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Busters
Greg Knapp
The Raiders had twice the time of possession as the Chiefs. That was mostly due to the defense stopping the Chiefs offense for a three and out six times. The Raiders had 77 offensive plays and could not get the ball into the endzone. Three of Janikowski's field goal attempts came from outside of 50 yards which means the Raiders didn't get even close on those drives. There was the usual predictability about the offense. When you hear the announcer say "Number 70 reports as eligible", that means it will be a run play every single time, without fail.
The worst play of the game was with the Raiders in third and goal at the two yard line, he took McFadden and Reece out and put Goodson in. Then Palmer tried to pass the ball and it was tipped at the line. With two yards to get into the endzone, why take out Reece? He could either power it in himself or block the way for McFadden or Goodson. Or perhaps make it look like that could happen and sell the play action. They didn't run it and didn't fake the run which caused a busted play. If they had run it, they would have either scored or possibly moved closer to the goal line. In which case, you go for it on 4th and goal from a yard or less. That means either a touchdown or the Chiefs pinned at their own goal line. None of these more logical scenarios happened. The Raiders were in the prevent offense the whole game, playing not to lose instead of playing to win.
Darrius Heyward-Bey
How's this for a line: zero catches on five targets. It is far too easy for DHB to be taken out of a game. Several times, he couldn't shake his defender or ran a bad route and the ball either went where he was supposed to have been or was simply batted down. The one time he appeared to be open, he had stepped out of bounds and while making an unsuccessful attempt at pulling in the high pass, he was called for illegal touching. His one good play was recovering the Denarius Moore fumble. That's not enough. Carson Palmer and this team needs him to run precise routes and catch the ball. That is what he is paid ridiculous amounts of money to do.
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