Greetings, Raider Nation. It is I, RaiderDamus, the duke of divination, the sultan of sage, the prince of precognition, and the World's Freshest Man. On this day of all days I bring you tidings from beyond the material plane, to account what will occur between the Raiders and Chiefs in their Week 7 matchup. As usual, all will be revealed to you as it was revealed to me.
The problem with looking at this game, as in looking at all games, is the issue of unpredictability- what may be is separated from what will be by a massive gulf. There are a lot of "may be" situations, but the goal of a seer is to separate the wheat from the chaff, as it were. This week, nobody knows for certain who the Raiders' quarterback will be, and that makes a vision somewhat difficult. Carson Palmer is undoubtedly a better player than Kyle Boller, but Boller has been in the system for two years and is comfortable running the plays. Do the Raiders go with the athlete with a cannon arm who isn't prepared, or the caretaker QB with limited ability with knowledge of the system?
Most reports say that Boller will be the man. As a fan, I'm cool with that. However I think Palmer will get some run, and Pryor might even get in there for a spell as well. So for my purposes here, as in my column yesterday, I will simply refer to "Raiders QB" and you may fill in the blanks on your own.
Raiders QB will have a good day. He will take advantage of the Chiefs' poor safety play and the fact that Brandon Flowers can only cover one receiver at a time. He will throw several deep balls and complete only two of them. That may not seem great, but these will be gigantic gains in critical situations. He will also gash the Chiefs with screens and intermediate slants. Wherever the safeties are supposed to be, that's where he will throw. It will work wonders.
Darren McFadden will also have a good day. The Chiefs appear stout against the run, but that's because their schedule has been full of cupcakes (minus Buffalo) who don't or can't run the ball, minus the Vikings. That is all the Vikings can do. If you want to see what the Chiefs' defense is REALLY like, wait until they hit this part of their schedule: Patriots, Steelers, Bears, Jets, Packers, Raiders. They will lose all of those games and probably lose them all by double digits. I really can't understate how awful the Chiefs are without Eric Berry and Jamaal Charles. They have nothing.
Back to McFadden- teams haven't had success running off tackle against the Chiefs, but McFadden will. He will have success right up to the point where holding is called on the offensive line, bringing back a massive rush. However, he will remain undeterred, and break off several big runs of over 15 yards. He will also be a large part of the passing game, catching several passes in the flat and keeping the defense honest.
Jacoby Ford will have a lot of return yards, even though the Chiefs will focus on stopping him. They will only succeed in that he will not score.
DHB will have another good day and solidify his place amongst the good receivers in the league. No more bust label for him.
As for the Chiefs, as I mentioned previously, they have nothing. They are terrible. If Cassel got into trouble last year he could throw to Tony Moeaki and it would usually go well for him. No Moeaki this year. Cassel does have Dwayne Bowe, who should have some success. The only way KC scores is by throwing constantly to Bowe and letting him use his athleticism and height, and/or Raider penalties bailing the Chiefs out of hopeless situations. The Chiefs' entire season is one giant hopeless situation so that should be nothing new to them.
I can't write about the Chiefs anymore. It's depressing. There's nothing to write about. The Raiders are going to slaughter them.
Raiders win, 27-13.
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