I think stray dogs is a pretty good way to describe those rapscallions the Oakland Raiders. Mangy. Dirty. Smelly. They're always on the outside of the window, staring longingly to get in. Doomed to a life of pain that seems inevitable. Sure, you may give a Raider fan a leftover sometime but you would never take him in. Okay, I'm not making sense. Here is the preview promised to get to you by yesterday this morning.
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In past years, the week leading up to the Oakland Raiders playing the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium would be a much more rambunctious, intense affair. But, like every preview I've read this week has mentioned, the air has been let out of the rivalry over the last few years because each team is, well, pretty much terrible.
First, I want to share with you the one and only video that "Arrowhead Pride" has uploaded on YouTube, Raiders fan stabs Chargers fan. I didn't take this video of course but I apparently was the first one to upload it to YouTube. It sat idle for a long time, with no comments. Then, for some reason, over the last six months or so I've been getting email notifications about the new comments on the page. Some good size link is sending people to this clip. Or people really hate the Raiders.
Are all Raiders fans no good punks who are shanking opposing fans to settle disputes? No, no. Just the ones who attend the games.
In case you missed it, the Raiders got walloped by the Denver Broncos on Monday night by a score of 41 to 14. Denver QB Jay Cutler (insert a Primetime compliment about Cutler here) cracked 300 yards passing on just sixteen attempts. Rookie Eddie Royal had (gasp!) 146 yards receiving and a touchdown. Jamarcus Russel had 180 yards passing on one more completion than Cutler.
In other words, the Raiders are terrible. As usual. And the difference between the Raiders' terribleness and the Chiefs' is that the Chiefs actually have a direction and a purpose for being so poor instead of just throwing tons of cash at a few players and hoping things work out. The Raiders do not a have a plan. Their franchise plan is not unlike you playing in the franchise mode in Madden. It's all a video game to Raiders owner Al Davis.
(I spent the last five minutes trying to work in this quote from Caddyshack - "I have to laugh, because I've outsmarted even myself. My enemy, my foe, is an animal. In order to conquer the animal, I have to learn to think like an animal. And, whenever possible, to look like one." No luck unfortunately. It's gotta fit somewhere!)
Speaking of pretend football, Al Davis also treats his money like pretend money. Davis signed defensive tackle Tommy Kelly to a deal worth $18 million in guarantees and signed the highly overrated cornerback DeAngelo Hall to a deal worth $25 million in guarantees.
Former Raider and future Hall of Fame defensive tackle Warren Sapp had this hilarious quote about Hall:
DeAngelo Hall has been getting burnt since he was in Atlanta," Sapp said. "This is nothing new. DeAngelo Hall is the flashiest, burnt-up corner in the history of the game. He gets burnt more than anyone else, and he all of a sudden is this great Pro Bowl cover corner. I never saw that in DeAngelo Hall. He would gamble and do everything unsound on the corner.
Did I mention Davis also signed former Bronco WR Javon Walker to a deal worth $16 million in guaranteed money? I mean, this stuff writes itself. I don't even need to make it funny.
Like Jon at Home of the Chiefs, I think this weekend's match up could be very good for the Chiefs defensive line. Football Outsiders pegged the 2007 Raider offensive line as middle of the road in run blocking and towards the bottom sixth of the league in pass protection. I like the line match ups for the Chiefs because I'm a firm believer that you blitz and pressure a young quarterback as much as possible in order to make him less effective. Hopefully, this game is a breakout game for Tamba Hali, who is still auditioning for the lead role in this Chiefs defense.
I also expect Damon Huard to slowly but surely get the Chiefs in the end zone a couple of times. It's looking like Croyle's days are numbered in KC, at least after this season. So, I'm a Huard supporter until we actually figure this QB thing out. Like Primetime has said, the QB position is probably the one position on the field that can affect the entire rest of the team negatively. Huard won't do that this weekend and should be okay.
That's all I will touch on for now, considering this preview is getting a bit long. In the meantime, click here to search YouTube for "Oakland Raiders suck" and check out what videos come up. Lots of fights and burning of Raider apparel, which was a bit troubling to watch.
To get things going this morning, what individual match ups do you think favor the Kansas City Chiefs this weekend?