The Oakland Raiders are the only team in the NFL that shares a stadium with a baseball team and that reared its head on Saturday night, as the Athletics played Game 2 of the American League Division Series against the Detroit Tigers, forcing the game against the San Diego Chargers to get pushed from the afternoon into the evening, with kickoff coming after 11:30 PM.
The Raiders have started the season with a 1-3 record after losing two straight games to the Denver Broncos and the Washington Redskins and the only win for the team this season as been against the Jacksonville Jaguars, who are winless themselves. The team will have a tough test from an improved Chargers team and quarterback Philip Rivers has bounced back nicely from a disappointing season. Oakland came into the year knowing they likely would be bad, but they didn't expect to be this much of a struggle after signing players like Tracy Porter and Mike Jenkins and trading for Matt Flynn, but things have not worked out as planned. Terrelle Pryor beat out Flynn for the starting job and while the team is ranked in the top 10 in rushing yards per game, they have to deal with yet another injury to Darren McFadden.
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The Raiders are coming off of a 24-14 loss to the Redskins and next week they have a tough game against the now 5-0 Kansas City Chiefs on the road and that will lead into the bye week for the team. The Steelers will make the trip west next and then the Eagles will come to the Bay area for a tough matchup. The Raiders have to travel to the East coast for a game against the Giants in Week 10 and then they will travel to Houston to play the Texans in Week 11.
That stretch includes four road games in five weeks and that could be devastating for a west coast team, as the Raiders will host the Titans before heading to Dallas to play the Cowboys and New York to play the Jets. The team then has a home game against the Chiefs before playing the Chargers on the road in the return game and then they will finish the season with a home matchup against the Denver Broncos. The Raiders defense has not improved much from last season, while the rushing offense has been much better with over 130 yards per game, helped along by the athletic Pryor.
The Chargers are coming off a win over the Dallas Cowboys and the team will be trying to improve to 3-2 this season with a win on Sunday night and they will next play a home game against the Colts on Monday night football. The team adjusted it's schedule to get used to the new game time and the delay allowed most of the nation to watch the Denver Broncos and Dallas Cowboys game on CBS that was crazy and insane, insane crazy with Peyton Manning and Tony Romo putting up amazing stats.
