Oakland at 
Houston
Regular Season Week 4
Television: CBS
Line: Texans by 8.5 points
Week 4 of the regular season has the Raiders traveling to Houston to face the Texans for the 5th time in their relatively young series since 2002. The Texans lead the series 3-1, but the Raiders came a way with a convincing victory last season in Oakland to notch their first win against the Texans, which incidentally was JaMarcus Russell's best start for Oakland.
The Raiders will be facing a Texans team that is giving up a league-high 436.3 yards per game and has allowed an average of 204.7 rush yards per game while garnering just two sacks in 2009 -- both numbers are worst in the NFL.
Well, with that, you'd think or you would hope that Tom Cable's game plan will be to run, run and run some more. But that is what we though the last couple of weeks and what we got was pure disaster from JaMarcus Russell's passing. Certainly, all eyes again will be on Russell to see if he is going to show any sign of an ability to improve from the last two dismal weeks. Then again, when the Raiders have run the ball, the results have been less than inspiring, with McFadden's fumblitis and the Raiders overall lack of commitment to the run game. They will need to commit to a smart and solid offensive game plan in order to keep the defense off the field. The Raiders defense is going to only be able to handle so many more 3 and outs.
For that matter, whether or not the Raiders' offensive woes are the reasons for the Raiders defense to be sliding, the Raiders defense will be tested by Matt Schaub, Andre Johnson & co and will really have to step up today. Getting some pressure of Schaub and forcing some turnovers would be nice too.
The real face of the franchise and team leader, Nnamdi Asomugha has stated that the Raiders are "real close" to turning this around. That would be music to Raider Nation's ears and as Saint stated: The time is now! Sunday is the day!
Enjoy the game...Let's go R-A-I-D-E-R-S!!!