Raiders fall to Chiefs: Russell benched
Written by Patrick A. Patterson   
Sunday, 15 November 2009 20:46
Kansas City Chiefs v Oakland Raiders

The Raiders jumped to an early lead in Sunday's game against the Kansas City Chiefs, but could not hold on as the Chiefs came away with a 16-13 victory.

The Raiders offense played probably their best quarter of football of the season to open the first quarter. JaMarcus Russell started off three for three. Micahel Bush broke through the line and ripped off a sixty yard run on the second play from scrimmage. Two plays later, Justin Fargas finished the drive with a one yard goal line plunge.

Following the first quarter, everything unravelled. The Raiders offense could not get out of their own way, with an estimated eight drops, two of which went from the receiver's hands into a defender's hand for an interception. The Raiders defense, on the other hand, played well enough to keep them in the game, but the offense could not get it done.

JaMarcus Russell was benched late in the third quarter after completing only 8 of 24 passes for 67 yards. In one series Russell fired a perfect pass on a skinny post to Darrius Heyward-Bey for what should have been a touchdown, but it fell through his hands incomplete. On the following play, he had a perfect strike to Louis Murphy on the sidelines that was called back by a tripping penalty on Robert Gallery.

Russell's final sequence saw him miss two open receivers in a row, after offsetting penalties gave him a second chance. Head Coach Tom Cable said, "(We)did not throw the ball well at all. Not well enough to win. That was reason for the change at quarterback."

Of being benched, Russell said, "Things were going okay at that point. Just towards the end, we weren't putting things together."

Bruce Gradkowski got a cheer from the sparse crowd when he took the field following Russell's benching. His performance was actually statistically worse than Russell's, with him going 5 of 9 for 46 yards and two picks. Russell's rating was 42.4 compared with 37.5 for Gradkowski. However, both of of those interceptions were fed to the defenders off the hands of Raider receivers. One of them came courtesy of Johnnie Lee Higgins and the other directly off the hands, knees, chest and a few other body parts of Darrius Heyward-Bey as he juggled the pass before it was brought down by Mike Brown to clinch the game.

The Chiefs scored their lone touchdown when Jamaal broke through the line on fourth and one and sprinted 44 yards for the touchdown. Beyond that, they only managed three field goals.

Defensive back Mke Brown, who had both interceptions off of Gradkowski was critical of JaMarcus Russell. “Obviously, he’s been struggling a little bit. He’s turned the ball over more than any quarterback in the league. That’s something that we talked about. And usually he only looks at one side of the field. He doesn’t read the whole field."

 



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Comments (5)Add Comment
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written by 510-187-777, November 16, 2009
16-10 bruh
Fed up Raiders fan!!!
written by chucka, November 16, 2009
Just another way to lose the game for the Oakland Raiders. I have said it all year, DHB cannot catch! This guy is a total bust, and until the organization realizes it, it will be the same outcome game after game. JBust finally went back to the bench where he belongs. The Raiders need to fix things by benching both JBust and DHB, these are not good football players. I just cannot understand how the average fan can see this and the organization keeps trying to make it work. Almost trying to force the situation. Gradkowski clearly gives this team the best chance to win, and if JBust and DHB start the next game it continues to be a slap in the face to true Raider fans. Any good coach knows that these guys are total bums!!!
I just wish the organization would suck it up and move on instead of making the Raider fans continue to suffer. The stands were empty for a reason, this team sucks! The organization just does not care about its fans or what is the right thing to do. It is so disheartening to see the once proud organization go down the drain year after year.

I watched the first half of the game and that is all I could do. I cannot keep watching with players like JBust and DHB on the field. THESE PLAYERS SUCK!!!
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written by RaiderDoc, November 16, 2009
The ironic thing is this was no where near JaMarcus' worst game. This was more on the receivers than him. Don't get me wrong, he still really really sucked with all the over throws and passes behind the receiver, but for him, it was pretty ok. That said, despite the "passer rating" Grad seriously outplayed Russell. It was so nice to see passes that were on target. They weren't all perfect, but you could see the difference. Just as big, the run game opened up for no reason other than the fact that the defense had to respect the possibility of a pass for the first time!

It still bugs the hell out of me that Russell never says he played poorly. As I've said here before, great QBs make one or two mistakes and they are stuck on it at the end of the game (especially if they lose). They are obsessed with getting better and understanding their mistake(s). JRuss... well he just thinks he played pretty good...

I hope somehow Cable (or maybe it was Al) has seen the light and keeps Russell on the bench, and maybe even pulls DHB. Maybe Walker is washed up, but I'd like to see him try. At least he catches most the passes that come his way.
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written by Cujo, November 16, 2009
sad part is, as much as everyone wants to blame Russel for the woes we've seen this year, you really cant, ya he's played like shit on most all occasions, but you have to look at everything around him as well, fact is our best reciever, Shillens, has been gone, but also would only be a 3rd reciever at best on any other team in the league, the rest would be practice squad players at best, then there is our offensive line, which would be all back ups or 3rd stringers on any other team, those two combos alone would be enough to sink any quarterback, let alone one that has never played in the same offensive scheme for even one season at a time, I am in no way defending him for his horrible playing, but am pointing out that he has never had a fair chance to become better with the situations around him, this is all Al's doing when you look at it, speed speed speed, fuck talent, thats al's mantra on recievers and defense, while it's somewhat working on defense still, it has been a very long time since it's worked for any team at receiver, and it baffles me that we dont go out and AT LEAST get a good left takle, let alone an new offensive line, he keeps bringing in others rejects thinking the change to the silver and black will rejuvinate them, well, those days are dead I'm afraid, we have more players on our team that only show up for a paycheck than any other team in the history of the NFL, and that has to be blamed on the coaching staff for not getting them to love playing there, but when you cant even coach to your own style of game, but are forced to go Al's way, wtf do you expect??? unless Al finally see's he's the problem, we will never get any better, we need a GM, and we need to allow the coaches to coach, that alone will turn things around with the players we have right now, but with a GM we can actually bring in better players and become a better team all around. that is the only thing that will fix our silver and black
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written by JGraidernut, November 16, 2009
I have never in my life been so disgusted with the product being put on the field week after week. I personally will not pay to watch this team get embarassed one more time. I think they should consider changing their name. It's been the same old thing for seven years now. Enough is enough! The Raiders I know and love would never stand for such a Pop Warner preformance. Way to go Al! Just keeping it real!

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