Category: Oakland Raiders

Thats Amaury’s News and Commentary: All Royals need to do is win one game over the weekend to send it back to KC

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN FRANCISCO–As all of you know I’ve broadcasted most of my career in the American League making me an American League guy and I have been covering American League teams for a long time although years ago I broadcasted with the Giants in the National League. I have said this all year, I said it in L.A. on Fox Sports, on the Angels Spanish network, the best bullpen in baseball is the Kansas City Royals.

The Giants have a very good bullpen with Jean Machi, Javier Lopez a specialist for lefties, then you have Sergio Romo who is not good this year let’s face it. The best bullpen in baseball is the Kansas City Royals. If the Royals get a starting pitcher for 5.1 or six innings like what happened on Wednesday night with Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura.

The Royals have the best relievers in the game in the sixth you have Ventura who throws 101-102 MPH, then in the eighth you have Wade Davis another flame thrower who has a great slider and a splitter. Then in the ninth you have closer Greg Holland one of the best closers in baseball. So the formula for the Royals is to have a decent starter.

Of course it’s tough to come back for the Giants in a game like Wednesday to come from being five or six runs down in a World Series. We saw what the Royals did on Wednesday they scored five runs and Giants starter Jake Peavy just got tired. These things happen the Giants have a very good bullpen. They used Tim Lincecum on Wednesday night and he has back problems.

According to Giants manager Bruce Bochy Lincecum is not that serious, but they have a problem in the bullpen. The Giants need to have their pitcher last a little bit longer than KC. The Royals have pitchers that can throw and get out of an inning and they have a potent bullpen.

The Royals have been winning with that bullpen all year long and they have centerfielder Lorenzo Cain. Cain is a tremendous athlete. Cain is the best athlete amongst these two teams. In the line up the Royals have Alex Gordon, Billy Butler who hit pretty well especially against guys like that. This going to be a very interesting rest of the way in this series.

If the Giants win the next three games in San Francisco they win the World Series but all the Royals have to do is win one out of three to take it back to Kaufman Staidum. This may go six or seven games maybe all the way. It’s going to be a game to game World Series, the Giants want to sweep over the weekend in AT&T Park but it’s most likely that the Royals at minimum can win one of the next three games at AT&T forcing a trip back to Kaufman.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is doing News and Commentary on the World Series for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: google image

Raiders commentary: Silver and Black have rugged schedule upcoming might have to look at next season moves

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by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–The football is a funny shaped ball it could bounce in a lot of different directions and the Oakland Raiders who are winless in five games will need that ball to bounce their way this week as they prepare to face Johnny Football Manziel and his band of Cleveland Browns this coming Sunday in brisk Cleveland.

The Raiders are not so awful where they are never going to win a game and there are teams that have looked really, really bad but have picked up at least a one game victory in a season. The Raiders can pull it off and to their credit in the last couple of games against San Diego and Arizona they managed to be in the game late. That’s a step in the right direction when former Raider coach Dennis Allen was head coach the Raiders weren’t even in the game.

The fact that the Raiders at least were able to get themselves in a competitve place is a good sign. They have a really tough schedule down the stretch here and their not going to get anybody laying down for them. Their not going to have any easy wins, there’s not a Jacksonville Jaguar, Tampa Bay Bucs, or Atlanta Falcon game coming up on their schedule.

The Raiders have the NFC West coming up after Cleveland with the Seahawks and they just finished losing to the Arizona Cardinals this past week. There’s not going to be an off week for them, their not going to have a week where their going to say, “we can beat this team coming up” it doesn’t exist.

The Raiders are going to have to keep doing what they’ve been doing, which is stick to their game plans be really disciplined, try to avoid turnovers and try to force a few turnovers on their opponent. They might get a little bit lucky here and there that’s what it’s going to take for them to win a game because their not a talented team.

It’s true the Raiders are not very talented so their going to have to make it up in other ways and part of that is luck and you got to make your own luck. That’s being a little creative with your play calling we saw that with the Rams versus the Seahawks last weekend where the Rams were a little bit desperate and made some amazing special teams when they managed to pull off the victory maybe Oakland needs to take a page out of the Rams playbook.

