Photo: Melody from Oakland, Alise from San Jose and Andrea from Louisville are die-hard Raider fans who made the trip to Kansas City, Missouri to watch the Raiders take on the Chiefs. - Photo courtesy of Alise.
By Felicia
It was an ugly win but a win nonetheless.
For the Raiders it started to look like déjà vu in the final minutes of Sunday’s game but they would play spoiler this week at the Chiefs home opener at Arrowhead Stadium getting their first win of the season by the score of 13-10.
A hostile environment for anyone donning Silver and Black, fans at Arrowhead had been waiting a year and six days to seek revenge for their 23-8 loss to Oakland on September 14, 2008.
Ryan Succop would give the Chiefs the first score of the game with a 23-yard field goal. Oakland would remain scoreless until the second quarter with a 48-yard field goal by Sebastian Jankowski.
"The thing I am most proud of is winning the football game and it was a huge step the Oakland Raiders took today, having a chance to do something,” said Raiders head coach Tom Cable who saw his third-year quarterback Jamarcus Russell stay cool under pressure.
“All of a sudden Jamarcus Russell looks like he is in total control, he’s on target, he is on time, he got some decent protection and then all of a sudden we look like we are okay.”
Russell and his offense weren't okay. The first completion of the game wouldn't come until the 10:01 mark in the second quarter with a 7-yard reception by wide receiver Louis Murphy.
However, it would be what he did in the end that would matter. With 1:12 left in the game, Russell silenced the crowd with a pitch to running back Darren McFadden who ran in for the game winning 5-yard touchdown run.
“I knew that we left plays out there on our previous drives before so we had to come up with something in order to come out like we did,” said Russell after the game.
It was an uneventful game but the Raiders defense kept things interesting, namely safety Michael Huff who had two interceptions in the game; 3 in his career at Arrowhead.
“It has to go back to studying film. We put in extra work this week. Nnamdi (Asomugha) is a defensive leader and he held an extra meeting for the DBs that was an hour, two hours after everybody else,” said Huff who credits his recent play to time spent in the film room with the Pro Bowl cornerback.
The Raiders will go for their second win-in-a-row this weekend when they host another division rival, the Denver Broncos at 1:15 p.m.
GAME NOTES:
Sunday’s game marked the 101st match-up between the two division rivals with the Chiefs holding a 29-10 record overall versus the Raiders dating back to 1990.
Since 2001, 12 of the last 17 games in the Chiefs-Raiders series have been decided by 7-points or less.
*Stats courtesy of Chiefs PR
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