The Final Quarter-Behind the Stats
Raiders vs. Chiefs

By Barbara Mason 9/20/09
Raiderdrive.com/Bay Area Sports Drive

Last Monday night, the Oakland Raiders outplayed the San Diego Chargers in all phases of the game as the statistics proved.  Unfortunately however, Oakland was unable to finish the game.  How would they come out against the Kansas City Chiefs?  If they could better last week’s performance, the Chiefs would have their hands full.  As the new “vet on the block”, Richard Seymour put it, they have to become a better team with each game. 

Last week after the loss, the atmosphere in the locker room was one of frustration and anger, and Coach Tom Cable felt that was a good thing.  This year’s team really wants to play, really wants to improve.  The way that last week’s game played out, running plays were expected in the game against the Chiefs.  The aggressive nature of Kansas City both offensively and defensively was the challenge that the Raiders faced.  It does of course work both ways provided that Oakland came out the way they did against San Diego.  That was hardly the case in this game.  The Raiders looked awful in the first half, and not much better in the second.  They did however finish the game and came up with big plays when it really counted.

With the Seymour trade all squared away, rumors that he did not want to be in Oakland have been laid to rest.  That became very evident in the locker room after last week’s game.  He is truly on board, happy to be an Oakland Raider and ready to work hard to contribute all that he is capable of.  “I don’t want to be a one-dimensional player,” said Seymour as was evident in Sunday’s game. He was all over the field.

As Kansas City sadly found out, statistics don’t mean a whole lot when it comes down to the final score.  The Chiefs possessed the ball longer, 38:39 to the Raider’s 21:21.  Kansas City out rushed Oakland, 173 yards to 67. Chiefs quarterback Matt Cassel passed for 241 yards and was 24 of 39.  Oakland’s JaMarcus Russell was 7 of 24 for 109 yards, about 35%.  The total net yards differential was 409 for KC and 166 for Oakland.

The negatives in this game far outweighed the positives although a big, very big positive was the fact that they finished the game for the 13-10 win. 

Positives

Kicker Shane Lechler, Shane Lechler, Shane Lechler as always.  Talk about consistency-incredible hang time on every kick not to mention distance. 

 Sebastian Janikowski was able to tie up the game in the second quarter and added one more field goal, a 54-yard kick.

The Michael Huff interception allowed a Raider field goal.  He had two picks on the day.

The Raiders made the important plays late in the fourth quarter when it counted most.  Those plays cemented the win for Oakland with the run by Darren McFadden into the end zone.

Kirk Morrison had 13 tackles and Thomas Howard had 8. 

Negatives

It took quarterback JaMarcus Russell a quarter and a half to get going.  Again he missed open receivers and again inaccuracy reared its ugly head.  He had a horrific day, although, he made plays when he had to.  He has a lot to learn but with discipline and hard work should continue to improve.

There was 9:55 left in the second quarter when Oakland got their initial first down.  That’s not even considered a slow start.  That’s just abysmal.

Kansas City was able to accrue a lot of rushing yards running through the Oakland defense.

Raider’s punted four of five possessions in first half.  It was three and out for the Raiders throughout the first two quarters.

The team is still very undisciplined when it comes to some of the penalties committed.  3 of the 4 penalties committed in the first half were defensive.  Oakland finished with 7 penalties.

Snapshot

The biggest negative for Oakland right now is simply too many negatives.

As good as they looked last week—that is how bad they looked this week.

With the exception of the one scoring series in the second quarter, and the final drive for the touchdown in the fourth quarter, the Raiders looked very shaky.  It has to said, however that they did hang in the game to pull out the win and that’s says a lot on their behalf.

I guess we have to wait 24 hours to put out a missing person’s report.  In this case we need to put out a missing team report.  Where was last week’s team?  There were glimpses of them at times but it all seemed to evaporate into thin air, coming as quickly as it left.  It has to be cause for real concern.

A lot of the burden lies upon the shoulders of quarterback JaMarcus Russell.  He has to correct some of those passes that he no doubt would love to have back.  He was off the mark too many times.  The running game was a bit of a disappointment as well.  Oakland struggled against Kansas City, a mediocre team at best, and has to sharpen their game for next Sunday’s home contest against the Denver Broncos.