The Raiders aren’t going to win a lot of games if they do win any it’s a long season, the only light at the end of the tunnel they have is the one where they can kind of shake up the front office and make some good draft picks in the off season and start on the road to recovery. Right now the cupboard is kind of bare they don’t have a lot of guys who project to be good down the road and until they restock it’s going to be a tough road for them.

David Zizmor talks Raiders football past his 49ers interview on the recording below and David covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

49ers and Raiders commentary: Niners Kaepernick threading the needle; Raiders Sparano showing flashes of brillance

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New York Jets offensive coordinator Tony Sparano looks on against the New York Giants during the second quarter of their pre-season NFL football game in East Rutherford

by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–Three wins in a row for the San Francisco 49ers make things a lot better. They opened the season with a win over Dallas and that was a great win considering Dallas is 5-1 and they have the best record in the league and then lost two straight to Chicago and Arizona those were rough ones. The 49ers kind of looked at themselves and course corrected and they realized they were focusing too much on the pass and not enough on the run.

They did that in the subsequent game against Philadelphia and won that one and continued the streak with wins against Kansas City and Arizona. The 49ers were focusing on the running game against the Eagles a game they won 26-21 on September 28th. The 49ers 22-17 win over the Chiefs they were able to stop the run and the win against the Cardinals the 49ers beat Arizona with the pass.

Against Arizona 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick had his best game of the season and threw for over 300 yards and he looked fantastic with amazing throws in last week’s Monday Night game. He cemented himself as one of the top quarterbacks in the league. Everybody knew but there was a little bit of doubt creeping in because the early part of the season was so unsuccessful.

Going into the game in Denver this Sunday it’s a whole new ball game, the Eagles are a very strong offensive team and the Niners defense does a great job to shut them down but the Eagles are incredibly banged up on the offensive line. One of the reasons the Eagles was unable to move the ball was because the Niners knew they can beat them straight up on the line in the running game.

Oakland Raiders update: It’s tough to say how this one will go as the Raiders host the Arizona Cardinals this Sunday at the Oakland Coliseum. Last week their game against the Chargers was just a no brainer that the Chargers were going to roll right over the Raiders in their win 31-28 that didn’t happen the Raiders came out with a little bit of purpose they had a much better game plan.

The Raiders were more confident in themselves they didn’t get the win but they made it very competitive the Raiders lost by a field goal. They put the scare into the Chargers. That was a close game 31-28 you have to give the Raiders credit quarterback Derrek Carr had a good game and head coach Tony Sparano did a good job having Carr looking at the playbook in this one.

Sparano had the Raiders stuck at what they were good at and they were successful to a certain extent. The defense didn’t really stop the Chargers in this one. This is something to work off of, they were much more confident in themselves and they played a much better game that’s something to be commended to Sparano. That’s something that we hadn’t see from the Raiders this season.

The fact that they hung in there tells you their going to be a little more competitive as they progress during the season. Are they going to be competitive enough to make any real impact in these games and the outcome that’s anybody’s guess. You have the same situation this week that the Raiders are going to face a very good team in the Cardinals the NFC West leading team.

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

 

Palmer, Cardinals visits Oakland for Sunday encounter

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By Joe Hawkes-Beamon

OAKLAND, Calif — As one of the two winless teams remaining in the NFL (Jacksonville is 0-6), the 0-5 Oakland Raiders will try to breakthrough into the win column again as they take on the NFC West-leading Arizona Cardinals at O.co Coliseum Sunday at 1:25 p.m. PDT.

The Silver and Black are coming off a hard-fought 31-28 loss to their AFC West rivals, the San Diego Chargers, at O.co Coliseum in Week 6 where the team played tough for all four quarters, but couldn’t give interim head coach Tony Sparano his first win after taking over for the fired Dennis Allen.

