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| Other Week 2 Game Recaps | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ARI at JAX | BAL at SD | CAR at ATL | CIN at GB | CLE at DEN | HOU at TEN | IND at MIA | MIN at DET |
| NE at NYJ | NO at PHI | NYG at DAL | OAK at KC | PIT at CHI | SEA at SF | STL at WAS | TB at BUF |
Week 2 Game Recap: Oakland Raiders 13, Kansas City Chiefs 10
Oakland Raiders
| QB JaMarcus Russell, Pass: 7 - 24 - 109 - 0 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 3 - -3 - 0 |
Russell played about as poorly as a signalcaller can play and still come away with the victory. When he wasn't missing open receivers badly, he was luckily missing well-covered receivers, because those passes would have been intercepted if they were well-thrown. The standard "drive" for the Raiders was a three and out. Russell threw one pass that was a perfectly served up pick six for Brandon Flowers, but Flowers showed why he is a DB, not a WR, and dropped the ball. Russell is the biggest QB in the league, and he still threw a pass up for grabs that should have been intercepted when he was faced with pressure up the gut. Still, despite all that, he got locked in for the game's final drive, and finally connected with Darren McFadden twice (who he missed at least three times earlier in the game because he has trouble throwing a short touch pass), and made a perfect strike downfield to Todd Watkins to get the team inside the 20. Russell has little to no fantasy value, and he is seriously affecting the value of his teammates.
| RB Darren McFadden, Rush: 12 - 35 - 1, Rec: 2 - 20 - 0 (5 targets) |
The Raiders tried to get the speedy and rugged McFadden the ball as a receiver, but Russell missed badly on short touch passes three times, and another McFadden reception (that he made after helping on blitz pickup) was called back due to penalty. On yet another snap when McFadden was split out wide, the Raiders decided to hand off to the one remaining member of the backfield, the fullback. McFadden's carries weren't that productive, expect for his TD, which got him running outside. He easily eluded the one defender with a chance to bring him down on the way to the end zone. Russell also looked to McFadden twice on the game-winning drive, depending on his RB to get important yards when the game was on the line for the second week in a row. With a little more short range accuracy from Russell, McFadden's value will be restored in PPR leagues.
| RB Michael Bush, Rush: 9 - 35 - 0, Rec: 1 - 17 - 0 (1 targets) |
Bush did what he could with his limited touches, running hard between the tackles and getting yards after contact, even running over a KC linebacker. On his one reception, Bush showed a good burst for a big back. Like the rest of the Raiders offense, he was held back by the ineptitude of JaMarcus Russell, in what should have been a good matchup for the Raiders running game.
| RB Justin Fargas |
Fargas is supposedly healthy enough to play, but he was inactive for this game. Nothing about the way Darren McFadden and Michael Bush have played suggests that Fargas will get more opportunity going forward.
| WR Louis Murphy, Rec: 2 - 26 - 0 (6 targets) |
Murphy didn't have the same smashing success that he had on Monday night of week 1, but he did show some tackle-breaking ability on one of his two catches, and he made a nice adjustment to an underthrown deep ball on another target, but couldn't quite haul it in.
| WR Todd Watkins, Rec: 1 - 28 - 0 (3 targets) |
Watkins flashed the speed we saw when he was back at BYU, and he got open downfield in the last two minutes to help set up the game-winning score, but Watkins didn't do anything to suggest that he'll have a role when the Raiders full complement of wideouts is healthy.
| WR Darrius Heyward-Bey, Rec: 1 - 18 - 0 (6 targets) |
The seventh overall pick caught his first NFL pass, and he also had a nice block in the end zone on Darren McFadden's game-winning TD run. Heyward-Bey showed his deep ball prowess, tracking a bomb from Russell and hauling it in, but DHB was out of bounds. It was still nice to see the reason the team spent such a high draft pick on Heyward-Bey show up on the field.
| TE Zach Miller (3 targets) |
After a rousing start to his third season in week 1, Miller was relegated to quality blocker and frustrated receiving target in week 2. He did get open on the seam routes that worked so well against San Diego once, only to have JaMarcus Russell throw the ball over his head. His number was called on a route that had him come across the formation to a short reception with a lot of room to run, but the pass was batted down. There was nothing Miller could have done to avoid getting a zero today.
