Category: Oakland Raiders

By Jeremy Kahn

OAKLAND-Even though Alex Smith never played a regular season game at the Oakland Coliseum before Sunday, he definitely owned the place on this afternoon.

Smith went 17-for-20 with 287 yards passing and five touchdown passes, as the Kansas City Chiefs simply throttled the Oakland Raiders 56-31 at the Oakland Coliseum.

Besides the five touchdown passes, Smith also ended the game with a passer rating of 158.3, a perfect rating and is the second opposing quarterback to end the game with a perfect rating against the Raiders this season.

Nick Foles of the Philadelphia Eagles turned the trick on November 3, as he also threw seven touchdown passes against the Raiders in a 49-20 Eagles victory.

The Raiders are the first team in NFL history receiving end of a perfect passer rating twice in the same season.

Things began to look bleak on the first play from scrimmage, as Smith found Jamaal Charles on a screen play and the running back raced 49 yards into the end zone to give the Chiefs a 7-0 just 22 seconds into the game.

From then on, it would turn out to be a huge day for the talented running back out of the University of Texas.

Charles caught passes eight passes for 195 yards and four touchdowns, and added eight carries for 20 yards and a rushing touchdown to end the afternoon with a team-record tying five touchdowns.

Abner Haynes scored five five touchdowns against the Raiders in 1961, when the Chiefs were not even the Chiefs, as they were in their second of three seasons as the Dallas Texans.

The 56 points scored by the Chiefs are the most ever allowed by a Raiders team in a game since the founding of the team in 1960.

It breaks the record of 55 that was set just last season, when the eventual Super Bowl Champion Baltimore Ravens accomplished the feat.

Following a Sebastian Janikowski field goal, the duo of Smith and Charles was at it again, as Smith found Charles for a 39-yard touchdown to increase their lead up to 14-3 with under eight minutes remaining in the first quarter.

Eric Berry then intercepted a pass to make it 21-3, as he took a Matt McGloin pass 47 yards into the end zone.

On the ensuing Raiders drive, Rashad Jennings scored from one yard out to cut the lead down to 11 points.

McGloin fumbled the ball on his own 11-yard line, and it was recovered by Chiefs defensive lineman Tamba Hali.

After the fumble, Charles then caught his third touchdown of the first half, as he took a handoff from Smith and went into the end zone from one yard out to increase their up to 28-10.

Berry then ended Raiders next drive again, as he picked off his second pass of the half and returned it 49 yards to the Raiders 31-yard line.

Charles then scored his fourth touchdown in the first half, and his third receiving touchdown, as he took a Smith 16 yards to the end zone.

Jennings then made it 35-17, as he scored his second touchdown of the afternoon on a one-yard touchdown run.

After the half, the Raiders drove the right down and scored, as McGloin found Andre Holmes in the end zone for a six-yard touchdown pass.

The Chiefs then went three-and-out, and then McGloin did it again, finding Mychal Rivera for a 14-yard touchdown pass to narrow the Chiefs down to just four points.

Unfortunately, the Chiefs would have none of that, as Smith hooked up with Charles again, as Charles went 71 yards to the end zone much to the dismay of the Raiders sitting in “The Black Hole.”

Taiwan Jones then fumbled the ball on the ensuing kickoff, and it was recovered by Husain Abdullah at the Raiders’ 29-yard line.

Smith then threw his fifth touchdown pass of the afternoon, a six-yard pass to Sean McGrath to increase the Chiefs up to 49-31.

After three straight possessions that ended in turnovers by each team, Knile Davis put an end to scoring, as he went over left tackle from 17 yards out.

When the day was over the Raiders committed seven turnovers, their most in a game since also committing seven turnovers against the Miami Dolphins in 1998.

McGloin ended the day going 18-for-36 for 297 yards passing with a touchdown and four interceptions.

Terrelle Pryor threw one completion in four attempts for 12 yards and an interception.

by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–The Oakland Raiders next opponent the Kansas City Chiefs managed a win last Sunday to snap their three game losing streak and it was a pretty easy game agianst Washington, Kansas City won 45-10 on the road in Washington in freezing conditions. So the Chiefs probably feel like their back in the swings of things. In the Meadowlands meanwhile the Raiders had a rough game against the New York Jets last Sunday.

