Week 2 Thoughts: Seeing Red

Matt Cassel fired up the crowd early with his enthusiasm after scrambling for a first down.

Well, the outcome was as I expected, but for all the wrong reasons. I figured we would struggle to run and the Raiders would tear us up with their three-headed running back monster. Last year McFadden, Bush and Fargas combined for 297 yards rushing and I figured we'd have a tough time stopping them today. Fargas didn't get any carries, and McFadden and Bush combined for just 70 yards in 21 carries. When you consider that JaMarcus Russell was a pitiful 7/24 for 109 yards, you'd think the Chiefs would come out on top. Unfortunately that was not the case, as we fell 13-10. Here's my take on the game:

• The Raiders aren't very smart. What was the deal coming out and throwing all over the place? I'm guessing they saw what the Ravens did to us last week and figured they could do more of the same. First of all, we didn't have Brandon Flowers last week - that makes a HUGE difference. Secondly, um, you're not the Ravens. You don't have a good quarterback and you don't have very good receivers. But more importantly, you don't even have an okay quarterback. Considering the Raiders ran all over us last year, I was really surprised they put the ball in Russell's hands so often early.
  
  
• JaMarcus Russell is bad. I'm so glad the Raiders drafted this guy first overall in 2007. That means they'll continue to play him, hoping he lives up to his "potential." That also means several more years that the Raiders will suffer for it. Yeah, throw it in my face that Russell beat the Chiefs today, but it's not because he's good. It had more to do with the two best players on their team (see next two items). As for Russell, he simply cannot throw accurately enough to be a good NFL quarterback. He definitely has the arm strength to go deep, and I would argue that his accuracy goes up the deeper he throws. But he consistently whiffed on short passes, and you simply can't miss those in the NFL.
  
  
• Shane Lechler is my least favorite Raider. First of all, I am not a fan of this guy because he'll consistently keep Dustin Colquitt out of the Pro Bowl. But even worse is the fact that he bombed ridiculously long, high punts all day. The main reason we lost this game is because we never got a short field to work with.
  
  
• Sebastian Janikowski is my second least favorite Raider. Yeah, he's automatic from around 50 yards and in, but his kickoffs drive me insane! It's probably for the best since we don't have a good kick returner anyway, but we hardly ever got a chance to return a kickoff. Nope, just start at the 20. Every. Single. Time. We don't have the firepower to go 80 yards very often, and the two kickers for the Raiders kept us from winning the game.
  
  
• Clock management killed us in the first half. This one is obvious and everyone will be talking about it, but we gave up three points at the end of the half because we wasted two time outs earlier in the game. One of those time outs was key, though, because it allowed us to convert on fourth and two. Failing to get the field goal at the end of the first half still could've been avoided if Cassel had thrown to the end zone instead of tossing it out in the flat. I think that's a pretty straightforward issue: don't throw short of the goal line if you've got no time outs and less than 20 seconds on the clock. Huge mistake.
  
  
• Let's go easy on Brandon Flowers. Yes, he missed the pick six. Yes, we really could've used those points. But the guy is a second year player and was in his first game of the season. I think he's an outstanding cornerback and he and Brandon Carr are two guys that Herm did great in drafting. (Incidentally, they also play the same position Herm played. Coincidence? Hmmm.) It's too tempting to not pull out the cliche: "That's why he plays defense, not offense." He still had a great game but will likely be thinking about that one for a while to come.
  
  
• Throw it down field! I know Matt Cassel isn't the best at throwing the deep ball, but come on! At some point you've got to take some shots! He missed the one that was beautifully intercepted, but came back and hit Bowe with a 29 yard strike near the end of the fourth quarter. When you're trying to go 80 yards at a time, you've got to pick up some chunks of yardage somewhere.
  
  
• Was that us running the ball? We had 173 yards rushing, which is a huge improvement from last week's embarrassing 29 yards. Larry Johnson looked really good and may have a much better year than I expected. Dantrell Savage also had some great plays as a change-of-pace back. Those guys playing well will go a long way in helping Cassel succeed.
  
  
• Bobby Wade: the good and the bad. So he made some great catches, dropped some passes and fumbled a punt return (which we recovered). He finished with 6 catches for 72 yards and was Cassel's favorite target. I'm not sure if Bowe was just getting owned by Asomugha, but Cassel rarely even bothered to look in his direction. I do think it's telling that one week after twice coming up just short for a first down, Mark Bradley didn't even step on the field today. Very funny, since I saw a fantasy site earlier this week that said he should get plenty of looks this week with Bowe having a tough matchup. Oops.
  
  
• Todd Haley will do whatever it takes. I really like Haley and his no nonsense style. I was a fan of Herm, but I see now that his style wasn't going to get this team going. I'm surprised that Derrick Johnson is still not starting, but I think Haley knows what he's doing. He's certainly setting a culture of "play-my-way-or-else" and it seems the players are responding. Hopefully that turns into some wins soon... It was nice to see him go for it on some key fourth downs.
  
  
• Too bad we couldn't get the stop we needed. I really didn't think the Raiders would drive down for the winning TD. I still think we got seriously hosed on the late hit against Russell on that final drive. The guy fell down but hadn't been touched! He can get up and keep running! And he's a 260 pound quarterback! One of our guys jumping on top of him should not have been a penalty and definitely hurt us at the end. Penalties definitely hurt us this week. Like I said after the last game, we're just not good enough to make mistakes and win. (Cassel was also picked twice, which didn't help either.)
  

I still enjoyed the game and am glad I can walk away watching the Raiders come from behind and not have it ruin the rest of my Sunday. I'm sure Karin is happy about that too =) I imagine many Chiefs fans are pretty ticked off right now and are definitely Seeing Red. There may not be any moral victories - certainly not when you allow a game-winning drive - but at least our defense looked a lot better than they did a week before.

I know Haley and company want to win, but I'm very much viewing this as a building season and am more concerned that we improve week-to-week. But this was our best chance for a win, and we might not see one for a while... I'll be on the road next weekend, so I'll set the DVR and hope to have an exciting win to sit down and watch! Either way, I'll be back for more.