with a fourth quarter interception.

Kansas City (7-6), are coming off close 17-14 loss to the Cardinals in Arizona last Sunday, their third straight loss dating back to their first encounter with Oakland on Nov. 20.

Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith completed 26-of-39 passes for 293 yards one touchdown and an interception. Running back  Jamaal Charles finished with 10 carries for 91 yards, including a 63-yard touchdown run. Charles’ second touchdown (an 18-yard toss from Smith), gave Kansas City a 14-6 halftime lead only to see the lead slip away.

Oakland could have some trouble against a Chiefs team that is No. 5 overall in defense, and No. 2 against the pass and who are desperate to end their three-game losing streak and stay afloat in a tight AFC playoff race.

Players to Watch

Kansas City, OLB, Justin Houston.

Houston has been nothing less then stellar for Kansas City this season. With 16 sacks (a career-high), Houston is tied with Baltimore outside linebacker Elvis Dumervil for the most in the NFL. The fourth-year pro from Georgia recorded a sack the last time Oakland saw Kansas City.

Oakland, QB, Derek Carr.

There is no question that Carr is Oakland’s quarterback for the next five-to-10 years. That should be music to the ears of Raider Nation, who’ve had 18 different starting quarterbacks since Rich Gannon in 2003. Carr leads all rookies in touchdown passes (17) and passing yards (2,676).