Category: Oakland Raiders

49ers and Raiders commentary: Eagles have all the right offensive weapons; Raiders adjusted to London time at the right time

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by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–The match up between the San Francisco 49ers (1-2) and Philadelphia Eagles (3-0) is tough for the 49ers. You can expect an offensive game between the two teams. The Eagles are one of the best offenses in all of football right now. Their scoring at will and there’s not too many other teams that can do that. Its tough to be able to score whenever you need it.

You think of the Denver Broncos their one of the team’s that can do that, Philadelphia might be at that level they have so many weapons and Chip Kelly the Eagles head coach is one of the best offensive minds in all of football. It’s one of those situations where you have to be on guard every single play in case somthing big is happening.

The Eagles are team that can pull off the big offensive stunts, they have the weapons like running back LeSean McCoy in the backfield Darren Sproles the other running back. Wide reciever Jeremy Maclin has emerged one of the best receiving threats in the league. Wider reciever Jordan Matthews their rookie had a great game last week and it doesn’t hurt that he’s Jerry Rice’s cousin.

The Eagles are a team that have every kind of offenisvie weapon inclduing quarterback Nick Foles who the Raiders remember as the guy who threw seven touchdowns against them last season. Kelly has taken his up and down offense and really transformed this Eagles team into an offensive threat.

Oakland Raiders update: Anytime you have to travel to London and play a regular season game after already losing three hours playing on the east coast which the Oakland Raiders (0-3) did last week in New England the Oakland Raiders stayed on the east coast and flew to London during last week. No use flying back to Oakland and lose more hours as the team flew out of Boston.

This was a smart move on the Raiders part, it’s already a tough flight from the Bay Area to go from New England back to Oakland and then from Oakland to London is ridiculous. The Raiders were smart, the other thing that’s smart is they’ve been in London all week. They’ve had a full week to adjust to the jet lag and the time change.

In contrast the Miami Dolphins (1-2) reportedly didn’t get into London until Thursday night-Friday morning anybody who has been to Europe especially from the west coast knows it’s a six hour time change even from the east coast that’s a time tough change. It could be a little difficult when your going from east coast to west coast and that’s three hours.

It’s six hours from the east coast even from Miami, that time difference is a big deal and I wouldn’t be shocked if Miami had some trouble in the game just because their body clocks are off by that huge time difference. That’s one thing the Raiders have going in their favor, this London game the NFL has designed them to having a team in London sometime in the future, when that will happen is anybody’s guess.

David Zizmor does 49ers and Raiders commentary weekly for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Raiders and Dolphins get ready for London

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By Joe Hawkes-Beamon

OAKLAND — At 0-3 in the United States, the Oakland Raiders look to foreign soil to gain their first win of the season when they will “host” the 1-2 Miami Dolphins Sunday at Wembley Stadium in the NFL’s International Series in London, England.

Even after the Raiders 15th consecutive loss in the Eastern time zone, a 16-9 loss to the New England Patriots at Foxborough, Oakland gave New England everything it could handle, according to head coach Dennis Allen following the loss.

“Tough loss. Tough pill to swallow,” Allen said.

“I thought our guys fought their tails off, gave ourselves an opportunity to win. I thought we tied the football game or at least got within an extra point of being able to tie the football game there at the end of the game. Disappointed about that. Still we have to be able to…at the moment of truth, there’s time where we have to be able to make some plays and we didn’t do that enough today and came up on the short end of the stick. But I thought it was a better effort by our team and we get on a long flight and head to London and get ready for the next one.”

Oakland appeared to have tied the game on Darren McFadden’s touchdown run, but the play was nullified by a questionable holding call on rookie guard Gabe Jackson. On the next play, Raiders rookie quarterback Derek Carr’s pass bounced off the hands of wide receiver Denarius Moore, falling into the waiting arms of defensive tackle Vince Wilfork for the game-ending interception.

“I did not [think that was a holding call on Jackson]” Allen would later say.

