After getting embarrassed in their home opener last Monday night, the Raiders looked to right the ship against a suspect Kansas City Chief team. Oakland started its day on defense and immediately went into aggressive mode by mixing up its coverages and even having linebacker Thomas Howard lining up at cornerback against a wideout. The Raiders defense also found out that if they give opponents different looks, they could put pressure on Kansas City passers.

Oakland’s maligned defense racked up five sacks on the platoon of Chiefs’ quarterbacks and snagged two interceptions.

The Raider offense also rediscovered their once powerful run game by churning out a staggering 300-yards by its three rushers. Darren McFadden had the biggest of the trio, with 164-yards on 21 carries. Michael Bush relieved Justin Fargas after he left the game with an injury (groin) and ran for 90-yards on 16 carries. Fargas, had not he been injured, would have likely had a 100-yard game. Instead he only managed 43-yards. Those 43-yards by Fargas were only 12 yards fewer than the collective 55-yards rushing by all the Chiefs’ running backs.

Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell had a pedestrian outing in terms of passing the ball; 6-of-17 for 55 yards. He looked out of sync with some of his receivers, but fortunately, he didn’t need to rely on his arm to beat this Kansas City defense.

Sebastian Janikowski continued his consecutive field goal attempt in Kansas City by going 3-for-3 with one of those being a career best 56 yards, which was also a franchise best.

Kudos to the Oakland defense after head coach Lane Kiffin called out defensive coordinator Rob Ryan for his lack of adjustments the entire game last week. Perhaps that national media attention Ryan forced him to be more accountable for his inactions. Whatever the case may be, BOTH sides of the ball came through and won a divisional game against a hated rival in one of the toughest place to play in the entire league.