Raiders quarterback Derek Carr had his best game as a rookie, completing 16-of-25 passes for 282 yards, and four touchdowns, but it was his lone interception to Chargers rookie cornerback Jason  Verrett with 1:13 left to play that sealed Oakland’s 10th straight loss dating back to last season.

“He made a great play,” Carr said. “Brice [Butler] went up, he had it and the guy made a great play. Those things are going to happen. Yeah, it hurts. It hurts because that’s the way it ended.”

Defensively, Oakland got good games from linebacker Sio Moore, who led the team with seven tackles (three assisted), and strong safety Usama Young, who finished with six tackles.

“The goal is to win the game,”  linebacker Sio Moore said. “We didn’t do that. We didn’t execute in the last bit of plays when we needed to, how we needed to.

“It’s a very sick feeling because we let a team off the hook that’s not supposed to be let off the hook. They’re not what they’re acclaimed to be, whatever the situation is. I’m pretty pissed about it.”

Arizona (4-1), has gotten off to a hot start this season, sitting in first place in the ultra-competitive NFC West.

Former Raiders’ starting  quarterback Carson Palmer returns to the Black Hole to lead a Cardinals team that are coming off a 30-20 home victory against Washington in Week 6.

Palmer returned under center for Arizona last week after missing the previous five weeks with nerve issues in his throwing arm, and threw two touchdowns — one to Michael Floyd, the other to Larry Fitzgerald — to lead Arizona to victory.

“I’m not going to say I wasn’t nervous or wasn’t a little on edge,” Palmer said post game per the Associated Press, “just going into a game and really only have a quarter or maybe a half of a practice over the last five weeks.”

The Cardinals come in with some weapons that will pose some serious problems for the Raiders.

In addition to the emerging Floyd, and the Canton-bound Fitzgerald, Arizona has speedster in rookie wide receiver, John Brown. Brown leads the team with three touchdown catches.

Running back Andre Ellington has been a huge bright spot for the Cardinals this season. Ellington is a shifty runner who has a knack of ripping off big runs and with a Raiders team that is suspect against the run, Ellington is the wrong running back you want to face.

Cornerback Patrick Peterson and Jerraud Powers leads a Cardinal defense that ranks 32nd against the pass, giving up 309 yards per game this season.

Powers is tied for the league lead in interceptions with three.

Players to Watch:

Oakland: WR, Andre Holmes. Carr appeared to have found a connection with Holmes. Carr found Holmes for a 77-yard touchdown on the Raiders’ third play of the game against San Diego. Holmes finished the game with four catches, for a game-high 121 yards, and could be emerging as the Raiders’ No. 1 wide receiver.

Arizona: WR, Larry Fitzgerald . Did it really take  five games for the Cardinals’ franchise leader in receptions (846), receiving yards (11,367), and touchdowns (87), to have a his best game of the year? The answer, yes. Fitzgerald finished with six catches for 98 yards and a touchdown in the win against Washington, after not finding the endzone.

Coming into the game, Fitzgerald was averaging just three catches and 41 yards per game and no touchdowns.

Thats Amaury’s News and Commentary: Teams that travel to Dallas are concerned about Ebola; MLB Postseason update

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN FRANCISCO–The latest is everyone professional and college sports teams although they don’t say it real loud are concerned about the Ebola situation when teams have to make the trip to Dallas. For the professional teams in MLB, NFL, NHL, and the NBA all have their own charter planes. So folks who fly in and out of Dallas have a lot of concern because people don’t know about this desease and it might be airborne too.

The government says it doesn’t know much about it, the Centers for Deasese Control in Atlanta I won’t say their confused but they don’t know enough yet. Whatever they know is kind of controversial. On Sunday a goup of nurses in Oakland they went and demonstrated in front of the hospital in Oakland saying the nurses are not the problem. They say the nurses need more training.

This is a desease that is not new but it’s new to the United States but it’s been happening in Africa for along time. It’s not a direct threat right now to the players and the public at large. The players do travel in their own private planes. All teams in the four main leagues charter their planes. The same cannot be said about college players because many times when I fly to Anaheim from Oakland I run into college athletes like the Stanford women’s polo team.

