Raiders at San Diego Preview

It’s nice to finally have a game to preview. The Raiders are back this week after a bye week that frankly couldn’t have come at a better time. The team is on the road this week where they will be visiting San Diego (or Raider South, as it was known before the Chargers started winning).

Key to Victory

Yikes. There is a lot to be enthusiastic about as far as the direction that the Raiders are headed, but this is going to be a tough game. I sat down before the season and penciled in 7 to 10 games that I thought the Raiders could win. This was NOT one of them.

The strength of the San Diego offense is their running game. LaDainian Tomlinson has been slumping so far, but he gives the Raiders (and their fans) fits just about every time he plays against us. Our run defense absolutely MUST step up and contain Tomlinson and Michael Turner.

Stu Schweighert and Mike Huff… That means you guys are the key in this one. That leaves me with an unsettling feeling, but these guys have to turn their potential into on-the-field production. If they don’t start taking better angles, then you could expect some BIG gains out of the San Diego ground game. The tandem will also be responsible for stopping the league’s most dynamic tight end, Antonio Gates. In case you were wondering, none of this bodes well for the Raiders.

Offensively, Oakland needs to establish a running game of its own. The Raiders aren’t yet good enough to be able to win consistently without running the ball effectively. Unfortunately, San Diego has a great front seven that ate up the run for the better part of last year. DE Luis Castillo is probably better than any other end in the league when it comes to stopping the run. LB Shawne Merriman is a fierce pass rusher and is arguably the best defensive player in football. It’ll be interested to see who controls the line of scrimmage here, as it will be strength against strength.

LaMont Jordan returned to practice this week, and should be able to go on Sunday. I have no doubt; however, that Dominic Rhodes and Justin Fargas will get their fair share of carries to lighten the load on Jordan’s injured back. There’s a lot of intrigue here. How healthy is Jordan? How will Rhodes play in his first game since last year’s Super Bowl? Can Justin Fargas follow up his HUGE game against the Dolphins with another strong performance? These are all interesting storylines to keep an eye on this week. Even if you aren’t a Raider fan, the distribution of carries could be very important to your fantasy team. After this week, the Michael Bush factor comes into play. But, that’s another post for another day.

The Bottom Line

I don’t like the Raiders’ chances in this one. There are too many factors to overcome. If the game was in Oakland, I’d give them a slightly better chance, but the Chargers are a much better team on paper.
The one thing that could swing this in Oakland’s favor is the Norv-O-Factor. As all Raider fans know, Turner has the uncanny ability to run even the greatest of teams into the ground. The guy isn’t a good head coach. I feel bad saying this because he’s regarded as an incredibly nice guy throughout the league. Of course, I already knew he was a devout family-man, because he ALWAYS makes sure that his team is home for the holidays. OK, so I stopped feeling bad for him at least 20 Kerry Collins interceptions ago...heh. I can’t understand how he keeps getting jobs. But he does. And, maybe now it’s the Raiders’ turn to actually benefit from it.

Even with the odds stacked against them, the Raiders have a chance to make a statement this weekend (and not one of those, “Hey look how many games we can lose,” statements that we’ve become used to over the past 4 years).



Also…
Be sure to check out Jerry McDonald’s breakdown of LT’s success against the Raiders.

Week 5 NFL Standings