Cowboys 13; Raiders 19

At last. Lamont Jordan and Sebastian Janikowski are clearly the big heroes here. Yes, Moss had 125 yards against the Cowboys defense, but it was Jordan's running (126 yards) and SeaBass's foot (4 FGs, two from 40+ yards) that gave the game to Oakland. The Raiders have victory #1.

Some causes for concern.

1) Collins is still streakier than I'd like. He needs to develop more consistency.

2) The Raider defense was excellent until late in the 4th quarter, when they suddenly broke down and handed the Cowboys two long passes that put them in position to steal the game.

3) Jake Grove left the game with a knee injury. I don't remember hearing that he was back in the lineup. This bears watching, because he is a fine pass-blocker with remarkable skills for such a young player.

4) Adam Treu, the long snapper, gave both Lechler and Janikowski a few high snaps today, putting the kicking game in unnecessary peril. He's usually good about these things. Let's hope it's just a temporary problem.

5) As always, penalties. The Raiders should have won this game by a lot more than they did, but drive sustaining and drive killing penalties kept the Cowboys in it. Warren Sapp did something unusually stupid when, having already wrapped up Drew Bledsoe, he threw him down to the turf, forcing the referees to hand the Cowboys fifteen big yards on a 3rd and 8. The Cowboys ended up getting a field goal a few plays later. Yes, the refs have it in for the Raiders. We need to count on seven or eight penalties per game. Still, that's no reason to make things worse than they need to be.

Some reasons for optimism.

1) The Raiders found their running game, against a defense that hadn't given up 100 yards to a rusher since early last year. Over time, this should help the Raiders with play action and give Collins more chances to look down the field.

2) Randy Moss is still Randy Moss, and is consistently good for at least one spectacular play per game.

3) Kerry Collins still hasn't thrown an interception, though he came close a couple of times today.

4) The defense really seems to be coming together. They're still missing some pieces, and will break down from time to time, but we're seeing much greater solidity from them as a unit. As long as the defense sustains this level of play, the Raiders need only score more than 20 points per game to win consistently.