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The Oakland Raiders fell to the Tennessee Titans 38-13. The Raiders gave up over 200 yards rushing and Jason Campbell was held in check to only 180 passing yards, a touchdown and a pick.
Nashville, TN (Sports Network) – Chris Johnson picked up where he left off in Tennessee’s season-opener, rushing for 142 yards and two touchdowns on 27 carries while leading the Titans to a thorough 38-13 trouncing of the Oakland Raiders at LP Field.
Johnson, last year’s rushing champion with an eye-popping 2,006 yards, has gained at least 100 yards on the ground in 13 consecutive games dating back to last year, the second-longest stretch in NFL history behind Barry Sanders’ 14.
Vince Young shook off an early lost fumble and ended with 154 yards and two touchdowns on 13-of-17 efficiency for Tennessee (1-0), which did not win its first game last season until Week 8 when Young came off the bench to guide the club to an 8-2 finish for a respectable .500 campaign.
Jason Campbell wasn’t an immediate difference-maker in his Raiders debut, completing 22-of-37 passes for 180 yards to go with a touchdown, interception and lost fumble. Darren McFadden amassed 150 total yards and caught a TD for Oakland (0-1), which is trying to improve on last year’s 5-11 mark.
Oakland recovered a Young fumble early on, and a pair of Titans penalties after the change of possession allowed Sebastian Janikowski to boot a 34-yard field goal at the 6:17 mark of the first quarter.
Young quickly atoned for his turnover less than two minutes later, hitting Nate Washington in stride for a 56-yard bomb for a 7-3 lead.
Tennessee appeared to score again near the three-minute mark by returning a Campbell fumble the other way for a TD, but replay overturned the call as it revealed Michael Griffin was down by contact at the Oakland 23.
The Titans converted the turnover into a 43-yard Rob Bironas field goal, and their defense continued to keep Oakland on its side of the field through the early stages of the second stanza.
Second-year running back Javon Ringer capped an eight-play, 61-yard Tennessee drive with 3:45 left in the half on his first career touchdown, a 15-yard draw up the middle.
On the next Titans play from scrimmage, Johnson took an inside handoff, shifted through the line and saw daylight en route to a 76-yard scamper while high-stepping over the goal line.
The score came with under two minutes left, and the Raiders were able to drive down the field and get a 30-yard Janikowski field goal for a 24-6 game at halftime.
On its first possession of the second half, Oakland moved the ball to the Tennessee 35. After gaining no yards over three plays, Janikowski was wide right on a 53-yard try at the seven-minute mark.
The Titans didn’t hesitate to extend their lead, converting a trio of third down tries before Johnson went over the left-side for a four-yard score and a commanding 31-7 cushion with under two minutes to play in the third.
Campbell then threw behind his intended receiver, and Chris Hope was there for the pick, returning it to the Oakland three. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Young hit Bo Scaife for a one-yard TD pass off a play-action fake.
McFadden’s seven-yard TD reception from Campbell came with just under 10 minutes left in the game.
This game marked 50 years and a day after the then-Houston Oilers defeated the Raiders 37-22 during the American Football League’s inaugural weekend…The Raiders have lost eight straight season openers…McFadden gained 95 yards on 18 carries to go with team-highs of six receptions for 55 yards…Young and Campbell added 30 and 34 rushing yards, respectively…Washington ended with 88 yards on three receptions.
The Raiders and Titans released their final injury reports for the week. There’s nothing too shocking, but still some notable injuries.
Raiders
Out
LB Travis Goethel (back)
CB Walter McFadden (hamstring)
WR Chaz Schilens (knee)
Questionable
DT Desmond Bryant (elbow)
RB Michael Bush (thumb)
Titans
Out
T Mike Otto (knee)
Questionable
LB Colin Allred (ankle)
DT Tony Brown (knee)
G Leroy Harris (ankle)
DE William Hayes (knee)
Probable
DE Jacob Ford (back)
WR Justin Gage (hand)
Raiders Coach Tom Cable declared running back Michael Bush to be a game-time decision after Bush sat out today’s practice. Bush had been limited in Wednesday’s practice before being held back today. As Rotoworld mentioned, when a player practices Wednesday and then is held out Thursday, the odds of seeing him play Sunday are not good.
Going into week one, the Oakland Raiders remain in the same place they've been for awhile. They're relatively unproven, and the verdict is out there for them right now. They have unproven rookies on the offensive line, a quarterback who was never quite as good as he wanted to be in Washington and a promising defense that is still nothing more than that right now: promising.
It will be interesting to see how Oakland's shuffled offensive line handles the Titans' young, hungry defensive line. It's trial by fire right out of the gate for Oakland's towering rookie center Jared Veldheer, who won the starting job despite obvious inconsistencies this preseason. He'll be up against defensive tackle Jason Jones on the Titans,
The Raiders have a stable of receiving targets and running backs who are looking to prove themselves, as well. In fact, just about every starter on the team is trying to solidify their position as the starter. A lot of question marks for the Raiders going into Sunday's matchup with the Titans. We'll have a full preview in the coming days here at SB Nation Bay Area.
Two Coaching Moves That Crippled The Raiders
In a game where many things went wrong, there are two decisions that became the roots of the biggest blunder trees on Sunday.
The first was the decision to start Jared Veldheer at Center. Hindsight is 20-20 and Tom Cable alluded as much in his Q&A with the media on Monday.
When Cable was asked if he regretted starting Veldheer, he answered, “Yes and no.” This is as about as much expressed regret as you are likely to get from Cable. Maybe, in the long-run Veldheer benefits from this experience, but the Raiders certainly didn’t on Sunday.
The setting Sunday is likely to be the most adverse conditions a Raiders starting Center will face all year. The Tennessee crowd is one of the loudest in the league and they are stacked on the defensive line. Perhaps the comfy confines of the home stadium and the St. Louis Rams defensive line would have been a better starting point for Veldheer.
The second decision that doomed this team was leaving Asomugha at Right Cornerback. During training camp the Raiders had been sliding Asomugha to different spots on the field. Asomugha and the coaches had even talked about moving him around to utilize his talents and maximize the havoc he could create.
Then on Sunday, he was firmly planted on the right hand side. The Titans seemed to be the perfect opponent for Asomugha to point to a guy and say, “You’re mine.”
Nate Washington was the only real threat at WR that the Titans had on Sunday. Washington had three catches on Sunday. All of them were in the first half. The second two were game changers and none of them were against Asomugha.
Two of Washington’s catches came against zone coverage, but neither were on Asomugha’s side of the field.
Washington’s second catch, the 56-yard touchdown, came against man defense and he was supposedly being guarded by Stanford Routt. Routt bit in on Young’s bootleg and left Washington with more space then he knew what to do with and gave the Titans one of the easier touchdowns you’ll ever see.
His third catch appeared to be on a zone defense and was made between Routt and Tyvon Branch. This 21-yard catch was good enough to convert on 3rd and 9. The Titans went onto score their second touchdown on this drive.
Take away those two TD’s and it would have been 3-3 and a whole different ball game at that point.
I know it's not as simple as that. Maybe the Titans would have found other ways to score, but the point remains: These two decisions, which would have been easy to execute, could have changed the tone of the game.
Sep 14 2:09a by Rich Langford - 0 comments