Six of Eight ESPN Experts Pick Raiders Over Chiefs

by Joel Thorman on Sep 17, 2009 3:41 PM CDT in 2009 Kansas City Chiefs Campaign

A panel of ESPN experts have submitted their picks for week two including the Kansas City Chiefs matchup with the Oakland Raiders.

The result? Not good for the Chiefs.

Allen	Golic	Hoge	Jaworski	Mortensen	Schefter	Schlereth	Wickersham	AccuScore	Pick 'em (Fans)
OAK	OAK	KC	KC	OAK	OAK	OAK	OAK	KC	OAK

Before we immediately point to Eric Allen, Mike Golic and the rest of those that favor Oakland, let's think about this:

The Chiefs have won six games in the last two years. The Raiders have won nine.
The Chiefs are three point favorites. Three points are generally given for home field advantage so Vegas is saying it's pretty even.
Oakland appears to have improved their weakest area (run defense)

Is it really that surprising that a majority of ESPN's panel of experts are picking against the Chiefs?

Now, for the homer side of my thinking:

Are you really going to put your faith in a guy (JaMarcus Russell) that completed 40% of his passes last week?
The Chiefs have won 10/12 against the Raiders
Tom Cable is 0-1 against the Chiefs (and the Chiefs set a record of six consecutive road victories against in Oakland)

Whether we like it or not, this game is, by most accounts, pretty even. If you watched last week's Monday Night game against San Diego, then you know Oakland is improved. Then again, this is Oakland we're talking about so nothing ever appears like it is.

Update: A few more for the Chiefs from NFL Network:

Joe Theismann: Chiefs

Sterling Sharpe: Chiefs

Brian Baldinger: Raiders

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Comments

Personally, I think San Diego is not that

great. They were a team playing down to the level of the competition against Oakland. Our game last week against Baltimore was not pretty, but we played up to the competition. I see us beating Oakland pretty soundly.

by G.L. on Sep 17, 2009 3:45 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs

I'm predicting a tie

Janikowski will miss a 74 yard field goal with 0:01 seconds left in overtime.

RIP Bodhi - Not tragic to die doing what you love. You want the ultimate thrill, you gotta be willing to pay the ultimate price.

by craig in calgary on Sep 17, 2009 3:47 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs

haha

you got to make him earn that first round selection :)

by tomahawk44 on Sep 17, 2009 3:49 PM CDT up reply actions

Screw em

Ive gotten very used to being the underdog so it doenst bother me a bit it will just be that much more sweet when we come out on top.

by tomahawk44 on Sep 17, 2009 3:49 PM CDT reply actions

who cares

its espn and theyre wong half the time.

by deflep1691 on Sep 17, 2009 3:56 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs

Was Oakland Good or San Diego Overrated?

Probably lots of both… San Diego looked like crap and with their coaching it looks like another slow start for them again this year…

by Skrappy on Sep 17, 2009 3:59 PM CDT reply actions

ESPN is the Worst Sports Network

They are Horrible! At least when it comes to Football…

by Skrappy on Sep 17, 2009 3:59 PM CDT reply actions

The Chief's under Haley have worked very hard and I've got to believe that they

are on the right path. On the other hand, I read up on Cable and it seems that he’s brought in some good, tough talent and they will be difficult to beat. In many ways, these two teams are similar and like you said above, they’ve won 9 to our 6 games over the last two years. I sure hope the Chief’s win. This will be a big step for both teams but I believe in Haley and what he is doing. We’ll see.

by jcox31mc on Sep 17, 2009 4:00 PM CDT reply actions 2 recs

+1 and reced

Len Dawson:

"Lamar Hunt had a dream and, the thing is, we had dreams, too. Just imagine the number of people that he has touched because he said, 'I'm going after this dream."'

by smokin iowa chief on Sep 17, 2009 4:36 PM CDT up reply actions

Oh well

I trust Jaworski’s football knowledge the most out of any of those analysts, and he picked us to win.

by Yashi on Sep 17, 2009 4:15 PM CDT reply actions

Mortenson picked Oakland

I guess I should go wager my life savings on the Chiefs then.

by saskwatch on Sep 17, 2009 4:46 PM CDT reply actions 1 recs

I was at the Oakland San diego game this week..