Carr completed 21-of-34 passing for 174 yards, with that lone interception. Oakland

“I thought Derek was solid. I thought he was solid. I didn’t think we did anything offensively spectacular, but I thought, especially early in the game, I thought we were able to control the clock a little bit,” said Allen.

Carr will be without one of his favorite targets for the foreseeable as wide receiver Rod Streater was lost for next five-to-six weeks after fracturing his foot Sunday.

With a depleted wide receiver group, Carr is going to have to rely on James Jones, the recently signed Vincent Brown, Andre Holmes, and Moore to improve a Raiders passing game that ranks 31st in passing yards (190 ypg), and dead-last in points per game (12.3 ppg).

Defensively, Oakland played strong, holding quarterback Tom Brady to 234 passing yards and one touchdown on 24-of-37 passing. Strong safety Tyvon Branch led the Raiders with seven tackles (four solo) but just like Streater, Branch fractured his foot as well. Branch was placed on injured reserved, ending his season early again. Branch missed the final 14 games in 2013 with a lis franc injury.

Wednesday, Oakland claimed former Dolphins safety, Brandian Ross off waivers. Ross is expected to see plenty of action Sunday.

Ross played in 30 games for the Raiders from 2012-13, making 14 starts. He started 13 games at safety last year for Oakland, totaling 101 tackles (59 solo) and two sacks. His career totals include 31 games played with 14 starts, 115 tackles (72 solo), two sacks, six passes defensed and one forced fumble.

Miami, is coming off a tough loss at home to the Kansas City Chiefs, 34-15 Sunday. Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith threw three touchdowns, but the Dolphins defense sacked Smith five times; linebacker Jelani Jenkins and defensive tackle Randy Starks each recorded 1.5 sacks.

Quarterback Ryan Tannehill has thrown five touchdowns and two interceptions, but his 5.0 yards per pass attempt ranks near the bottom in the league among the 32 starting quarterbacks. In two of the Dolphins three games this year, Tannehill has been sacked four times. Oakland needs to apply pressure to a Dolphins offensive line that has trouble protecting their third-year quarterback.

The Raiders secondary must have their eyes on Dolphins speedster, wide receiver Mike Wallace the entire game. Wallace is one of the more dangerous wide receivers in the League, and can go off in a hurry.

Wallace leads all Dolphins wide receivers in catches (17), yards (211), and touchdowns (2).

Players to Watch:

Oakland – The running backs. Whether its Maurice Jones-Drew or Darren McFadden, Oakland’s ground game has got to wake up sometime. Opponents have out-rushed the Silver and Black 476 to 193. With MJD sitting out Sunday’s game with a broken hand, McFadden rushed for 59 yards on 18 carries upping his team-leading 111 yards rushing for the season. Carr, not MJD, is the team’s second leading rusher with 57 yards.

Miami – Mike Wallace, wide receiver. As I mentioned before, Wallace is a game changer and Raiders defensive coordinator Jason Tarver better have a great game plan to stop him. Wallace and Tannehill have had their issues connecting on deep passes, but if Tannehill gets the ball in Wallace’s hands, look out. Cornerbacks Terrell Brown and Carlos Rogers could be in for a long day.

 

NFL Commentary: Is it just a matter of time before Goodell steps down?

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by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–In regards to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell being forced to step down I wish it were the case that it was just a matter of time for Goodell to step down, I really do. All things that have been going on have highlighted the things he’s been deficient in as Commissioner. Under former NFL Commissioners Paul Tagliabue and Pete Rozelle we didn’t see this kind of mayhem.

The lack of coordination, this kind of disorganization their just really running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Then you get into a situaiton like this where you have multiple cases of domestic violence and child abuse piling on top of each other it just kind of highlights all the bad things. You end up realizing that the NFL is a big corporation, but if they care about morality, they don’t care about the off field lives of their players, the only thing they care about is the bottom line.

The reason Goodell has not been fired by the owners yet and the reason he has not resigned is he makes a lot of money for the league and the owners like that. Your talking about a guy whose turned this into a $10 billion a year sport. Until that changes, until there’s a direct impact flowing into the league’s coffers your really not going to see anything change.

