It is finally upon us-the Raiders first home game. There is a great deal of anticipation for this matchup as it is against the cross bay rival 49ers. The Raiders will be facing the 49ers in week six of the season so this game will be a combination of testing out the other team’s strengths and weakness and not giving away their gameplan.
The Raiders are expected to be the better of the two teams although the 49ers are in one of the weakest divisions in football so they have just as much of a chance to be in the playoffs as the Raiders and perhaps more. This game should go a long way towards testing that theory.
It is the third game of the preseason which means both teams will be playing their starters intothe 3rd quarter before giving way to the backups and hopefuls. After this game, the final preseason will be played almost entirely with backups and bubble players trying to make a final push to make the regular season roster. But before that happens the Raiders will have to trim the roster by about five players as of noon Tuesday, August 31.
The Raiders will have Darrius Heyward-Bey back in the starting lineup after being out for a week and missing last weeks game with “fatigue.” He has looked good in practice this week and hopes to shake off his disappointing rookie season. A few good catches in this game would go a long way to instilling some confidence in his coaches, the fans, and himelf.
DHB will be on the same field as the man he will forever be compared in this game-Michael Crabtree. The 49ers have announced Crabtree will be playing about a quarter in this game after missing the first two preseason games with a neck strain. It will be interesting to see who lines up opposite Crabtree in this game. He showed last year that he is as advertised and we’ll see if Nnamdi Asomugha and/or Stanford Routt can show him that THEY are as advertised as well.
Darren McFadden is slated to be suited up although it remains to be seen how much he will play. Cable has said that he will be extremely cautious not to put McFadden out there until he is 100% certain he is recovered from his hamstring strain. I have my doubts that McFadden will play much, if at all.
Samson Satele will be out and he will be replaced by rookie Jared Veldheer. Veldheer was drafted as an offensive tackle but the Raiders have been trying him at center. He has played well enough there to get the start over Chris Morris which shows his intelligence level as well as the level of disappointment the team has had in Morris. Veldheer is 6’8″ which makes him the tallest center in the NFL.
Richard Seymour won’t play. He will be replaced with Desmond Bryant in the starting lineup. Seymour has a tricep strain which isn’t too serious. It is mostly a veteran thing that he isn’t playing. Bryant has played well this preseason. He looked good last season and seems to be improving on that.
Chris Johnson and Chaz Schilens are both out again. Chris Johnson was practicing this week, albeit not at 100%. He is still nursing a sore hamstring and we probably won’t see him until the season opener. He will be replaced in the lineup by Stanford Routt who has had a good couple of games thus far in the preseason. Schilens had arthroscopic knee surgery and the team is hoping he will be available by the season opener but won’t know until that time. He is the only injured player that could possibly not be ready by the start of the season.
The 49ers will look very much like they will look in week six because they will be at nearly full strength. Frank Gore will be back after missing the first two games and newly acquired veteran RB Brian Westbrook is expected to take the field for them as well. The only key piece they won’t have is Vernon Davis. It is kind of a shame really that Davis isn’t playing because it would be good to see how well the new linebackers could cover the speedy, athletic tight end.
The biggest test for the Raiders in this game will be from All-Pro linebacker Patrick Willis. He is arguably the best in the game and will be the main focus of Jason Campbell and company as they will try to minimize his impact in this game. How well Willis plays dictates how well that 49er defense plays.
Alex Smith will be attempted to continue to improve his game. He has shown flashes of good play, last year in particular. If the Raider pass rush can keep him nervous, it could have carry over to their meeting again in the season. Their offensive line should have difficulty keeping the Raiders defense out of the backfield just as the Cowboys and Bears did in weeks one and two. That will likely be the deciding factor in this game.
Both teams come into the game 2-0 this preseason. Not that records in preseason mean a whole lot though. What matters is how the first team plays and the individual performances of some young hopefuls. If you look at it in terms of scoring by the first team, both the Raiders and Niners have been outscored. The Niners starters have been outscored 13 to 7 and the Raiders starters have been outscored 17-13. And if you change their respective records to reflect that, the Raiders would be 0-2 and the Niners would be 1-1.
Both teams have played great on defense this preseason and both teams have only scored one first team touchdown. The Raiders do get the slight edge on offense because they also had three successful scoring drives that ended in field goal attempts(one was a miss). The 49ers get the edge on defense because they have held their opponents to one touchdown while the Raiders have given up two. But for the most part, we are seeing two pretty evenly matched teams. It should make for a pretty good game. The final such game as primer for the regular season.
The game is blacked out locally and will be played on tape delay at 9pm PST. If you are planning on attending the game, you can still get tickets from Darkside Tickets. Better than getting ripped off by a scalper for crappy seats.
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