Kansas City Chiefs
| QB Matt Cassel, Pass: 24 - 39 - 241 - 1 TD / 2 INT, Rush: 5 - 34 - 0 |
The Good: Cassel was not affected by knee, at least not that we could tell. He scrambled and gain great yardage as a runner, and wasn't afraid of contact. Cassel threw the ball with great zip and confidence, and he was decisive about finding his checkdowns in Todd Haley's offense. Cassel also threw a very nice deep pass to give Dwayne Bowe a chance to make an athletic play, and he did just that to give the Chiefs the lead late in the game. The Bad: Cassel was victimized twice by Michael Huff on interceptions in Oakland territory, even though he looked him off on one of them. The other was an overthrow of Dantrell Savage that Huff made a nice diving catch to convert. Cassel also cost the Chiefs a scoring opportunity by completing a pass inbounds inside the 10 in the last seconds of the first half, even though the Chiefs had no timeouts. He didn't look bad in his return, against a defense that got in Philip Rivers face last week, but Cassel was still a bit out of sync running the offense, and it's clear that his numbers will suffer from a lack of quality targets.
| RB Larry Johnson, Rush: 24 - 78 - 0, Rec: 3 - 41 - 0 (4 targets) |
Johnson looked like a younger version of himself, even though his stat line doesn't reflect it. He ran with purpose, getting yards after contact and winning collisions, and he ran with very good quickness and elusiveness for such a big back, making tacklers miss in the open field more than once. LJ was productive as a receiver in Jamaal Charles absence, and he also ran well on his carries out of the shotgun. The much-maligned Chiefs offensive line even opened some big holes for him. Johnson was a better back in this game than his numbers indicate.
| RB Dantrell Savage, Rush: 3 - 26 - 0, Rec: 6 - 43 - 0 (9 targets) |
Jamaal Charles injury was Dantrell Savage's big break. He did alright as Matt Cassel's main checkdown, and showed good hands after an early drop. Savage has a nice burst (as a little back should), but he has little to no instincts to elude in the open field, and he got a lot of yards as a safety valve on third and long. He's no threat to Charles job once Charles is healthy.
| RB Jackie Battle, Rush: 5 - 19 - 0, Rec: 1 - -6 - 0 (1 targets) |
Battle got a few touches because Jamaal Charles was inactive, but he didn't run as physical as his size suggests he should, and he didn't run with the burst his 4.4 40 time suggests either. Even on his one good gain, there were more yards to be gained if Battle hadn't danced and instead just ran downhill.
| WR Bobby Wade, Rec: 6 - 72 - 0 (9 targets) |
You have never known that Wade was signed just last week by the Chiefs. He was Cassel's security blanket on underneath crossing patterns, and he made his targets count. Wade found the dead spots in the zone in the middle of the field, and generally showed good timing and chemistry with Cassel, especially on a play action pass when Wade was exactly where Cassel expected him to be downfield. He looks like Cassel's favorite target to move the sticks, and he also got a red zone target.
| WR Dwayne Bowe, Rec: 5 - 56 - 1 (5 targets) |
Bowe was held down for most of the game. He was incredibly rugged on an inside screen, running like a running back, taking big hits and not backing down, and he also threw a crushing blow on linebacker Thomas Howard that again accentuated the physicality of his game. Bowe made a fluid adjustment to a poorly thrown ball by Cassel for a short gain, but it was his TD catch that showed off his immense talent. Bowe was covered pretty well, but he leapt and hung in the air, extending to make a gorgeous grab that could have been the game-winner. It is important to point out that Stanford Routt, not Nnamdi Asomugha, was covering Bowe on the play, but it shouldn't really take away from his effort. Bowe did everything he could with the few opportunities he had to make plays in this game.
| WR Quinten Lawrence, Rush: 1 - 16 - 0 |
Lawrence looked very speedy on an end around that was called as the first play of the day for the Chiefs. He did not disappoint, turning it into a nice gain. The Chiefs will probably try to get Lawrence more touches as the season goes on.
| WR Bobby Engram, Rec: 1 - 12 - 0 (3 targets) |
Bobby Wade has taken up the role that Bobby Engram was supposed to play in this offense. Engram is just a small role player in this offense now.
| WR Mark Bradley |
With Matt Cassel not going downfield too often, and choosing to target TEs and Dwayne Bowe when did, Bradley was a forgotten man on Sunday.
| TE Jake OConnell |
O'Connell got a lot of downfield targets, but he couldn't get separation and convert any of them into catches. There's a role for a TE that can get open downfield in this offense, but this rookie is not that guy.