Oakland Raiders update: The Oakland Raiders lost a pair of linebackers Sio Moore and Nick Roach and facing the New England Patriots might not make a difference losing two linebackers. If you look at the guys in Vegas looking at this were in the third game of the season and the Raiders are already 13 point underdogs and it tells you what people think of the outcome of this game Sunday.

If your an underdog in the third game of the season than everybody knows your really bad, that’s where the Raiders are they haven’t given any reason to think they should be confident and any reason for the Raiders to think the Raiders are good. I wouldn’t say the Raiders are going to go 0-16 but their just not a good team.

Their going to be in the tough half of the draft and the top five of the draft that would be my guess and linebackers or not their a big work in progress the biggest problem is that there hasn’t been a lot of progress over this time frame. Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie has been cleaning house and getting rid of the guys, dead money under the cap, malcontents on the roster but they haven’t replaced them in the rebuilding process for right now it looks as if the Raiders are in a holding pattern.

San Franacisco 49ers update: The Jonathan Dwyer of the Arizona Cardinals is the bigger case going into Sunday’s game but let’s start with the 49ers Ray McDonald case for first. The big problem with this case there’s no informaton about what happened regarding a 911 call McDonald made about his wife had some bruises on her. In California that’s enough to get arrested for domestic violence.

California has laws that are very protected of the person whose the victim so that’s why McDonald was arrested. Since that time and it’s been a couple of weeks now the San Jose Police Department have been gathering evidence and interviewing people we haven’t heard anything. No one in the media doesn’t know what is going on in this case. What does this suggest? This is a case that the police have brought under a microscope.

This is in the national media whose very much aware of it and are waiting for information right before they go public. It’s very frustrating because everybody wants to know what’s happening and whether McDonald is going to be charged. There was some evidence that came out this week that there was a previous domestic dispute that McDonald and his wife brandished a gun and he called 911 on her. It definitley says that McDonald and Dwyer may want to think about get counciling.

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

Oakland looks to avoid 0-3 start travelling to Foxborough

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By Joe Hawkes-Beamon

OAKLAND — At 0-2, the Oakland Raiders finds themselves quickly swimming upstream this year.

OK, you can say that it’s early in the NFL season and half the League is 1-1 or 0-2 but for the Raiders, it feels like they’re 0-4.

David Carr has played steady in his first two career starts, but has shown at times to be wild with the passes. Carr has thrown for 414 yards and three touchdowns, with two interceptions, one of which came while getting hit on the throw.

The running game has been non-existent in two games, averaging a pedestrian 63 yards rushing per game, 31st in the League ahead of the Jacksonville Jaguars (44.5 rushing yards per game).

Running backs Maurice Jones-Drew (9 carries, 11 rushing yards,1.2 yards per carry, 0 TDs) and Darren McFadden (16 carries, 52 carries, 3.3 yards per carry, 1 TD) need to get it going and take some of the pressure off of Carr. MJD underwent a procedure on his broken right hand last week and didn’t suit up Sunday.

Monday the team added former San Diego Chargers wide receiver Vincent Brown to an already questionable receiving corps, that includes James Jones, Rod Streater, Denarius Moore, and Andre Holmes.

Brown caught 41 passes for 472 yards and a touchdown for San Diego last season, after missing 2012 with a broken ankle. 

Jones leads the team with 12 catches, for 146 yards receiving, and two touchdowns, but 112 of those yards came in the team’s home opener, a 30-14 loss to the Houston Texans.

Defensively, the team is not good, ranking 32nd in most categories most notably, against the run. Oakland has given up 100 yards on the ground in back-to-back weeks, and have gotten manhandled upfront.

The expected strength of the team with key veteran additions such as defensive end Justin Tuck, linebacker LaMarr Woodley, cornerbacks  Terrell Brown and Carlos Rogers, it looks like Father Time has finally caught up with them.

“We suck…I’m embarrased,” veteran safety Charles Woodson said after Sunday’s 30-14 loss to the visiting Houston Texans.

Oakland’s play needs to improve, according to Raiders head coach, Dennis Allen, whose job is clearly on the hot seat as he sports an 8-26 record.

