Oakland Raiders Show Some Teeth, Reward the Faithful at Home

(Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

The Raiders, coming home and looking at a 1-4 record, had been hearing it for weeks.

They didn't have much for an offense. Their defense was looking horrible, with the last two weeks leaving the media plenty of fodder for complaining.

The Eagles, meanwhile came into the bay area looking to simply brush aside a Raiders team that should have been easy to tear into.

But I guess that is why the games are played, right?

From the outset, John Marshall seemed to light a fire under his squad, as they set out to remove Donovan McNabb's comfort zone. Blitz packages, coverage, different looks and even without Nnamdi Asomugha, who left this game early with an eye injury.

This defense came to the game angry. Last week, this club was torched for 44 points. This week, they locked the Eagles out of the end zone, forcing the club to settle for three field goals...and two missed attempts.

Richard Seymour seemed to enjoy this matchup more than anyone, catching McNabb for two sacks but also two tackles and a pass defensed. Oakland had a total of six sacks, five passes defensed against a team that was averaging over 30 points a week.

About the only item that was of interest, was Stanford Routt who had a touchdown taken away, when he was flagged for pass interference when the man he picked fell down on his own.

For Oakland's offense, the points they were able to generate either came from Sebastian Janikowski, or on a neat 86 yard catch and run by Zach Miller. Zach's run was fun to watch, as Louis Murphy ran downfield with him and helped to bounce off two blocks, as Miller got into the end zone.

JaMarcus Russell, who in recent weeks has been dogging comments that he's worse than Ryan Leaf pulled together some nice stats as well. On 17-28 passing, he had 224 yards passing, but did have two interceptions. If he has to throw two INTs to win the game, by all means, let the winning continue.

Probably the two largest question marks that came from this game, were both delivered by the Eagles. First, why did the Eagles elect to give up on the rushing game? Bryan Westbrook had 50 yards on six carries, an 8.3 clip...were they worried he might come down hurt?

The second, came from the Eagles themselves regarding this game. Did they simply think travelling to Oakland the Raiders would drop to their knees and beg for a kind loss?

The Raiders went into the game looking like one of the NFL's worst clubs.

After the game, I think the Eagles are going back to the drawing board.

Next up, the New York Jets.

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