Oakland Raiders-Detroit Lions: Keys to game and who will win

“She was excited and I said to her, ‘Glad we got the win, but sorry I didn’t have my best game, ‘” Prater said.

It’s there. It’s tangible. The Raiders are hardly a complete team, but they do play hard and have a similar makeup as Detroit with a pass-first offense and a defense that gives up a slew of yards.

In Week 10, Oakland ran the ball 19 times, twice with quarterback Derek Carr, which sparked a discussion concerning the offensive play-calling, per InsideBayArea.com writer Jerry McDonald.

It’s all of those things, it’s everything, and this is the fifth time in nine games that it has happened. How different would the past 10 years have been for both of these teams had the Raiders gone with Johnson – or, say, No. 7 overall pick Adrian Peterson – instead of the ill-fated Russell? Carr comes into Sunday’s game averaging 306 yards over his past four games with 13 touchdown passes against just three interceptions.

The Raiders are young at key spots, and they aren’t bad. “We’ve just got to go out there and keep plugging away, keep pushing ourselves to get better”.

GOOD COMPANY: Carr became the sixth quarterback to throw at least 20 passes in each of his first two seasons.

As we are all too painfully aware, the Raiders have lost the last two contests they’ve entered. Now I’m not saying that Smith won’t be missed; However, the absence of Smith, the way I see it – opens up an opportunity for someone else to step up, step in, and makes a few plays.

They didn’t win one game anywhere this season until mid-October. “You have to move onto the next week’s work and that’s what we’re going to do”. There’s none of that at all.

Here’s who the Raiders have defeated this season: the Ravens (currently 2-7), the Browns (2-8), the Chargers (2-7) and the Jets (5-4, the only current winning team the Raiders have beaten). And finally, all indications are that defense will not be the deciding factor in this one, as the OVER/UNDER is set at a combined total of 48 points. That’s a big dropoff, but Brady can still put up Brady numbers even if they have me lined up at WR. They haven’t scored more than 14 points in any of those games.

“He’s a big, strong, long, fast target, great hands, great concentration, great competitor”, Oakland head coach Jack Del Rio said. “I think (Michael) Crabtree is probably playing his best football….” We have to play good football more often. That is the 2015 Raiders pattern, and by the next few weeks they should and could be right back in the playoff race.

So there’s no reason for the Raiders to douse the season, and that was the locker room mood Sunday.

But in three weeks it starts to get tougher again – Kansas City, Denver and Green Bay.

While we’re on the topic of offense – it doesn’t matter if you’re talking about the running game, or the passing game one thing is constant; If you plan on having a potent offensive attack you’re going to need superior play out of your offensive line. Real Talk – From the moment of the signing we’ve been waiting for the combination of A. Smith and K. Mack to start producing quarterback sacks on a consistence basis. He has better weapons around him, including two new starting receivers who are better than any receiver he had last season.

On the season, the Oakland Raiders average 271.9 yards in passing and 102.3 yards in rushing.