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The Oakland Raiders shocked the Cincinnati Bengals in Oakland on Sunday, but they will have no time to relish their victory because they have only three days to prepare for the Dallas Cowboys on Thanksgiving Day.
But that doesn’t mean Raider Nation can’t relish the win. The Bengals came into Oakland thinking that this was a game where they could get their offense going in a rhythm that Carson Palmer might consider to be a caliber that could win a Super Bowl.
“We’re not good enough to win the Super Bowl right now…we have a long way to go. We’re not good enough to make a dominate playoff run, we have a long way to go and we can’t start thinking about that kind of stuff,” said Palmer before the Oakland game.
Looks like Palmer hit the nail on the head, because apparently the Bengals are not even good enough to beat the Raiders on any given Sunday. Granted, the record was against them, Cincinnati is 0-10 in games played in Oakland in franchise history.
Chad Ochenta-y-cinco (that’s what I call him) told Warren Sapp onTwitter.com that he was going to jump into the Black Hole no matter what. How did that work out for you Mr. wide receiver formerly known as Johnson?
Apparently Bruce Gradkowski is better at playing quarterback in this league then the highly touted and highly paid Oakland project known as JaMarcus Russell. Bruce threw as many touchdowns in starting one game as J-Russ was able to throw in nine starts.
Still, I’ve seen some Oakland fans say, “Bruce Gradkowski is not the long term answer.”
I have to ask why? He is only four years pro, was tutored by Paul Hackett, Jon Gruden, and Jeff Garcia, he’s mobile in the pocket, he is able to get the team playing for him, and he converts third downs. On top of that, it is only his first start as a Raider so he has plenty of growing together with his team to do yet.
The running back by committee in the Bengals game was the best output we’ve seen so far this year. Darren McFadden looked like he had his legs back under him and was actually delivering some jaw jacking first contacts with defender instead of falling on his face as soon as he was touched.
The three running backs only carried 18 times in the game, but averaged 4.6 yards per carry, with each back averaging at least four yards individually.
The wide receivers caught some passes too. Chaz Schilens got his most extensive work of the year. He was responsible for a big momentous 25 yard catch on to start the final touchdown drive and also caught a conversion reception on a fourth down and 10 to keep that same drive alive.
Louis Murphy caught the game tying touchdown and Darrius Heyward-Bey made a big conversion on a third down catch on the same drive.
The special teams were great. Rookie tight end Brandon Myers had the game changing forced fumble and recovery on the kickoff that allowed Oakland to take the lead with 15 seconds left. Kicker Sebastian Janikowski was as reliable as ever, but did manage to miss a 57 yard field goal before halftime, despite being given two attempts courtesy of a Marvin Lewis timely timeout.
The defense was all over the Bengals. Defensive end Greg Ellis thought the defense played its best game of the year against the Bengals, despite the fact that the Bengals had a 4.1 yard per carry average on 43 carries. In contrast, the Bengals only threw the ball 22 times.
“This team today, they wanted to run the football, which is what I like to see. They gashed us some because they’re a very good football team, obviously this is only their third loss of the season, but we played and handled the run game better then we probably have all year long,” said Ellis.
The defense was on the field for 38 plus minutes, but only allowed 17 points. They forced four fumbles and recovered two of them while intercepting a late Hail Mary pass, and had 11 tackles for a loss…all of this without all-pro defensive lineman Richard Seymour.
I know you don’t have time to enjoy it players, but I’ll do it for you. Go get them Cowboys!
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