Are the Oakland Raiders a "good" team that had 2 relatively good performances against some of the AFC's best? Or, are they a bad football team, sprinkled with the mere perfume of adding Lamont Jordan and Randy Moss?

If the Raiders are, in fact, a "good" team, then NFL conventional wisdom suggests that they will play with the desperation needed to win to save their season against Philadelphia. Until proven otherwise, objective data suggests the Raiders are a mediocre to bad team, unable to play the kind of poised, mistake free football needed to win a big game on the road against an elite team.

In their last 18 away games, the Raiders are a wretched 2-16. They had 10 days to prepare for the Chiefs, their arch rivals, at home - and yet still lost. The Raiders experience letdowns emotionally after playing K.C., as they are 3-7 the last 10 times in games following playing the Chiefs. As a dog on the road, Oakland is 2-8 the last 10 games. The Eagles are 10-0 the last 10 games when favored at home.

But what about the cliche about teams coming off a big win being flat, and teams bouncing back after a loss? The Raiders have a glass jaw. Oakland is 6-17 against the spread coming off a loss. The Eagles, in contrast, are 9-2 against the spread coming off a win of 10+ points the week before. The Eagles rarely live off their press clippings.

The Raiders, while talented and fast on offfense, are very limited in what they do to this point in the season. Kerry Collins, while posting decent stats, has looked bad in crunch time. The offensive line has been leaky, and Collins has been bailing and throwing off his back foot, causing alot of balls to sail wild and high. Massive RT Robert Gallery, who will face Kearse, has played poorly this season. Collins locks in on Moss far too often, and with the exception of finding Porter here and there, has had trouble finding other receivers, and has opted to dump it down to Jordan alot in checkdowns.

For the Raiders to win this week, their offense will have to protect Collins against Jim Johnson's exotic schemes, and be patient. The Raiders lack patience, and will have to try to throw underneath like Minnesota did last year. The problem is the Raiders don't have Culpepper's legs to bail them out, and they commit far too many penalties to sustain long drives. They have 23 penalties already -among the leaders in the NFL. Jim Johnson has defended Moss well over the years. Last year, in 2 games (albeit Moss was slowed some in the postseason game), Moss had 11 catches for 120 yards and 1 TD against the Eagles. Johnson always gives his CB's help, either over the top, or inside or out. The disguising and mixing of coverages will cause Collins to hold the ball longer, and may allow the pass rush to get home.

Since Johnson will often have both safeties deep, expect the Raiders to give Jordan at least 25 carries. Norv Turner believes in the power running game, and vertical passing. With all the attention that will be given to Moss, I expect Porter to have a good day. He has the size and speed to win if singled. The Raiders are too good skill wise to contain all day, so a few big plays can be expected. I expect Turner will use alot of maximum protection, and maybe only have 2 receivers sent out at times, to ensure the protection needed to go deep. Turner will have to game plan to go against tendencies, and get other receivers and weapons established early, other than Moss and Jordan. The Raiders have had little production so far from their TE's. The loss of #3 WR Curry is huge. Speedster's Doug Gabriel (injured finger) and Alvis Whitted are not great route runners, and are more stretch the field types. Since Randy Moss is a "perimeter" WR who rarely challenges over the middle, if the Raiders want to throw underneath, only Porter is reliable there.

On defense, the Raiders simply lack the tools to contain all of the Eagles' weapons. Under Rob Ryan, the Raiders switched from a 3-4 back to a 4-3 base look. In the first 2 games, both New England and Kansas City elected to go to alot of 3 and 4 WR looks, to get the Raider's untested nickle and dime CB's on the field. Given the massive size of the Oakland defensive line, few opponents want to try to win on the ground. When faced with passing formations and personnel, Ryan matches up with going "big nickle" (3 safeties) on first down, then on other downs will pull SS Schweigert (a liability as a pass defender) and plug in reserve CB Renaldo Hill and use him to defend a deep half. Despite the mixing and matching, Oakland is ranked 27th in pass defense.

The Eagles will not get lucky enough to see Oakland's 2 massive OLB's, Grant Irons and Tyler Brayton, for them to be abused by Westbrook and L.J. Smith in the passing game. I expect the Raiders to get all the speed they can on the field. That would mean alot of Burgess and DeLawrence Grant as the "contain" DE's to keep McNabb in the pocket. The Raiders used their best cover man, Charles Woodson, in the slot on 3rd down against K.C. That will not happen this week. I expect Woodson to go man on Greg Lewis, so the Raiders can roll their coverage to T.O. The other starting CB Asomugha is banged up. Even if he plays, when the Eagles go 3 or 4 WR, blazing rookies Fabian Washington and Stanford Routt, along with Denard Walker, will get mixed in. The rookies were torched in preseason, and will take seasoning before their speed makes a difference in an NFL game. Kirk Morrison will play OLB, but will not match up well enough as a cover man with Westbrook or L.J. Smith - although his speed will keep the damage down compared to what could happen if Irons or Brayton get locked up in such a mismatch. It will be important for the Eagles to run the ball just well enough to keep the coverage loose if the Raiders go nickle all the time.

The Raiders defense makes no big plays. It has created 1 turnover, and had 1 sack so far. I don't expect heavy blitzing by the Raiders, but if they do try to copy New England and Atlanta's strategy, that will leave 1 on 1 opportunities up top to exploit against a secondary ill-equipped to handle the explosiveness the Eagles have across the board. Double moves work well against the aggressive Oakland corners, who often line up in press. This could be a game where McCants gets a few chances to make plays deep. The size of all the Eagle WR's now except Lewis makes it tough for teams to "press" and win consistently.

The Raiders better not fall behind too early. They are a "front running" team, which swaggers with a lead, but points fingers and pouts when behind. It could spell doom if Oakland trails at the half - the Eagles under Reid are an astounding 52-7 (.881) in games where they are leading at halftime.

Matchups that favor Oakland:

1) Massive offensive line in the run game vs. Philly defensive line

2) Porter if singled on any of the Eagle CB's

3) Running the ball with Jordan if the Eagles keep safeties deep

4) Huge Oakland defensive line vs. Philly's inside running game

5) Punter Lechler and K Janikowski

Matchups that favor Philadelphia:

1) L.J. Smith against any LB or safety

2) Westbrook against any LB or safety (Woodson may slide out on him if Westbrook is dsiplaced wide)

3)Owens against any CB (Owens has fared well in the past 1 on 1 with Woodson)

4) Eagles pass rush vs. mammoth but slower Oakland OL (particularly Kearse vs. Gallery)

5) Eagles pressure packages vs. the immobile Collins

Final thought: The Raiders wil come in emotionally ready to play. However, once the game settles down and starts to turn on execution and poise, expect Oakland to start to crack, particularly in a loud road setting. Moss becomes disinterested if he is not involved early, or if he can't break free deep. Turner, a great offensive coordinator, is not an elite NFL head coach. The Raiders remain predictable on offense and defense, and commit too many stupid penalties to be consistent enough to win a game like this week on the road.