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[embed]http://gty.im/459756040[/embed] The Oakland Raiders season officially kicks off Friday night. Unfortunately, it's preseason. Fortunately, there are still plenty of things to watch. It seems like this every year, but this truly is one of the most interesting Raiders teams in years. For starters, there is a lot of young talent. Unlike past years, there is also plenty of veteran talent that isn't over 30. While all eyes will be on first-round pick Amari Cooper, there are at least a half-dozen other players Raiders fans should keep a close eye on during the game. D.J. Hayden He hasn't been able to stay healthy, nor has he been particularly awesome when he is healthy, but cornerback D.J. Hayden still has a lot of talent. General manager Reggie McKenzie will take his lumps if Hayden doesn't pan out this year, but more importantly the Raiders will also be dangerously thin at cornerback. The Raiders need Hayden to solid, even if he doesn't live up to the potential he...

I made some improvements to the power rankings this week. Let me explain some of my reasoning and method. First, I decided that power rankings look at what teams have done and not what they will do so there is no projecting values. Second, these are totally unaltered rankings after I created a formula to judge a team's "power" compared to other teams. The rankings have four components. The first two are Pro-Football-Reference.com 's offensive and defensive simple rankings. When combined they for PFR's simple rating system. I chose to treat offense and defense separately for one reason: I think offense is far more important in today's NFL. How much more important? After playing with the numbers and seeing how teams landed using different numbers I decided on 25 percent. That is, offense is 25 percent more important than defense. This is arbitrary, but it gave me results that I looked fair to me. These are my power rankings after all. I ordered each team by thei...

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The Raiders scored nine points on offense and gave up 196 yards passing to Alex Smith and 149 yards rushing to Frank Gore. Michael Crabtree and Vernon Davis caught touchdown passes. I’d call that a complete failure to execute any goals. I’m sure every single game plan against the 49ers consists of scoring a couple touchdowns, forcing Alex Smith to make a mistake and stopping Gore, Davis and Crabtree. The Raiders only managed to get two sacks of Smith and there was never enough pressure to force a turnover. Despite Smith’s terrible days early, he easily carved up the Raiders defense. STUDS Matt Shaughnessy Why did Trevor Scott start in front of him at defensive end again? He either never regressed or he’s turned it back around. He applied the most consistent pressure on Alex Smith, working against their best offensive lineman, Joe Staley. He also forced Staley to commit a couple of penalties. He also did a good job stopping the run. Former Raiders defensive end Jay Richardson ca...