“Well, we need to go out and prove it on the field,” Allen said Wednesday during his weekly press conference.

“Like I said the other day, the talk is cheap. We’ve got to go out and play well. I think we’ve got more talent on this football team and we need to go out there and play like it on Sunday.”

The team will have another opportunity to get their first win of the season Sunday, when Oakland travels to Foxborough to take on the 1-1 New England Patriots, led by Tom Brady and mastermind head coach, Bill Belichick.

Belichick (per CSNCalifornia.com Raiders Insider, Scott Bair)  expects to see a different Raiders team than the one he saw tape on against Houston.

“Based on the comments that I’ve seen out of there and the leadership that they have on that team, the veterans that they have on that team, I’m sure that we’ll come in here and we won’t see the team we saw against Houston last week,”  Belichick said.

“That’s what we’re getting ready for – we’re getting ready for their best game. I don’t think the Houston game was probably it.”

New England is coming off a comfortable victory Sunday, 30-7, in Minnesota. The Patriots defense abused former Brady understudy, Matt Cassell, intercepting the Vikings quarterback four times and sacking him six times, that prompted the home crowd to chant “Teddy!” “Teddy!” in hopes to see rookie backup quarterback, Teddy Bridgewater.

Linebacker Dont’a Hightower and defensive end Chandler Jones each recorded two sacks.

Oakland, who currently sport the longest losing streak in the League (eight consecutive games dating back to November of last year),  is going to have its work cut out for them Sunday against a Patriots team that were 9-0 at home last season, including the playoffs.

New England has won the past three straight games against the Silver and Black, who have dropped 12 of 13 on the road.

Catch the game on CBS at 10 a.m.

Players to Watch:

Oakland: Quarterback Derek Carr. Carr will need to make smart decisions with the football, especially with former All-Pro cornerback Darrelle Revis lurking in the secondary. Carr completed 27 of 42 passes for 263 yards and a touchdown, but with two interceptions in Sunday’s loss to Houston.

New England: Running back Stevan Ridley. Ridley ran through the Vikings defense, carrying the ball 25 times for 101 yards and a touchdown. Ridley only had 21 yards rushing on eight carries in the Patriots 33-20 loss in Miami in Week 1.

 

Raiders and 49ers commentary: Carr will have to work with the offense before Sun game; Kapernick’s gunslinger arm needed to avoid interceptions

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by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–For the Oakland Raiders coming off that 30-14 loss last Sunday the Raiders offense is going to be their biggest problem for them this season. The offense is a work in progress. The offensive line is not very good. Maurice Jones Drew who is their best player is hurt. James Jones is fine as a wide receiver but is not very deep at that position.

Maybe the Raiders will find lighting in a bottle, their 0-2 and headed to New England next Sunday.Running backs Latavius Murray or Darren McFadden might flourish when given the chance. Derrick Carr is a rookie quarterback and most rookie quarterbacks are not like Andrew Luck. There not like Robert Griffin in his rookie year most rookie quarterbacks struggle.

In Peyton Manning’s rookie year he threw 17 interceptions, Carr isn’t in that caliber or at least what we can see. Behind a shaky offensive line with questionable offensive weapons Carr is not in a position to excel. He might eventually be a very good quarterback, there’s some talent there that you could see.

These guys have to be given an opportunity as well, you saw with his brother in Houston David Carr who was the number one pick overall. Derrick had the skills to be a decent quarterback and he’s getting sacked 60 times a season. It’s not an exaggeration he’s getting sacked 60 times a season. With the Raiders facing an aggressive Patriots defense for next Sunday Carr will be running in the pocket all day long.

San Francisco 49ers update: Quarterback Colin Kapernick gets a little bit of a cushion as he’s been successful with the 49ers as a quarterback. He tried to force some passes that he shouldn’t have and as a result he threw some really bad interceptions and you can’t do that. You know what former Green Bay quarterback Brett Farve did that and I’m not saying Kapernick is like Farve.

