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		Raiders meet 49ers in Battle of the Bay By Greg Lee & Tony Renteria August 26, 2010

	Knock on wood, but as the Raiders closed the doors on their Napa facility this week, they left behind a completely unremarkable camp. While the news out of Wine Country has been uncharacteristically football oriented, the Raiders still have a lot to work on as they inch closer to the regular season. The Battle of the Bay, NFL-style takes center stage as the Niners (2-0) host the Raiders (2-0) on Saturday. Don’t let the matching 2-0 records fool you, while both may be headed in the right direction, the Niners are arguably a playoff team and the Raiders are… glad no one was arrested out of training camp. The Niners will be looking to hone their quickly-becoming reputable defense, anchored by homegrown superstar Patrick Willis, while the biggest question mark remains whether or not they can take the training wheels off their “potential” (mind you possibly potent) offense. The Raiders on the other hand, break camp looking very similar to the Niners of the last two seasons. Oakland has brought in a handful of talent to replace the colossal flop of JaMarcus Russell, including former starting NFL QB’s Jason Campbell and Bruce Gradowski (a remnant from last season) and University of Hawaii stand-out Colt Brennan. While Campbell may be the most flashy name in the bunch the real upside is all of three of the principals have had actual NFL experience and some might even say success. The first-string team may not see a lot of action this week, but keep your eye out for RB Darren McFadden, who returns from nursing an injury. While, WR Darrius Heyward-Bey may not see much action this week, having missed four practices this week because he was “tired”. On the other side of the ball, the Silver & Black will have their hands full as the Niners’ #1 pick of (so long ago now, it hardly matters), Alex Smith will look to take the reigns of an offense that has some serious potential on both the ground and in the air, if the O-Line can hold up their end. It will be up to the line to keep Smith upright and in the pocket to deliver to WR Michael Crabtree wrapping his first training camp, with newly acquired veteran speedster Ted Ginn Jr. on the other side to stretch the field and All-Pro TE who led the Universe in TDs for TEs last season to punish teams underneath. Not to mention the potentially explosive, but oft-injured Frank Gore and the recently signed, oft-injured Brian Westbrook to fill out the backfield. On the bright side, it isn’t likely the Raiders will see more than a quarter of the first string offense. This is still only the Pre-Season and the Raiders are still behind the Niners in their “rebuilding process”, but the fact remains both teams are entering play Saturday with a lot more (justifiable) optimism than they have been used to.