Raiders Have Problems & Other Notes

From Oakland, California

“I’m disappointed where we are as a football team.”

Those were a few of the post-game words of Raiders coach Tom Cable after his team dropped their seventh game of the season, falling 16-10 to the Chiefs.

After winning in Kansas City back in September, you can bet the Raiders viewed this as a game they could take. But these are the Raiders of the last few years and they are their own worst opponent. It got so bad on Sunday at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum that Cable pulled JaMarcus Russell and replaced him with Bruce Gradkowski.

That move got what few fans were still in the stadium all excited, until Gradkowski threw his first of two interceptions.

Cable was pretty cryptic about giving Russell the hook.

“Two plays prior to that we misread it when guys were wide open,” said Cable. “That was enough.”

Who will be his starter next weekend?

“I look at it and I’ll have more to say on it after I get a chance to look at the game,” Cable said.

Russell didn’t have much to say

“I don’t know how to describe it,” said Russell. “Can’t explain it right now.”

WINNING THE BATTLE IN THE KICKING GAME

It’s hard to win the special teams phase of any game against the Raiders since they have one of the best kicking tandems in the league in Sebastian Janikowski and Shane Lechler.

And while the Chiefs may not have won the kicking battle, they at least broke even on Sunday and that helped seal the victory.

Nobody was busier than Lechler, who kicked 11 times and averaged 48.3 yards a boot. He put five of those punts inside the 20-yard line and his long punt was 57 yards.

But Chiefs punter Dustin Colquitt punted six times, for a 47.2 average and a net average of 47.5 yards. He knocked four of his six punts inside the 20-yard line and his long punt was 61 yards.

The Raiders were minus-2 on three punt returns while the Chiefs had 47 yards in returns on nine.

In the kicking dual, rookie Ryan Succop hit three FGs, including a 50-yarder. He missed from 52 yards. Janikowski was one of two, hitting from 50 yards himself, but missing a 45-yard effort. That was his first missed FG of the season.

Succop now has made 14 field goals in his rookie season, the second highest total for a rookie in club history. Jan Stenerud hit 21 FGs as a rookie in 1967.

On his five kickoffs, Succop did not reach the end zone, averaging a kick to the six-yard line. Raiders’ returner Jonathan Holland averaged 19.2 yards a return, with his longest at 26 yards. Good coverage for the Chiefs.

Jamaal Charles averaged 26 yards on three kickoff returns, but most of that was on a 40-yard return to open the second half.

ZEBRA REPORT

Mike Carey and his crew were busy, busy, busy in this one. They walked off 15 total penalties against these teams for a total of 119 yards.

The Chiefs were hit with five flags, including their first offensive play of the game when TE Leonard Pope was called for a false start. Pope later added a holding call in the fourth quarter. C Rudy Niswanger was called for a false start and the offense was flagged for delay of game. LB Jovan Belcher was penalized 10 yards for a personal foul on the second Mike Brown interception.

Todd Haley challenged the placement of the football in the first half, but lost the challenge and the timeout.

PERSONNEL MATTERS

Call it another chapter in what has been a wacky year on the roster for the players. Last week in Jacksonville, DaJuan Morgan was the starting free safety. On Sunday in Oakland, Morgan did not dress, declared a game-day inactive, an apparently healthy scratch. Certainly that tells us plenty about what the Chiefs coaches thought about Morgan’s performance against the Jaguars.

The other change was at tight end where Sean Ryan has been the starter all year, but he went to the inactive list against the Raiders. Leonard Pope got the starting assignment and Brad Cottam was active for only the fourth time in nine games. It was Pope’s first start with the Chiefs. Also, WR Lance Long was in for the first play as the Chiefs went with three wide receivers;; it was his first start with the team.

ILB David Herron was among the inactive players because of a knee injury. Healthy scratches besides Morgan and Ryan were recently signed LB Justin Rogers, WR Bobby Wade and rookies Donald Washington and Jake O’Connell. The third inactive quarterback was Matt Gutierrez.

Rookie LB Pierre Walters was on the active roster for the first time, finally getting a chance to play in his first NFL game.

Andy Alleman started at right guard for the second consecutive week.

The inactive players for the Raiders included starting DE Greg Ellis. During the Raiders bye week, Ellis underwent arthroscopic surgery on his knee and shoulder and should return next week. Rookie Matt Shaughnessy started in his place.

Other inactive players for Oakland were WRs Todd Watkins, Javon Walker and Nick Miller, OL Erik Pears and Khalif Barnes and LB Ricky Brown. The inactive third quarterback was Charlie Frye.