The Jets are not a very good team their offense has been struggling mightily for about four or five weeks and quarterback for the Jets Gino Smith has not thrown a touchdown pass since week seven and were sitting here at week 14. That tells you how bad that the Jets are doing and sure enough Smith goes out and has a pretty good day. It was kind of a rough game for the Raiders.

When the Raiders go on these east coast trips that time difference is tough and the Raiders did seem to get a little more involved in the game as the second half progressed and their body clocks caught up to the eastern time if you want to be competitive team you can’t go in against a team like the Jets and let them gain 352 yards. You can’t let them throw for over 200 yards and run for over 125.

If the Raiders want to be a competitive team you can’t let a team like the Jets do that to you, going into this week’s game against Kansas City there’s not much of a chance for the Raiders to win. The Raiders played the Chiefs pretty tough but the one thing I’ve noticed the last few weeks is the Raiders defense has been so surprising early on in the season it kind of faded as the season progressed.

Part of that is that teams have tape of them now and they know what their tendencies are and know what their weaknesses and strengths are so their able to take advantage of them. It might just be that these guys who were signed by the Raiders just because they were kind of cast off from a lot of other teams. Aside from Charles Woodson your talking about a lot of guys who had no experience as a starter.

Some of these players have had no experience in this league and it’s just an overall talent level that doesn’t match up with most other teams and while the Raiders might be surprised with their intensity early on that hasn’t been able to hold up. If your winning because of your intensity that’s great your able to do it early on but the problem with winning with intensity most teams can’t keep up that level of intensity over the course of 16 games it’s just not possible.

You have to have the talent to go along with it and once the intensity fades and the talent doesn’t kick in then your in trouble and that’s kind of where the Raiders are starting to head.

David Zizmor is covering the NFL for Sportstalk Radio

By Jeremy Kahn

OAKLAND-It must have seemed like déjà vu after seeing what Ryan Fitzpatrick did to them for the second time in three years.

As a member of the Buffalo Bills, Fitzpatrick beat the Oakland Raiders, as the Bills came back to defeat the Raiders 35-31.

Now a member of the Tennessee Titans, Fitzpatrick did it again, as he found Kendall Wright for a 10-yard touchdown pass with 10 seconds remaining in the game, as the Titans came back to defeat the Raiders 23-19 at the Coliseum.

Wright got in front of Tracy Porter for the game-winning touchdown for the Titans and head coach Mike Munchak.

“Tracy was fine. It’s a tough route versus the coverage that we were in. I thought they did a great job of executing. They had a nice play up, which made it tough for us to be able to defend. But if I had to go it over Gain, I would have been more aggressive right there and come after them. So put that one on me,” said Dennis Allen.

Rookie Matt McGloin gave the Raiders a 19-16 lead with 6:10 remaining in the game, as he found Marcel Reese in the end zone for a 26-yard touchdown pass.

McGloin was 19-for-32 for 260 and one touchdown.

Following that drive, Fitzpatrick drove the Titans all the way down the field for what proved to be the game-winning drive, as the Titans improved to 5-6 on the season, while the Raiders fell to 4-7.

Fitzpatrick went 30-for-42 for 320 yards and two touchdowns, which included a 54-yard touchdown pass to Justin Hunter that gave the Titans a 13-9 lead in the third quarter.

Sebastian Janikowski kicked four field goals, but his two misses on the afternoon loomed large in the end.

Janikowski missed from 32 yards at the end of the first half, as his kick went just to the left of the goalpost and the Raiders went into the locker room with a 9-6 lead.

The reliable Janikowski missed a 48-yarder on the Raiders first possession of the second half, as he missed it to the left.

“We’re not making them, not consistently enough. We have to continue to work to get better there. I feel like Sebastian is going to work through this. I still have all the confidence that when I send him out there that’s it going to go through. So it’s just something that we have to go through and we have to go through and we have to get better in that area,” said Allen.