Chiefs Raiders 2011 Rivalry Game

It's as good as it's going to get for the Kansas City Chiefs right now vs. the Oakland Raiders this Sunday as the Raiders are limping around on a hobbled quarterback position. Recently, the Oakland Raiders lost their starting quarterback Jason Campbell to a painful collar bone snap, and this left them with their less-than-proven backup in Kyle Boller. As expected, the Raiders quickly snapped up Carson Palmer from the Bengals, which was an easy task considering that Palmer had told the Bengals at the beginning of the year that he would "not set foot inside Paul Brown Stadium again" and he also stated that he "has 80 million dollars in the bank" and that he does not have to play football for money any more.

It was speculated in the beginning looking at the Chiefs Raiders 2011 rival game that Carson Palmer would not be ready to participate in the game, but now sources are not ruling out the possibility. This leaves the Chiefs in an interesting position as the Raiders are forced to choose between a sub-par quarterback in Kyle Boller to start or a quarter back in Carson Palmer who has literally been on the Raiders for less than one week and with no time to prepare would be a risky start. Who will start at QB for the Raiders vs the Chiefs on Sunday? We will keep you posted...

The only thing we can focus on right now is what we do know:

Darren McFadden can REALLY run the ball. We have to stop him. Matt Cassel and the Chiefs passing game has been in a brief renaissance period and we need that to continue. We've got to get Steve Breaston involved across the middle and get some tasty passes up top for Dwayne Bowe. Finally, we're going to have to run the ball. Hopefully Jackie Battle can put up similar numbers to his performance last week and Thomas Jones can bash through the Oakland Raiders defensive line for some crucial 3rd down conversions. There are two X factors at play in this rivalry match up as well; Tamba Hali and Derrick Johnson need to create an extremely uncomfortable environment for whoever the Oakland QB is, cause turnovers and stop the run. The other X factor is a hobbled Janikowski, the Raiders kicker, who is trying to recover from a hamstring injury. There is no need to mention that the kicking game usually comes into play when the Chiefs play the Raiders.