Kapernick does have that gunslinger mentality that former 49er quarterbacks Joe Montana or Steve Young had. Montana was very precise and almost surgical in the way he would throw behind a defense. Kapernick has got a little of that cowboy in him and not a Dallas Cowboy, Kapernick has a grip and rip it attitude that’s what Farve had.

Guys who have that are going to make throws or make throws like Kapernick did, remember when Farve left Green Bay the last game he played was in that game against the New York Giants. The last throw he made as a Packer was an interception into the hands of multiple Giants. It went into about triple coverage that the Giants picked off.

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

Fitzpatrick, Foster spoil Raiders Home Opener

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By Joe Hawkes-Beamon

OAKLAND — Ryan Fitzpatrick threw for 139 yards on 14-of-19 passes and two touchdowns, while running back Arian Foster galloped for 138 yards rushing on 28 carries and a touchdown as the Houston Texans forced four turnovers and spoiled the Oakland Raiders home opener, 30-14 in front of 54,063 fans.

“Overall, I thought we played well, but we need to play better,” Raiders head coach Dennis Allen said after the game. We got to protect the ball better.”

Houston (2-0) took their first two drives 80 and 70 yards, the first one culminating in a 1-yard touchdown pass from Fitzpatrick to an tight end-eligible defensive end, J.J. Watt; the second on a 6-yard touchdown run by Foster to put Houston up, 14-0 in the first quarter. The Texans controlled the ball for 13:30 in the first quarter, compared to 1:30 for Oakland.

Overall, Houston won the time of possession battle, keeping the ball for 38:36, while Oakland only mustering 21:24.

Veteran Raider safety Charles Woodson summed up the loss the best.

“We suck,” Woodson said. “That’s as blunt as I can put it. For whatever reason, defensively we just won’t stop people, especially early in games. Every drive, every first drive, teams are able to go and get points. Today, it happened all day. Offensively, we put the ball on the ground. We had opportunities and didn’t capitalize on it. Collectively, we look bad.”

After cornerback Kareem Jackson returned an interception off quarterback Derek Carr 56 yards, Houston added a Randy Bullock 33-yard field goal to push the lead to 17-0 at halftime.

Andre Johnson led all Texans receivers with six catches and 74 yards, while DeAndre Hopkins had three catches, including a 12-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter to run Houston’s lead, 24-0.

Cornerback Johnathan Joseph recovered a Mychal Rivera fumble and returned it 49 yards to setup a Bullock 39-yard field to push the Texans lead to 27-0.

Derek Carr didn’t have one of his better days as a pro for Oakland.

Carr completed 27-of-42 for 263 yards passing and a late nine-yard touchdown to wide receiver James Jones, but threw two interceptions, the final one coming after Watt hit him as he threw and linebacker Brooks Reed making the play.

Jones was Carr’s favorite  target, as the quarterback targeted Jones 14 times, with Jones finishing with 112 receiving yards.

But it was Jone’s double fumble that really did the Raiders in on this day.

Jones caught a pass from Carr and lost the ball away twice on the same play, gained 14 yards, but he lost the ball on a hit by Joseph, picked it back up and raced for more yardage until Joseph recovered, forced another fumble and safety D.J. Swearinger recovered at the 3-yard line.

Oakland, showed again the inability to run the ball. Carr led all rushers with 58 yards on four carries, but 41 yards came off on one rush.

Running back Darren McFadden (starting for the injured Maurice Jones-Drew), gained only 37 yards on the ground on 12 carries, but did record his first rushing touchdown of the season with a six-yard score in the fourth quarter.

Defensively, Oakland had some bright spots, but didn’t have the same competitiveness today as it showed in last week’s 19-14 loss to the Jets in New York.

Sure safety Tyvon Branch led the team with 12 tackles (10 solo), and Woodson chipped in with eight tackles (7 solo), but the team couldn’t rush the quarterback. Oakland only recorded one quarterback hit on the day.

In two games, the Silver and Black only have two sacks. Branch has one of them.

Now staring down the gun barrel of an 0-2 start, Oakland is hitting the road for 11 days with games in New England and “home” against the Miami Dolphins in London, may be in danger of falling to 0-4 before the bye week in Week 5 if they don’t get their acts together.