I would be more concerned for the college teams because 99 percent of colleges don’t have the funds to charter their own planes. To charter a plane your talking about $40-50,000 a trip. It’s a long trip from coast to coast. I would be more concerned for college players if this pandemic spreads to other cities and states.

Kaplan returns A’s owner mayoral donation: Oakland A’s owner Lew Wolf this week received $700 that he donated to Rebecca Kaplan Oakland mayorial candidate because of a conflict of interest. Kaplan whose campaigning for mayor doesn’t want to be tainted by this donation. It would give the appearance that if Kaplan got in she would owe political favors to the Oakland A’s.

Wolf has a right to donate money to a political campaign he’s a citizen of the United States. Not only you don’t have to be a millionare you can give money to any government office. The difference here as opposed to the common citizen, Wolf is the owner of the A’s and it gives a bad impression, if Kaplan kept the money and the A’s start looking for a favor.

Is the Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie on the chopping block? The Oakland Raiders are now 0-5 and I watched most of the game versus the Chargers on Sunday at the Coliseum and Raiders rookie quarterback Derrek Carr became the first rookie to throw four touchdowns in a game so maybe a star is born. They already fired Dennis Allen and you have Tony Sparano as the new head coach give him a shot and he told the team to forget about the 0-4 record before last Sunday’s game.

I watched that game and any Raider fan would be happy to see this kid Derrick Carr who threw for four touchdowns that would be a ray of hope for the Raiders that they have a quarterback for the future. Maybe that could start mending this situation. The fact remains their still 0-5 and they’re going to end up with the worst record in the league and they have to host the Arizona Cardinals this Sunday.

MLB postseason: The playoffs are a different season as we can see, the St.Louis Cardinals hit only 105 home runs in their regular season. Yet they hit four home runs on Sunday night against the San Francisco Giants. Kolten Wong hit one that won the game by edging the Giants 5-4 and tying up the series 1-1. Giants releiver Sergio Romo was the difference for the one run victory.

However the Cardinals lost their ace catcher and star of the team to an Oblique injury Yadier Molina. Molina is the best catcher in baseball next to Giants catcher Buster Posey. There is nobody close to Molina.
He’s the leader of that team and this will allow the Giants more prone to win this series. The Giants should be favorites. The Giants will also have to see an old guy that they don’t like A.J. Pierzynski also a former Giant.

Pierzynski will probably be catching on Tuesday night for the Cards, the Cards have 27 year old Tony Cruz but the Cardinals front office was brilliant in bringing in Pierzynski and the team carried three catchers and it paid off. They lost Molina, they have Cruz who is still a young guy and is suppose to be good defensivley. Pierzynski hits Giants pitching very well and he’s hit Hudson well.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland A’s baseball and does News and Commentary weekly for sportsradioservice.com

photo credit: google images

Carr’s 4 TDs not enough as Chargers slip by Raiders

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Raiders show grit, and progress, but can’t get into the win column.

By Joe Hawkes-Beamon

OAKLAND, Calif — Chargers running back Branden Oliver’s 1-yard plunge with 1:56 remaining soured interim Raiders head coach’s Tony Sparano’s debut, as San Diego pulled away from Oakland, 31-28 Sunday in front of a Raider Nation crowd of 53,329 at O.co Coliseum.

“We have to be in these kinds of football games,” interim Raiders head coach Tony Sparano said. “We have to win one of these types of football games and that’s how you get this thing turned around.”

Oakland (0-5), got on the board in a hurry in the first quarter, when wide receiver Andre Holmes beat Chargers cornerback Brandon Flowers for a 77-yard touchdown pass from Carr on the team’s third play from scrimmage. It was Oakland’s longest scoring pass since 2008, when former quarterback JaMarcus Russell connected with tight end Zach Miller for an 86-yard touchdown.

Carr completed 18-of-34 passes for 282 yards, and a career-high four touchdowns, but threw a deep pass to wide receiver Brice Butler that was intercepted by rookie cornerback Jason Verrett with 1:13 remaining in the fourth quarter to preserve San Diego’s fifth straight win.

