Patriots vs Raiders Week Two Preview: Team looks to exploit Oakland's many shortcommings

The Oakland Raiders are a football team that has been living in the cellar of the NFL for over a decade now. The Patriots, in stark contrast are a team that has lived atop the standings for pretty much the same amount of time. Those two teams clash this week with the Patriots looking to move to 3-1 on the season while the Raiders will be chasing their first win of the season.

With rookie, Derek Carr starting at quarterback, the Raiders were hardily beaten last week when the Houston Texans piled on 30 points to Oakland’s mere 14. That game was punctuated by huge miscues in the Raiders defense, the most glaring being the 138 rushing yards allowed to Arian Foster and the touchdown pass allowed to lumbering JJ Watt.

"They're excited to see their Raiders and what was that that we put out there on the field today?" safety Charles Woodson said with obvious sarcasm. "That's embarrassing. I'm embarrassed for this team, I'm embarrassed for the fans."

The Raiders have struggled for over a decade now but it seems that this year is especially hard for them. Carr, being a rookie has made several key mistakes in his first games as a NFL’er tossing 2 interceptions and throwing just 3 touchdowns for a team that has no other way of scoring.

Needless to say, Carr could be an easy target for the Patriots in Week Two who are coming off a game in Minnesota where their defensive line stood tall against both the running game and the offensive line’s blocking.

Beyond that, the Patriots will also be looking to exploit that same Raider’s defensive line that let Arian Foster split them in two last week.

"You can't allow a team to just run the football down the field on you," coach Dennis Allen said of his team that has allowed more rushing yards than any other this season. "That has to change. Like I told the players, run defense is a mentality. Run defense is about lining up across from somebody, hitting them in the mouth, knocking them back, getting off a block, and making a play."

But though the Raiders defense will likely remain sharply incapable of defending the Patriots run game, they are not exempt from soliciting penalties from their opponent.

The Patriots were historically undisciplined last week, amassing more penalty yards (163) than rushing yards (150).

Statistics like those beg the question: how much can the Patriots give to a bad team before that bad team makes a good play?

In all honesty, that could be a huge theme of this game if the Patriots fail to get their act together. But otherwise, if push comes to shove the Raiders are poised to suffer yet another blowout loss. In short, though there are ways that the Patriots could theoretically lose this game, such a failure to execute would be a catastrophic one. The Patriots are simply a better team than the Raiders. This game is simply one more chance to remedy the teams fundamental and statistical shortcomings that have plagued them so far.