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I've been going over a few stats on the Oakland Raiders to prepare for Sunday's game against the Kansas City Chiefs so I wanted to drop a few notes on each team's stats.
The Raiders are ranked 15th in the NFL in scoring points and 11th in yards so they're ranked significantly better than the Chiefs (31st). Oakland has scored 19 or more points in 11 of their 14 games this year while the Chiefs achieved that "feat"....five times.
The Raiders are 12th in the NFL in passing yards but 19th in passing touchdowns and 28th in interceptions. As if the Chiefs didn't already know about their interceptions.
Oakland's real advantage offensively is rushing the ball where they're sixth in the league and third in rushing touchdowns. They're seventh in yards per attempt so they're effective with each rush. Darren McFadden may or may not be back this week as he continues to recover from a foot injury suffered in the Chiefs-Raiders previous meeting so that will be something to monitor. Michael Bush is there if McFadden can't go and he's one of the best backup running backs in the league.
Statistically the Raiders are the fourth worst defense in the NFL but we know their defensive line has given the Chiefs troubles in the past. They give up a lot of yards and a lot of first downs. They're second to worst in the NFL in passing touchdowns given up (you hear that, Kyle Orton?) and 23rd in passing yards.
The Raiders rushing defense is a weakness as they're second to last in the league in rushing yards per attempt against them.
The key stat for me is turnovers and the Raiders are trending the wrong way (for them) in that regard. Oakland is losing the turnover battle 7:2 in the last three weeks so the easiest path to victory for KC is to do what Marty used to do -- wait it out and just let the Raiders beat themselves. (It helps that the Raiders haven't gone an entire game without turning it over since September.)
So what's the key stat that sticks out for you? Mine is the Raiders defensive numbers. I thought for some reason that the Raiders were better than that.