Raiders say “Who Dey?” to Bengals

By MikeBullock  |   Monday, November 23, 2009  |  Comments( 0 )

Oakland Raiders
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The Cincinnati Bengals, on a hot streak, coming off a big division win against the Superbowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers rolled into Oakland for a sure victory this weekend. But, just as Donovan McNabb and the Eagles found out earlier in the year, you can’t just expect to show up and have your opponent roll over for you.

Another thing the Bengals couldn’t expect were the Raiders scoring more than their season average in the last 41 seconds of the game. With the Oakland defense still giving away yardage like Halloween candy and an offense that looks more like the Keystone Cops than a professional football team, the Bengals and their fans were right to expect an easy win.

However, expectations and outcomes aren’t always in line with one another in the NFL. Just ask JaMarcus Russell, whom expectations had as the savior of the Raiders not the benchwarmer. Or the doubters who thought Bruce Gradkowski could never engineer a two minute drill to tie the score.

While it was anything but a pretty win, Oakland fans can rest this week, knowing their team has now beaten two of the best in the NFL this year. While that falls into the “what you get when you don’t get what you want” category, when your team is on pace to record the worst win-loss record over a decade by any team in post merger history (a point far more ironic when held up to Al Davis’ “Team of the Decades” slogan) even the tiniest ray of sunshine is like a supernova.

On the flipside, it was one of the ugliest wins in memory. The Raiders were outrushed 92 yards to 177, including seven yards by Bengals QB Carson Palmer that brought two touchdowns with them. They also failed to rack up more than 300 yards of total offense, which is par for the course this year.

Conversely, the Raiders defense held Palmer’s passing attack to only 207 yards and a 75.4 passer rating, just a 1.5 improvement over Raider QB Gradkowski. The brightest spot there is the lack of touchdowns by Chad “I talk too much” Johnson.

But, why get bogged down in the details of sloppy play, poorly executed tackling and gaping holes a running back in a wheelchair could race through when Raider Nation scored two great victories today.

The win against Cincinnati is the first. What’s the second? Denver losing to San Diego and falling out of first place in the AFC West. Decide for yourself which is sweeter, Nation.

Yep. Pretty good day for a Raider fan, all things considered. Now, if they can just have another reason to give thanks this Thursday, it might actually look like they’re pretending to be competitive.
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