Susceptible Raiders thrashed on the ground, again

By Anthony Carroll  |   Monday, November 05, 2007  |  Comments( 48 )

Oakland Raiders
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Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson must have Nov. 18 circled on his calendar.

The new all-time single-game rushing leader will face an Oakland Raiders 'D' that let Ron Dayne rush for 122 yards and a touchdown on Sunday.

That means Peterson could go for 350.

Oakland suffered its sixth loss of the '07 season Sunday, 24-17, against the Houston Texans, a game in which the Raiders let Houston rushers rack up 178 yards on the ground. The Raiders headed into the contest ranked 30th in the NFL in rushing 'D', allowing 148.9 yards per game. After Sunday, that average will rise by another 4 yards.

Perhaps Oakland's only bright spot was its own running back, Justin Fargas, who was given the starting nod over LaMont Jordan. Fargas rushed 23 times for 104 yards (4.5 yards per carry) and one touchdown. Jordan, on the other hand, ran just four times for 10 yards on the game -- something not so surprising if you read Friday's column.

Most of the booing from the 49,603 in attendance at McAfee Coliseum, however, came not as a result of a poor defensive effort but an equally awful showing by quarterback Josh McCown.

McCown started his fourth game of the season and ended with just 13 completions on 28 attempts for 158 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. McCown has now thrown three picks in a game twice this year, and he has upped his season total to eight picks. The Raiders are now 1-3 when he starts and 0-4 when he starts and finishes the game.

Fans couldn't even make it to halftime to begin the "Rus-sell! ... Rus-sell!" chants. Now losers of four straight, Oakland may turn to first-round rookie JaMarcus Russell earlier than expected. Next week comes to mind; though, you never know with head coach Lane Kiffin.

For the Texans, quarterback Sage Rosenfels started his first game of the season in place of the injured Matt Schaub. Following the trend with Oakland, the 29-year-old QB wasn't forced to make many throws against a porous 'D' because of tremendous success on the ground. Rosenfels threw for 181 yards and a touchdown on just 19 attempts. He was also intercepted once by free safety Stuart Schweigert early in the second quarter.

Schweigert is now just the second Raider defensive back with a pick this season (Stanford Routt is the other), which can be attributed to a lackluster pass rush. That didn't change in Week 9. The team's front four failed to sack Rosenfels, and it now averages just 1.3 sacks each game.

Some mistakes were made off the field, too.

Kiffin opted to send kicker Sebastian Janikowski onto the field with 1:15 left in the first half, down 14-0, to attempt a record-setting 64-yard field goal. Janikowski booted a ball that would have been long enough to hit from 70 yards; the only problem was that it hit the right upright. Six plays later, Texans kicker Kris Brown marched onto the field to put his team up by 17 with 10 seconds until halftime.

He also made the decision to start -- and stick with -- McCown for four quarters. Peg that as another mistake.

Perhaps the only positive -- outside of Fargas -- that came from Sunday's effort was that Russell is one step closer to hitting the field.

And every team in the AFC West lost, so it didn't cost the team too much ground.

Anthony Carroll, a senior writer for RealFootball365.com, can be contacted at acarroll@realfootball365.com
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About Anthony Carroll

Anthony Carroll began writing for RealFootball365.com on Sept. 26, 2005, making him one of the longest tenured contributors to the “365” team. As a senior writer, Anthony has taken on the task of delivering original content to the silver and black faithful year round, despite having to deal...
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