I’ll tell you first hand that both the chargers and raiders looked worse then the chiefs did against the ravens, who by the way, are a top notch defense. Jamarcus got cheers when he left the field and even greater cheers when they put in gradkowski.

Chargers run game was awful, their short passing game was solid but no deep plays. Their defense couldn’t contain two rookie receivers.

Oaklands running game is what I would worry most about. That and make sure we don’t get beat deep. Easily the worst player on the field: 1st round pick Darrius Heywerd-Bay.

I’m so confident about this week, especially with the hopeful return of Flowers and Cassel. This is going to be a great football Sunday.

It’ll also be nice to see how the chargers compare to the ravens.

by King of the Cassel on Sep 17, 2009 5:16 PM CDT via mobile reply actions

Was DHB really that bad, or did Russel just miss him

I remember he ran a decent flag pattern and was wide open. Jamarcus just flat out missed him.

RIP Bodhi - Not tragic to die doing what you love. You want the ultimate thrill, you gotta be willing to pay the ultimate price.

by craig in calgary on Sep 17, 2009 5:56 PM CDT up reply actions

Both San Diego and Oakland looked beatable.

It wasnt so much the Raiders looking good as it did the Chargers looking subpar until the last 2:30 of the game. Oaklands has great rbs but they looked no better then last year with their top runner only getting 60 yards. JR still couldnt hit the broad side of a barn and theres no way one player fixes that porrous run defense.

"Success is never ending, failure is never final."

by GenericBrand on Sep 17, 2009 5:27 PM CDT reply actions

DHB bad

Doesn’t help when your qb is also awful

by King of the Cassel on Sep 17, 2009 6:39 PM CDT via mobile reply actions

game

didn’t the Chiefs get out gained by about 300 yards?? hahaa and u guys think your team is improved? Raiders dominated the chargers, if it wasn;t for a bad call and a prevent defense we would’ve won.. The coaches claim they already have the prevent defense fixed

by raidersss on Sep 17, 2009 6:55 PM CDT reply actions

Raider smack?

Where oh where do I start

By far the worst winning percentage in the NFL the last 6 seasons
back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back 10 loss seasons
The worst Qb in the NFL whose weight (291) mirrors his completion percentage (29.1%)
A coach that will probably be charged with battery
Coming of the worst draft I’ve ever seen. DHB was invisible vs the Chargers and wasn’t your 2nd round pick projected to be a decent 7th round pick or FA pickup?

RIP Bodhi - Not tragic to die doing what you love. You want the ultimate thrill, you gotta be willing to pay the ultimate price.

by craig in calgary on Sep 17, 2009 10:30 PM CDT up reply actions

Raiders

We had a total of 29 yards rushing for the entire game while allowing almost 200 yards rushing for the Ravens.

We allowed the Ravens over 300 yards passing and gave up 5 TD’s. We allowed the Ravens over 500 yards total offense while we had only 188 yards total offense.

We allowed the Ravens to complete over 60% of their 3rd down conversions

We only completed 20% of our 3rd down conversions

I was at the Raider game and have seen it on tape after, the TV showed the Raiders man handling the Chargers but did not do it justice, in person you could see that the Raiders beat them to a pulp.

And lets not forget that it was us picking in the draft ahead of them last year. They also have an NFL RECORD (14) AFC Championship games played in as an organization and did make a Super Bowl showing just 6 years ago.

When was are last Super Bowl?, did they even have color TV back than?

My point is it will be a tough game and we better pray that we can stop the run and the pass much better than we did the Ravens.

by snnyjcbs on Sep 18, 2009 12:02 AM CDT reply actions