“He made a great play,” Carr said. “Brice went up, he had it and the guy made a great play. Those things are going to happen. Yeah, it hurts. It hurts because that’s the way it ended.”

San Diego quickly answered with a touchdown of their own, when quarterback Philip Rivers took San Diego 80 yards on seven plays in 4:30 that ended with a 29-yard touchdown pass down the left sideline to wide receiver Eddie Royal that knotted up the game at 7-7 in the first quarter.

After both teams traded a pair of stalled drives to end the first quarter, San Diego took a 14-7 lead when Rivers engineered a 13-play, 85-yard drive in 7:20 to toss his second touchdown of the game, a five-yard completion to wide receiver Malcolm Floyd midway through the second quarter.

Oakland tied the game up at 14-14, after Carr found wide receiver James Jones from six yards out. It was Carr’s second touchdown pass of the game at that point. The Raiders had a chance to take a three-point lead at halftime, but kicker Sebastian Janikowski missed a 54-yard field goal as time expired.

On Oakland’s first possession of the third quarter, Carr threw his third touchdown of the game when he found Butler for 47 yards that gave the Raiders a 21-14 lead.

Not to be outdone, Rivers threw his third touchdown of the game (an 8-play, 80-yard drive; San Diego’s third 80-yard drive of the game), that resulted into a 1-yard pass to tight end Antonio Gates that tied the game at 21-21 with 2:45 left in the third quarter.

Rivers completed 22-of-34 passes for 313 yards, and three touchdowns, his third straight game with three touchdown passes. According to Elias Sports Bureau, Rivers became the fourth quarterback in NFL history to throw for 4,000 yards against Oakland, joining John Elway, Dan Fouts, John Hadl, and Dave Kreig.

Carr and the Raiders took a 28-21 lead midway through the fourth quarter, behind Carr’s fourth touchdown of the game to Holmes for six yards. It was Holmes’ second touchdown of the game, finishing with four catches, for 121 yards to lead all receivers.

Nick Novak booted a 30-yard field goal to pull San Diego closer, 28-24, before the aforementioned Oliver’s go-ahead touchdown that increased the Chargers’ lead for good.

With running back Ryan Matthews and Donald Brown both out with injuries, Oliver looks to be the Chargers new featured running back after picking up his second-straight 100-yard rushing game with 101 yards on 26 carries. The rookie from the University of Buffalo rushed for 114 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries in San Diego’s 31-0 thumping of the New York Jets in Week 5.

Floyd finished with five catches for 105 yards receiving and a touchdown to lead the Chargers.

Running back Darren McFadden ran the ball hard, rushing for 80 yards on 14 carries (his highest output of the season), while fellow running back Maurice Jones-Drew chipped in 30 yards on four carries to the lead the ground game for the Silver and Black.

San Diego (5-1) sits alone atop of the AFC West and are tied with the Dallas Cowboys (5-1 after their 30-23 road victory over the reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks Sunday), for the best record in the NFL.

Defensively, Oakland played gritty, but couldn’t hold a fourth quarter lead that results in the team’s 10th straight loss dating back to last season.  San Diego’s offense kept Oakland’s defense on the field, controlling the football for 37 minutes.

“The goal is to win the game,”  linebacker Sio Moore said. “We didn’t do that. We didn’t execute in the last bit of plays when we needed to, how we needed to.

“It’s a very sick feeling because we let a team off the hook that’s not supposed to be let off the hook. They’re not what they’re acclaimed to be, whatever the situation is. I’m pretty pissed about it.”

Moore finished with a team-leading seven tackles (3 assisted), strong safety Usama Young had six tackles, and defensive end C.J. Wilson recorded the Raiders lone sack.

“This group played with a lot of energy…we are going to continue to work our tails off and get better,” Sparano added.

The Raiders host NFC West-leading Arizona Cardinals (4-1), who are coming off a 30-20 home victory over hapless Washington Sunday, in Week 7.