“It’s disappointing,” Woodson  later added.

“I don’t know what else to say about it. Coming into the season we felt a lot better about where we were at that point. For whatever reason we haven’t put it together on the field.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Raiders and 49ers commentary: 49ers waiting on McDonald evidence & broadcaster Robinson sits it out, Raiders might have to worry about Texan offense

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by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–For even the San Francisco 49ers the former Baltimore Raven Ray Rice situation is so volatile and so much bigger than the NFL. This is a news story that has gone from national to worldwide and beyond the sports news and it’s brought a big discussion on domestic violence and how were suppose to preceive it. Its been a study of what’s right and what’s wrong here.

49ers lineman Ray McDonald is the first case of domestic violence since Rice to come and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell imposed an automatic six game suspension for any player or employee of the NFL who engages in domestic violence. After the new rules were put in place by Goodell it’s certainly in the forefront of this and the 49ers are in a very tight spot.

They want their players to contribute that’s what they pay them for and at the same time McDonald is accused of something very bad. Everybody is waiting to learn the outcome of this case, the league will have to take a position on this. Suspended 49ers play by play broadcaster Ted Robinson didn’t show any sensitivity towards the female view point on the Rice case, there has been a big problem in domestic violence where the victim ends up getting blamed.

Typically in almost 90 percent of cases the victim is a woman, Robinson called Janay Rice, Rice’s wife “pathetic” for marrying him and that’s not sympathetic to the victim and that’s just wrong. Maybe Robinson didn’t mean what he said but that’s how it came out. You’ve given the climate in this discussion the 49ers said that Robinson should have been a little extra sensative especially with the McDonald case going on.

Oakland Raiders update: The Raiders return back to Oakland after losing to the New York Jets last week to play the Houston Texans. It was a tough road loss and the Raiders get to come home now and they should be a little more comfortable. The Raiders are playing a team that was one of the worse teams in the league last year. Let’s face it Houston is not that bad.

The Texans had some bad breaks and last year their quarterback Matt Schaub completly went into the tank and Schaub now is with the Raiders and is not even good enough to be the starter. The Raiders have a chance in this game on Sunday. They weren’t too awful against the Jets and Houston won last week. The Texans have alot of talented players.

Most notably the best player on the Texans is JJ Watt who is a defensive end and could be the best at that position in the entire NFL right now. The Raiders may not have an enforcer thats going to play against the Texans in Sunday’s game. They have to tighten things up that have to play more successfully, their defense is still a work in progress.

It’s questionable if the Raiders can get to a point if they can stop anybody, the Texans have some good players on offense. The Texans quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is not that great as a quarterback but they stil have Andre Johnson at wide receiver and Arian Foster at running back. Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins is up and coming and is a good young receiver and the Texans are not easy to defend so the Raiders could have their hands full on Sunday.

David Zizmor does commentary on the Oakland Raiders and San Francisco 49ers each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Oakland welcomes Houston for Home Opener

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Photo courtesy of footballsfuture.com

By Joe Hawkes-Beamon

OAKLAND — After falling to the Jets, 19-14 in New York in Week 1, the Raiders look to rebound Sunday when they host the Houston Texans at O.co Coliseum in Oakland’s home opener at 1:25 p.m.

Making his first career start in the NFL, rookie quarterback Derek Carr played pretty well, but not well enough to help the Raiders start the 2014 season on a winning note.

Carr threw for 151 yards on 20-of-32 passing, with two touchdowns with a passer rating of 94.7. Carr looked poised for much of the game, throwing the ball with no hesitation while making sound decisions.

Oakland may have a rising star in wide receiver Rod Streater.

Even though Streater had 46 yards receiving, I thought the  team-leading five catches and his12-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter was most important. Carr seems to trust Streater, which will be important for both Carr’s and Streater’s continued growth.

What Carr didn’t get was help from the running game and against a team that has a stud defensive end like Houston has in J.J. Watt, you are going to need help from your running backs. The running game which was looked upon as a possible strength of the team’s, has got to be a factor on Sunday.

