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Raiders need to work on defense before facing Kansas City
By Jeremy Harness October 15, 2007 |
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The one thing the Oakland Raiders really need to do is to work on the run defense, as it really needs to be shored up because you cannot have opposing running backs such as LaDainian Tomlinson rush for 187 yards against them and expect to win. It’s not going to happen, and the Raiders have to deal with Larry Johnson, who is starting to come out a bit, and he rushed for 127 yards and a touchdown on Sunday. Once they get to the Cincinnati Bengals who doesn't have a very good defense for running or passing, but still Johnson is on the way back even though he was off to a slow start but the number one priority. The Raiders have to focus on that rush that is coming up on the Raiders and the defense has to stop the rush. But this is a definite cause for concern if the Raiders want to win a game in the AFC West, so far they have lost some tough games and if they're going to gain anything in the division, the Raiders are going to have to win a few of these games in their division. LaMont Jordan came off the injury against the Chargers and carried the ball for 50 plus yards, and it was not like the game he had against Miami where Jordan was about to break one because the holes were so big for him. The Chargers defense really plugged them up there was really no where to run for him and the offensive line wasn't able to open up holes for him they were just tough and the Chargers have that tacky defense that make it hard for you to do anything. So it had more to do with the defense than anything and the Dolphins were the second worst play in as far as stopping the run so it’s no mystery that the Raiders gained 299 yards on the ground against the Chargers. The Chargers only gained 60 plus yards so that's basically one third of what they gained from the offense against the Dolphins and actually more than that. The Raiders are going up against the Chiefs, who do not have a good of a defense as far as the Chargers are concerned and they are not nearly as bad as the Dolphins either. Even though things should work a little as far as getting, some yards which is a key for the Raiders on offense, which has been on the run. It should look a little better against the Chiefs its not going to be that much better the offense needs to block a little bit better. Also to keep in mind they had two or three penalties in one possession, and the Raiders ended up with a 3 and 32 and if they're going to beat the Chiefs they can't turn the ball over. The awful penalties like they did against San Diego so that's going to have to be addressed. J-Doggs prediction: You really don't know if Gerard Morris is going to play because he sat out the Chargers game with a thigh injury and really doesn't know when he'll return and we really don't know what’s going on with Ned Williams he was deactivated for the Chargers game. You really don't know about those guys and it's kind of tough to tell but I would say like any other game and like this game coming up against Kansas City is going to be a close game. The Chiefs the last time they played the Raiders were playing for something this time they are all battling for the top spot in the AFC West. The Raiders at this stage are actually in the hunt in the AFC West, which is something that hasn't happened for a very long time. I'm going to go out on a limb here and will say that the Raiders will make this game a close contest in Kansas City because of the fact that they're rushing game is a little bit better than before and they have more weapons at their disposal, they have Jordan, Justin Fargus, Dominick Rhodes. The Raiders should improve on their run block, and I think that the Raiders will win this game 21-20 going with that close game score. NFL notes: With Commissioner Roger Goodell announcing his consideration to play a Super Bowl in London it would be hard to argue that in the town of Big Ben with an October 28th regular scheduled game which has so far has already sold 45,000 tickets and is expected to be sold out at capacity of 90,000. The Commissioner also pointed out that the first game off U.S. soil a regularly scheduled game between the 49ers and Cardinals in Mexico City that game sold out for a NFL record best 103,467. Goodell seeing how the profits moved said that was good enough to consider scheduling a Super Bowl in London. Goodell will run this by the NFL Board of Governors and team owners, which should give it the thumbs up. Jeremy Harness covers Raiders football and co-hosts Sportstalk on 1690 KFSG Sacramento. |
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