 

 

 

 

49ers and Raiders commentary: Cops off 49ers security beat sites McDonald conflict; Sparano debuts for Raiders Sunday

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by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–San Jose Police have been taken off the San Francisco 49ers security detail siting that a conflict of interest arose after learning one of the sargents who does security for the Niners was at lineman Ray McDonald’s house on the day of the domestic violence complaint call came. The sargent is one of 16 cops who are assigned to do security for the Niners but the program has been suspened forthwith.

On the night in question when the alledged domestic violence occured the sargent was one of the first on the scene who also was also employed by the 49ers. He was there before the other officers arrived at McDonald’s house because of the 911 call. Because of that that leaves some concern that this particular police officer was working for the 49ers that maybe he covered some information with McDonald.

It was also possible that he might have coached McDonald to say things to cover things up or it’s even possible that he did nothing of the sort. At the very minimum there is the appearance that something shady was going on and that’s almost as bad as something that is actually going on. You always want to avoid the appearance of some wrong doing. It was decided that the SJ Police would no longer be involved in the team’s security detail because it gave the appearance that the police in such matters could favor the 49ers in a situation like this instead of the justice that your suppose to be loyal to.

Does this mean anything in terms of the McDonald case? It doesn’t mean anything persay in terms of the outcome but what it does mean the case is going to take a little bit longer for any conclusions to be drawn from it. One of the reasons why were discovering it right now and why this case has been taking so long is this particular police officer was there at the scene and also he does security for the team.

There’s a lot of questions about how accurate the information is in this investiagtion and the police officer and his duel loyalties with the 49ers and the San Jose Police Department. What the police dept are discussing that their having to double check and triple check everything that happened to make sure what was said and what was legitimate and accurate.

Oakland Raiders update: He’s had head coaching experience with the Miami Dolphins and was promoted to head coach from assitant coach at the Oakland Raiders. Tony Sparano debuts in his first game as head coach with the Raiders. Sparano has said that he’s anxious to get things started and after the Raiders have had two weeks of rest including a bye week Sparano is set to get things going.

Sparano compares his time in Miami to his first game coming up at head coach for Oakland, “I look back at that experience quite often, particularly now, but quite often. I didn’t come into this league to do anything other than, honestly, to be a head coach. This has been my goal since the time I came in this league.” said Sparano.

In the head coaching role there are moments when a coach is going to question himself on how things could be better and Sparano did that with the Dolphins and with the Raiders 0-4 record coming into week five coming off the bye and a long trip from London two weeks ago he could ask those questions again if the Raiders don’t win this week, “you look at yourself and say, ‘how could I have I done it better? What could have I done differently?'”

Sparano is the new hope for the Raiders organization, former head coach coach Dennis Allen fired after that loss in London to Sparano’s former employer the Dolphins. Allen left a team in which he could have done a little better, get a win at least one, it also seemed that Allen lost the team in the dressing room but it should be noted that Reggie McKenzie the Raiders General Manager is on the chopping block too and that Raiders owner Mark Davis had considered firing Allen and McKenzie after the 2013 season but retained both going into this season.

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

photo credit: google images

Raiders begin Sparano era with San Diego coming to Oakland

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By Joe Hawkes-Beamon

ALAMEDA — Coming off a much needed bye where Oakland fired head coach Dennis Allen and named offensive line coach Tony Sparano interim head coach,  the Oakland Raiders look to get into the win column as they will host the San Diego Chargers Sunday at O.co Coliseum. Kickoff is at 1:05 p.m. PDT.

Oakland, (0-4), has been dreadful offensively through the first quarter of the season, ranking last in points scored per game (12.8), total yards per game (270), and rushing yards per game (61.5). Opponents have outscored the Raiders 103-51.

Quarterback Derek Carr, who suffered a sprained ankle and MCL during Oakland’s brutal loss to Miami 38-14 in London, should be a go on Sunday after the week off.

