Bell: Well-rounded Vikings round into first-place form against Raiders

After three straight games of explosive offense, the fans were expecting fireworks. Since losing the opener, the Raiders have alternated two-game winning streaks with two-game losing streaks. Who will win this game? Murray couldn’t get much going Sunday against a game Vikings’ run defense. “This week was the passing game and we did well passing, but we allowed them to run all over us for 200-plus yards or whatever it was”. So, we can’t just be satisfied with being where we are today.

“Last year, we had a lot of young guys, a lot of close games”, says Jerick McKinnon, one of Peterson’s backups. Our biggest deal is we got to keep stringing wins together.

The Oakland Raiders (4-4) lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers last week.

Today is the first of four straight division games for the Packers, an unprecedented run of division foes in the Mike McCarthy era and the first time Green Bay has faced four straight division opponents since 2000.

Sure, these weren’t the Snake Stabler Raiders that the Vikings put away. “Some weeks, we have to grind it out. Make us go down the field”.

Raiders coach Jack Del Rio rejected the notion that the Raiders had essentially been asleep at the wheel on defense after Carr’s interception. Blair Walsh kicked a 20 yard field goal late in the first quarter as the Vikings extended the lead to 10-0.

For all the deserved praise Woodson garners for continuing to play football at a high level at age 39, the similarly aged Terence Newman stole the show Sunday, delivering one of the best games of his career.

It came against a team in the Vikings (7-2) that moved into sole possession of first-place in the NFC North with the victory, while the Raiders (4-5) now find themselves looking at a tie for second place in the AFC West with the Kansas City Chiefs routing the Denver Broncos.

Quarterback Teddy Bridgewater of the Minnesota Vikings [Photo by Joe Robbins / Getty Images]The Sunday contest will focus on a matchup of two second-year quarterbacks, selected just four slots apart in the 2014 National Football League draft, and neither heralded as game-changer coming out of college. Both seem satisfied with their selections. And Peterson was able to gouge the Raiders for 203 yards and a touchdown, leaving the Raiders at a loss for how to fix the issue. Derek Carr completed 24 of 44 passes for 301 yards and four touchdowns against one interception. “We’ve got a good group in terms of being resilient”. While Blake Bortles went third to Jacksonville and Johnny Manziel went 22nd to Cleveland, Bridgewater lasted until the final pick of the first round. That didn’t happen Sunday. “We’re old and we still love the game”, Newman said.

The Raiders take on the Vikings.

Oakland scored twice, no field goals and no rushing touchdowns.

In sum, this is a team that has taken the first bold step toward no longer being those Raiders, they have not yet shored up their defense to the point where it is a predictable weapon. The lead lasted just 13 seconds, and the Raiders never fully recovered from Cordarrelle Patterson’s kick return touchdown.

The ground attack wasn’t a factor at all for Oakland, except they gained 4.4 yards per carry, a solid average, and refused to grind it out through the tackles. Carr threw TD passes to Clive Walford and Andre Holmes that put Oakland up 14-13 with under two minutes left in the half.

It’s hardly a secret that the Oakland Raiders have been plenty generous to tight ends this season.