Wheatly, Ritchie, Stinchcomb, Johnstone out for Oakland

[NFLMarty]

Chief fans-

Thought y'all might like to read this.

RAIDERS LOSE 4 PLAYERS SUNDAY'S GAME

Oakland Raiders head coach Jon Gruden didn't envision an AFC West showdown with Kansas City this way. Four of his starters will be miss the tilt with the Chiefs, according to the USA Today. Among the bruised and wounded is RB Tyrone Wheatley, who will not play due to an ankle injury, FB Jon Ritchie will miss the game because of a calf ailment and LT Matt Stinchcomb will be out with a second-degree sprain of his right knee. Losing Wheatley and Ritchie really hurts the Raiders offensively, because both of those runners have given the Chiefs defense fits over the past two games. With a depleted backfield, look for RB Napoleon Kaufman to start, while FB Zack Crockett will get the nod in place of Ritchie at fullback. On the other side of the ball, the team will be without DE Lance Johnstone, who is out with a groin injury and is expected to miss more time and will be replaced by DL Reagan Upshaw. [url="http://www.nflscoop.com"]www.nflscoop.com[/url] <BR>

[KCTitus]

That certainly bodes well in our favor. The interesting thing to see is whether or not we can capitalize.

[mlyonsd]

Sorry to hear that....If we win I'd rather the Raidah fans had no excuses.

[bkkcoh]

With them being depleted on offense, that will match well with us being depleted on the defensive line. [img]http://www.ChiefsPlanet.com/ubb/smile.gif[/img]



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[DJay23]

Agreed Titus, the question is can we capitalize. Hopefully Gun and the staff don't think that because these key components to their running game are out we can just concentrate only on old Dink Dunk. Kauffman seems to be a guy who will get 1 or 2 yards on most of his carries and then bust a 60 yarder. Don't forget about ol' Happy Feet too. He has killed everyone with his scramble ability.

[KCTitus]

Kaufmann is the type to go outside rather than up the middle. Last week we had real problems stopping Watters and Alexander when they went outside. Our linebackers were non-existent.

Kaufmann could put up some numbers if we dont figure out a way to contain the rb's going outside the tackles.

[ROYC75]

Key Edwards on Kaufman,Patton on Gannon!

[bkkcoh]

I think the reason our lb's were not on top of the play last week was the d-line was being pushed backed a little bit more than usual. This caused the traffic so the lb's didn't have a good line to the rb.

We need to neutralize the o-line play and allow the lb's to make the plays.

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[morphius]

We will be without Szott and Hicks and might be missing Grunhard as well. That and the fact that we are getting Bennett back should hurt our team as much as these injuries hurt them.

Of course I would like to here what JQ and UD have to say about this now...

Of course if we beat them expect the national media to say that the Chiefs beat a very banged up Raiders team that had a lot of players missing.

[ChiTown]

As much as Wheatley and Ritchie are huge losses to Oakland, we have given hall of fame days to Kaufman in the past. I think his speed and size give our defenders a hell of time once he reaches the corner.

IMO, I don't think this game was ever about the Oakland RB's anyway. I think this is more about Gannon. Gannon has a way of executing the long 3rd down plays and scrambling for huge yards. This game is more about keeping him contained than trying to stop their running game.

Even without their key RB's, Oakland could beat our asses if we don't game plan to stop and contain Gannon.

[Idahojim]

Was looking at ESPN.com this morning and it listed both Ritchie and Wheatley as probable. Is ESPN in error?

[Ugly Duck]

Hey Morph - Sure the injury bug puts a kink in our armor, but you won't hear excuses from me. Depth is a factor in determining the strength of a football team. If you ain't got it, you ain't that good.

I've long thought that the Raider's problems have stemmed not from lack of talent or depth, but rather from psychological weaknesses. They just didn't try hard enough, and kept expecting other players to take up the slack. They are well on the road to solving those problems, thanks to the tutelage of Gruden and Gannon. Missing so many starters may well galvanize the team into extra effort. We were missing a bunch of guys in the last game of '99, and they really pulled together to compensate.

This is still Raiders vs Chiefs, no excuses.

[mlyonsd]

UD, so have you heard anything about Wheatley's status?

[Cormac]

Idahojim.

I have only seen Wheatley and the others listed as doubtful all week. I believe ESPN is wrong on this one.

[morphius]

UD - Fair enough, is it Sunday yet?