Carr is slowly developing into a quarterback in the NFL, completing 84-of-133 passes for 734 yards with four touchdowns and four interceptions in his four starts this season. The Raiders signal caller maybe in for a tough day as he is set to face a stingy Chargers defense that ranks third in the NFL in total defense.

Running backs Maurice Jones-Drew and Darren McFadden have been virtually non-existent this season. MJD and McFadden need to find a way to take some of the pressure off Carr and run the ball better than their 1.1 and 3.3 yards per carry average (respectively) have shown.

Defensively, the Raiders will be in trouble Sunday.

Oakland has just four sacks this season, one from the defensive line. Strong safety Tyvon Branch, who leads the team with 30 tackles, is done for the season after three games with a fractured foot.

The team just placed linebacker Nick Roach on season-ending injured reserve due to lingering concussion symptoms.Roach suffered a concussion against the Green Bay Packers on Aug. 22 during the exhibition season.

It would be nice to see Raiders defensive coordinator Jason Tarver get more pressure out of defensive end Justin Tuck, defensive tackle Antonio Smith, and linebacker LaMarr Woodley. These were the guys (along with cornerbacks Terrell Brown and Carlos Rogers), that were suppose to add some much needed punch to a pedestrian defense.

San Diego has been red hot, winners of four straight and sit atop the AFC West at 4-1; a big reason for the Chargers great start has been because of the play quarterback Philip Rivers.

Rivers is off to one of his best starts in his 11 years in the NFL, ranking near the top of the list among the game’s best quarterbacks in passing yards (1,443), touchdown-to-interception ratio (12/2), and passer rating (116.3).

Players to Watch:

Oakland – QB Derek Carr. It will be interesting to see how Carr will perform Sunday coming off the injury he sustained before the bye week. Carr will be working in another wide receiver to the mix, after the Raiders claimed former New England Patriots WR, Kenbrell Thompkins Monday.

San Diego – QB Philip Rivers. No question that Rivers has reestablish himself as a premier quarterback. Rivers is coming off back-to-back three touchdown passing performances and will be looking for his favorite target, TE Antonio Gates down the middle of the field where Oakland has been vulnerable all season.

 

49ers and Raiders commentary: 49ers get ready for old nemisis Smith; Raiders get new coach ready for first game

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by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–Kansas City Chiefs (2-2) quarterback Alex Smith is going to be like his old Alex Smith self not much of a risk taker and your not going to see anything different from the old Smith. Every now and then they like to take a pass down the field. To be honest that’s not Smith’s strong suit and he doesn’t have the receivers in KC to pull that off anyways.

The Chiefs offense is conservative west coast style offense they like to hand off to their star running back Jammal Charles as much as possible, whether it’s from a hand off or screen passes. Smith is doing what he does the Chiefs were very successful last year and they got out of the gate slowly this season.

The Chiefs are coming off a big win where they blew out the Patriots, part of that was like a great performance by the Chiefs defense and a poor performance by the Patriots offense. You watch that game and Smith didn’t make mistakes he was his normal self he handled the ball well and they didn’t need him to do a whole lot everything kind of took care of itself.

The Chiefs aren’t a team that’s going to be trifle and the Chiefs are going to take care of themselves, I don’t know if I would want to call them one of the elite teams in the league but this was a team that was in the playoffs last year. They certainly are not dangerous but their well coached by Andy Reid. Smith it’s not known how much insight he’s going to give his teammates against the 49ers but but he knows his way around.

Oakland Raiders update: As far as the firing of head coach Dennis Allen is concerned we saw this coming we were a little unsure if the Raiders would fire Dennis Allen so soon or wait until later in the season. It’s pretty rare for a head coach to get fired this early on. It’s four games in there’s no more than 12 games to go usually guys give their coaches a bit more rope.

They let the coach try and prove themselves and try to recover, the problem is the Raiders have been floundering for awhile it’s not like the 0-4 start is a new thing. It’s not like the expectations were super high. Allen is the scapegoat this not to say he wasn’t doing a great job but part of the problem is the hand he’s been dealt.

