The Oakland Raiders (2-6) are hosting the Kansas City Chiefs (1-7) Sunday and are looking for their second win this season against the Chiefs.  In their last match-up the Raiders squeezed out a close 13-10 win when Darren McFadded scored with about a minute left in the game.  McFadden has been out with a knee injury since 5th week, but the Raiders will have him back in this contest.  The Raiders did give up 409 yards to the Chiefs last game, but got two turnovers.  The Raiders will need more turnovers if this rematch, or they need to do a better job limiting the Chiefs’ yardage.  Both would be nice, but it is the Raiders so i doubt it.

JaMarcus Russell needs to have another turnover free game, like he did in the Raiders last game against the Chiefs.  Russel has had a terrible season, with 2 touchdowns and 9 interceptions.  He will have some extra help with McFadden back, but I don’t know how effective McFadden will be in his first game back.  The Chiefs have a decent quarterback in Matt Cassel, but their running backs are unproven since Larry Johnson was dismissed from the team.  I think the Chiefs offense is still better though, and as long as JaMarcus Russell is a quarterback I never feel good about the Raiders winning.

FINAL SCORE PREDICTION:  Kansas City Chiefs 24, Oakland Raiders 20

The Raiders have released 26-year old G/T Paul McQuistan.  McQuistan played in 3 games (0 starts) for the Raiders this season.  He played 4 seasons for the Raiders appearing in 35 games (12 starts).  The Raiders won’t miss this guy too much as he wasn’t good enough to start for them.

Kicker Sebastian Janikowski and punter Shane Lechler have been outstanding for the Raiders this season.  Janikowski has made all 12 of his field goal attempts and all six of his extra points.  So the Raiders have not left any points on the field this season due to Janikowski’s strong left leg.  Shane Lechler has been booming punts all season for the Raiders.  He has punted the ball 46 times for 2,407 yards (52.3 avg) so far this season.  Lechler only has 4 touchbacks (8.7%) and he has pinned the opposition inside their own 20 yard line 14 times (30.4%) this season.  These two guys have been outstanding for the Raiders so far this season and they need them to keep up the good work.

Every time the Raiders dump on Justin Fargas he always bounces back.  Darren McFadden started this season as the starting running back and he didn’t play too well before injuring himself.  Enter Fargas.  Fargas was the leading rusher for the Raiders last season and he is leading the team again this year despite not really playing much in the first four games of the season.  Fargas has carried the ball 72 times for 263 yards (3.7 ypc) with 1 TD run.  He has also caught 11 passes for 73 yards (6.6 avg) so far this season for the Raiders.  Fargas should keep the starting job even when McFadden returns from injury because he is the better player right now.

Starting QB JaMarcus Russell has really stunk this season for the Raiders.  He has completed 88 of 182 passes (48.4%) for 1,000 yards with 2 TD passes and 9 INTs (48.3 QB Rating).  Russell has also carried the ball 16 times for 39 yards (2.4 ypc) so far this season.  The Raiders can’t be happy that Russell continues to point fingers not blaming himself for anything.  What Russell doesn’t realize is that when you point a finger at someone else you have three fingers on your own hand pointing at you.  He is a HUGE part of the problem for the Raiders on offense.  It’s too bad that Jeff Garcia decided to leave the Raiders because there is little doubt that he would be starting by now.  The Raiders have absolutely nothing to lose by giving Bruce Gradkowski a start to see if he can do any better than Russell.  Gradkowski has completed 12 of 21 passes (57.1%) for 114 yards with 0 TD passes and 0 INTs (72.3 QB Rating).  Gradkowski has also carried the ball 2 times for 25 yards (12.5 ypc) so far this season. 

The Oakland Raiders love the stopwatch and it often clouds the teams’ judgment on draft day.  WR Darrius Heyward-Bey was the fastest player timed of all the WRs in the NFL Draft.  That was enough for the Raiders to pick him at #7 in the first round.  Heyward-Bey has caught 5 passes for 74 yards (14.8 avg) and he has carried the ball 2 times for 19 yards (9.5 ypc) so far this season.  It’s hard to judge him yet due to the poor QB play of the Raiders so far this season.  Safety Michael Mitchell (2nd round, #47 overall) also was timed up and thought to be a speed burner.  Too bad that speed doesn’t always convert into production as Mitchell has 7 whole tackles this season.  DE Matt Shaughnessy (3rd round, #71 overall) has not done much this season as he has 10 tackles, 1 tackle for a loss and 1 sack.  But due to injuries his playing time is going to pick up starting next week so we will get to see what he can really do.  WR Louis Murphy (4th round, #124 overall) has been one of the better playmakers on the offense and he is pretty darn fast.  He has caught 16 passes for 232 yards (14.5 avg) with 1 TD grab and he has also carried the ball 2 times for 5 yards (2.5 ypc).  Murphy also has 1 tackle so far this year.  TE Brandon Myers (6th round, #202 overall) has caught 2 passes for 7 yards (3.5 avg) so far this season.  DEs Slade Norris (4th round, #126 overall) and Stryker Sulak (6th round, #199 overall) have not played for the Raiders this season.  It will be pretty hard to judge this draft class until the Raiders get decent QB play but it doesn’t look too good right now.

The Raiders will be without 34-year old DE Greg Ellis indefinately due to recent arthroscopic knee surgery.  He has played in all 8 games for the Raiders so far this season and he has 18 tackles, 4 sacks, 1 tackle for a loss, 1 forced fumble and he has defensed 1 pass.  Rookie Matt Schaughnessy and Trevor Scott will try to step up while Ellis is out.  Schaughnessy has played in all 8 games for the Raiders this season and he has 10 tackles, 1 tackle for a loss and 1 sack.  Scott has played in all 8 games for the Raiders and he has 15 tackles and 2 sacks.  Ellis is the co-leader in sacks on the Raiders with Richard Seymour, but Schaughnessy and Scott should do a decent job replacing him.

It’s hard to believe that the Raiders stayed within striking distance in this game based on how poorly the offense played again.  JaMarcus Russell was awful as usual completing 14 of 22 passes for 109 yards with 0 TD passes and 1 interception.  Justin Fargas led the way on the ground for the Raiders in this game with 59 yards rushing on 18 carries (3.3 ypc) with 1 TD run.  He also caught 3 passes for 20 yards (6.7 avg).  Michael Bush was also busy for the Raiders in this game with 7 carries for 27 yards (3.9 ypc) and two catches for 14 yards (7.0 avg).  TE Zach Miller was effective as usual for the Raiders in this game with 5 catches for 52 yards (10.4 avg).  The Raiders finished up with 180 total yards on offense in this game (99 rushing, 81 passing). 

The defense was led by CB Tyvon Branch who registered 8 tackles.  DE Matt Shaughnessy had his best game of the year by far for the Raiders with 5 tackles, 1 sack, 2 tackles for a loss and a QB hit.  The Chargers finished up with 346 total yards in this game (100 rushing, 246 passing).  The Raiders are now 2-6 on the season.