Raiders vs. Chiefs preview: Game with Kansas City more important after Thursday Night Football

The Oakland Raiders had more pressure placed on this weekend's game with the Kansas City Chiefs after their next opponent, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers manhandled the upstart Minnesota Vikings. Ever since defeating the Jacksonville Jaguars in overtime last weekend, most of the talk has been about how the Raiders have two winnable games coming up and that wins in both would ge the team back to .500 for the season and into the AFC West division race. One of those games, however, is suddenly looking a lot more dangerous after Tampa Bay creamed a Vikings team that was shaping up to look like a legitimate playoff contender.

The Chiefs, however, still look like one of the NFL's worst teams, making it even more important that the Raiders play well in Kansas City this weekend. A loss or a rough showing like last weekend could put the Raiders on their heels as they travel home to take on a Tampa Bay team that is clearly on the up swing. The Raiders cannot afford a poor showing with turnovers like they did against the Jags. In that game, the Raiders were lucky in that the Jags had injuries that likely prevented them from taking advantage of the Raiders mis-cues.

This weekend, the Chiefs will not let a game slip out of their hands. They have the third best running attack in the league behind Jamaal Charles and you can count on them doing nothing but running the ball until the Raiders prove they can stop Charles. IF they can stop him, that is. The Raiders are still struggling with their run defense, something that has been an issue in Oakland for years. They did well last weekend, but it was against back up, Rashad Jennings. Charles is an entirely different beast, and one that is capable of single handedly taking a game over. If the Raiders want to take any momentum into a game which is suddenly a tough contest, next weekend, they cannot allow this game to be as close as the Jags game. They do not need to blow the Chiefs out of the water, but a comfortable win will go a long way towards improving the team's confidence and help them take on tougher foes.