He can only play the players he has and he doesn’t have very good players so I don’t know what you could possibly expect from Allen or his team. Other than a poor performance, it’s just not a very good team. It’s not known if any other coach could have done much better than 0-4. Obviously in that last game against Miami in London the Raiders were particularly bad.

The Raiders came out to a very early lead and then Miami just dominated the rest of the way and it looked like bad. That’s not unusal for this team they just don’t have a lot of talent and when quarterback Derrick Carr got knocked out and Matt McGloin had to come in your down at quarterback. Your down to your third string guy. When the Raiders started training camp back in July it was Matt Schaub at quarterback now he got dinged up and it went to Carr their early draft pick becoming the starting quarterback.

David Zizmor does NFL commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

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Sporano takes over sinking Raiders ship

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By Joe Hawkes-Beamon

ALAMEDA — There’s no sugar-coating needed. The Oakland Raiders are a sinking ship with no relief in sight.

The 2014 season was touted as a step in the right direction for the Silver and Black. With an influx of  established veterans that have playoff and championship experience, Oakland was expected to compete for the playoffs.

Now, the team is closer to competing for the No. 1 draft pick in next year’s NFL daft rather than a team trying to get into the “tournament.”

After Sunday’s 38-14 drubbing at the hands of the Miami Dolphins that left Oakland rudderless at 0-4, Oakland made the change that everyone saw coming when the organization fired embattled head coach, Dennis Allen late Monday night via telephone by Raiders general manager, Reggie McKenzie.

Allen’s firing was first reported by Fox Sports’ NFL Insider, Jay Glazer.

In 36 games as the head coach (Oakland’s 18th overall, seventh in their last 12 seasons), Allen sported an 8-28 record.

Sure there have been questions of the lack of talent the team had, but it was Allen’s lack of progress in the win column that eventually led to his downfall. Bottom line in the NFL, you have to win games any way you can and Allen never was able to win more games than he lost.

Per NFL sources, Allen’s was already on the hot seat after Oakland’s embarrassing 30-14 home loss to the Houston Texans in Week 2. Allen was certainly set to be fired should Oakland lost to Miami in London.

“After thorough evaluation, we have determined to move in another direction,” said McKenzie during Tuesday’s press conference. “We appreciate Dennis Allen’s dedication to the organization and wish him and his family nothing but the best in the future.”

Offensive line coach Tony Sporano will take over the team as the interim head coach.

“Tony Sparano has a strong presence in this organization,” McKenzie said in a statement. “His experience and leadership qualities will serve the team well in helping reach the goal of everyone here, which is to win football games.”

As head coach, Sporano, 52, was 29-32 from 2008-11.

In his first year in Miami, the Dolphins went 11-5 and won the AFC East title, but never had more than seven victories in any season thereafter.

During Tuesday’s press conference, Sporano lamented how much he respects Allen, but Oakland will have a different philosophy under his watch.

“Again, I respect Dennis Allen tremendously, but I’m not Dennis, Dennis is not me,” Sporano said. “Things can change with philosophies and that will be the case. We will have a different philosophy.”

Sporano will have his work cut out for him on both sides of the ball.

Offensively, Oakland ranks last in points per game (12.8), total yards per game (270), and rushing yards (61.5).

Defensively, the Raiders need to find a way to stop the opposing team’s running game. Oakland is surrendering 158.2 yards per game on the ground, which is 31st in the League. The signings of LaMarr Houston, Justin Tuck, and Antonio Smith have shown nothing to believe that Oakland can stop teams from hammering the ball down their throats.

With the bye week coming at the right time for Oakland this week, it will give the the players (who along with McKenzie should accept equal blame in the team’s poor performance) time before the schedule gets really crazy for the Raiders.

After the bye, Oakland will host San Diego and Arizona, before hitting the road against Cleveland and Seattle. San Diego, Arizona, and Seattle are a combined 8-2 on the season, while the Browns are 1-2, but have played tough despite their record.

Even with the changing of the guard at head coach, things could get worse in Oakland before they get better for the Silver and Black