Oakland only mustered 26 rushing yards from the tandem of Darren McFadden and Maurice Jones-Drew. Jones-Drew led the team with nine carries, but injured his hand Sunday and didn’t finish the game. A source told Comcast SportsNet’s Fallon Smith that Jones-Drew underwent a procedure to repair the injury.

According to the Bay Area News Group’s Jerry McDonald, Jones-Drew didn’t practice Wednesday and his status for Sunday’s home opener remains in question.

Defensively, I thought that Oakland played admirably. Outside of Chris Ivory’s back-breaking 71-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to ice the game, Oakland’s defense played tough on Jets quarterback Geno Smith.

Free safety Charles Woodson recorded an interception that led to an early touchdown, while linebacker Sio Moore was all over the field with a team-leading 15 solo tackles, and one of Oakland’s two sacks. Strong safety Tyvon Branch had the other sack.

But Houston is coming to the Black Hole looking to spoil the home opener, while trying to avenge their  28-23 loss to Oakland last season at Reliant Stadium.

Houston (1-0) won their home opener last week ,14-6 over Washington behind their defense, particularly Watt. The Texans sacked quarterback Robert Griffin three times, and recovered two fumbles. Watt recorded one of each to go along with three tackles.

Cornerback Johnathan Joseph finished with a team-leading 11 solo tackles, while strong safety D.J. Swearinger  (1 sack) and cornerback Kareem Jackson finished tied with six tackles. Linebacker Brooks Reed had five tackles, while recording a sack.

Offensively, Houston has weapons and Raiders defensive guru Jason Tarver is going to have his work cut out for him in slowing down the Texans.

Fitzpatrick threw for 206 yards on 14-of-22 passes (109.3 passer rating), including a 76-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver, DeAndre Hopkins in the second quarter. Hopkins finished with  four catches and 89 yards receiving, while the ageless wonder Andre Johnson led Houston with six catches and 93 yards receiving (15.5 yards per catch).

Oakland’s cornerbacks Terrell Brown and Carlos Rogers are battle tested, but will need to play smart and aggressive if they are going to slow down Houston’s duo.

Running back Arian Foster appears to be healthy again, after missing the majority of last season with a back injury. Foster rushed for 103 yards on 27 carries against Washington.

Next week, Oakland will pack their bags for 11 days, heading to New England to take on the Patriots, before flying over to London (a home game sadly), to take on the Miami Dolphins the following week.

Houston faces the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium in Week 3.

Players to Watch:

Houston: It’s a no brainer that you want to watch Watt. At 6’5″ and 289 lbs, Watt is just a freak of nature that has an active motor on every down.  With 37.5 career sacks, their is no question that Watt gets to the quarterback. Carr must make sure that he knows where No. 99 is at at all times.

Oakland: Streater is the man that Oakland has to get involved early. In last year’s meeting against Houston, Streater had six catches for 84 yards receiving, including an 18-yard touchdown catch.

 

Thats Amaury’s News and Commentary: Rice story going beyond sports headlines video blows up to adressing domestic issues

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez, Mary Lisa Walsh, and Jeremy Harness

OAKLAND–The NFL has a big problem here and in this country your innocent until proven guilty but 50 million people saw the Baltimore Ravens Ray Rice beating this women on video in an Atlantic City hotel elevator. Your not a man, your 6’8 280 pounds and your beating a women 5’3 120 pounds for example that’s a pig. That guy shouldn’t be playing football and should be in jail.

The two game suspension of Rice is a joke and he should have been in jail already, the NFL is the richest league in the world it’s richer than the all the European soccer leauges which create a huge revenue. The NFL is the richest league in the world and if they’re not careful the NFL could have an epidemic like baseball did with steroids if they react 40 years later.

If they don’t stop it now football is going to have a big problem. This is a bigger problem for the NFL than concussions and people getting hurt in the game. Your hurting people who are wearing no helmets here. If it had been the average Joe doing this they would be doing time right now. These guys get millions of dollars and they get a slap on the wrist and suspended a few games.

