Buffalo Bills vs Oakland Raiders What to Watch For
Today at about 4 O’clock either the Buffalo Bills or Oakland Raiders will have started the season 2-0. Parity fans, rejoice! The Oakland Raiders are probably the more talented team overall, but they have the pesky problem of traveling to the Bills to play a game with a 1 o’clock start time and everyone knows the notorious fact that West Coast teams that travel to the East Coast for 1 o’clock games invariably struggle. Almost without fail, they start slow.
Last season the Chiefs were the number one rushing offense in the league and the Bills were one of the worst run defenses, if not the worst. But last Sunday the Bills were able to handle fairly easily the Chiefs rush attack. Meanwhile the Raiders showed once again why they were such a high rated running offense last year. This will be the biggest matchup to watch today; the Bills rush defense vs the Raiders run offense, but it’s not the only matchup. Let’s break it down further (concentrating on young player mathcups…this is NFL mocks a draft website first and foremost).
Kyle Williams vs the Wiz and Samson Satele
Kyle Williams is one of the best (and most unheralded) nose tackles in the entire league. Today he’ll be lined up mostly vs Samson Satele or rookie guard Stefen Wisniewski. The Wiz faced a weak Denver Broncos line last week, today he’ll be in for a big battle. Advantage: Kyle Williams. Expect Williams to make more than his fair share of plays.Williams is talented, and savvy. Wiz is a good looking young player, Williams is a lot to handle.
On the other side of the line Dwan Edwards/Spencer Johnson will most likely be lined up vs the young Jared Veldheer. Veldheer will also see heavy doses of OLB Shawne Merriman. Merriman’s not the player he once was, but the young rookie will see a lot of talent today.
The Youth Depth of the Bills WR and the youth Depth of the Raiders cornerbacks
Chan Gailey has never really had the opportunity to work with a top notch quarterback, but he has been able to redefine the careers (or arguably make the careers) of career back up types like Ryan Fitzpatrick and Tyler Thigpen. This is because Gailey is an excellent offensive mind who has a poweful passing game that involves a lot of (young this) moving parts. Because the Bills jettisoned Lee Evans they are left with young players like Donald Jones and David Nelson. The Raiders have Stanford Routt and then rookies like Demarcus Van Dyke and Chidi Chekwa. Who will shine today?
The Violent Raiders Defensive line vs the Bills average offensive line
The Bills have a lot of youth on their offensive line, and the Raiders have a very good defensive line. The Bills have a lot of youth on their offensive line: starters Kraig Urbik, Andy Levitre (2nd round pick), Eric Wood (1st round pick), and Demetrius Bell (7th round pick and Karl Malone’s son) are all in their third years. The Raiders are very talented up front. Can the Bills keep the Raiders defenders out of Ryan Fitzpatrick’s face and give C.J. Spiller and Fred Jackson enough room to make plays?
This game ultimately will boil down to whether or not the Bills can contain the Raiders rushing attack. The Raiders want to run the ball, the Bills recently have had a lot of troubling stopping the run. Both teams have plus special teams, and neither team has a true Franchise quarterback for the long haul.
Who will win? Tune in at 1 oclock Eastern time to find out.
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