What about the young kids? What kind of example does this set for the people who follow the sport, they have a responsibility. There are calls for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to be fired over his two day suspension he handed down to Rice. Is Rice going to be the best player in the leauge that fans are going to be sad and not see again? Too bad. They have a responsibilty and they need to be upstanding and good players through and through.

As far as the 49ers Ray McDonald situation that could change pretty quickly, the Rice thing changed really fast from two games, to six games to an indefinite suspension from the NFL. These rules now apply to the Canadian Football League who jumped in and said they’ll have it there too. This is an ever changing world now, everybody has camera phones, video cameras, and there is nothing secret anymore and Rice was caught on the elevator camera socking his wife.

People are going to find out nowadays, the right to know just go to the Police Dept and say you have the right to know what’s going on and they have to hand over the evidence. With TMZ now and with the poparazzi and cell phones and everyone has video now. So nothing is hidden or at least not as much or nearly is hidden as it used to.

It doesn’t change the severity of the crime like back in the day like it does now, this stuff is being exposed like it does now. Even for years they’ve called the NFL the National Felony League, it had the bad reputation for along time. I think it’s just ridiculous when they suspended Rice for two games give me a break, it’s like football is more important than a person’s life.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish TV voice for Angels baseball and is the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and does News and Commentary on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

49ers and Raiders commentary: Time adjustment could be challenging for Raiders; 49ers McDonald girlfriend won’t testfiy Police to pursue case

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by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–The Oakland Raiders won’t have to worry about one thing having snowballs thrown at them at this time of the year as the Raiders get set to meet the New York Jets at Giants Stadium because in September it would be really freaky if it snowed there. Going back east is always tough for the west coast teams. It really makes your body clock go crazy, I don’t know the exact stat but I’ve heard it over the years the record of west coast teams flying to east coast teams for games is really bad.

It’s just a tough proposition to fly back east because of the time change it’s so drastic and the Raiders are used to starting at 1:00PM PDT. When they start in the east coast it would be 10:00AM PDT and it’s hard on their body. It just feels strange and it takes half of the game for them to really wake up and be ready to play like they normally would.

This makes the trip really difficult on the Raiders, now fortunately for the Raiders this is the first game of the season so they’re not as beat up or worn out, that makes the time change a little less drastic. The fact of the matter is a win or a loss on the field could make a difference because of the time change, it might make a little difference on the field because it really comes down to your performance.

Hopefully that time change doesn’t have too much of an impact but when it comes down to it, it’s the players and when you look at the Raiders and the Jets these are particlarily good teams that anyone would expect to make it to the Super Bowl. Most people would be surprised that anyone of them would make it to the playoffs let alone the Super Bowl.

San Francisco 49ers update: It’s hard to say how much of a distraction the Ray McDonald case will have and it can be handled by the 49ers in terms of replacing McDonald and Aldon Smith as the 49ers are capable of compensating and there are a lot of different distractions and for that the 49ers have a lot really good players. Once their on the field I don’t think they’ll think too much of the off the field stuff.

When it gets to the post game and guys are putting mics in their faces that kind of comes back some distractions but on the field the 49ers have been pretty good of not letting these things effect them. Everything that’s going on with Ray McDonald effects how they play and maybe it has some impact on how their preparing. The big question leading up to the game is is Ray McDonald going to play?

Head coach Jim Harbaugh said that until the particulars of the case have been established and if McDonald is proven to have commited domestic abuse then the Niners may look at discipline at that time. The 49ers are waiting for the charges and what kind of charges are going to be filed if any. Until that happens their going to let the justice process run it’s course.

The one thing the 49ers are going for their playing in Dallas against a Cowboy team that is not very good and to be honest that helps. The Cowboys might have the worst defense in all of football, the Cowboys didn’t get anyone in free agency so they got worse. That definitely gives the Niners a little advantage and the Niners will let their offense do the talking and their defense struggles a little bit with the losses of Smith and Navarro Bowman but they’ll still be able to hang in there.

49ers and Cowboys at 1:25PM PDT on Sunday

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