Kiffin's era ended with a rather depressing bang when Al Davis took it upon himself to lay out the reasons why Kiffin was being let go.

Unfortunately, it felt like a press conference full of half truths, lies and at times the actual truth.

Cable takes over a team headed in the right direction but one likely on an edge. They could either fall into complete collapse or embrace Cable and work hard to build upon the work started by Kiffin. I hope we see the later starting in New Orleans.

Fancy that the Raiders blitzed just after the head coach called them out for not blitzing. Just after the defensive coordinator said he'd only blitz when it was safe to blitz. Funny how it suddenly became safe to blitz. Did Kiffin's out burst force Al Davis to back away for a bit and not meddle in a defensive gameplan? Or maybe Ryan just grew up a little and started to be a little more aggressive on defense?

Whatever it was it worked for the defense! The Raiders held back the guy that ran the Chiefs offense last year until he had to leave the game then handled both the rush and passing attack of the Chiefs very well (except for on drive that resulted in 8 points and threatened to make a game of it).

The offense was both awesome to watch (when rushing) and painful to watch (when throwing) but one that got the job done. Mostly thanks to the 164 yards rushing of Darren McFadden. He showed by he was the ranked so highly in the draft but also showed the knock against him (fumbles). He needs to protect the ball better and run hard until he reaches the endzone in future but all in all a wonderful performance by him.

Despite such a poor opener the Raiders are now 2nd in their division and are continuing to show they can win division games under Lane Kiffin something Art Shell and Norv Turner struggled with in recent years.

It's how you deal with the aftermath that matters. The Raiders got blown up on Monday night football by the one team most Raider fans would least like to do it. After that Lane Kiffin explodes on the Raiders very leaky defense. The blow up in which he distances himself completely from all things Raider defense related results in Ryan's expletive laden response. A response that has him claiming all responsibility for the Raiders defensive woes (Kiffin had laid it at Al Davis and Ryan's doorsteps).

With all this laundry washed it's hopefully time for the serious work to correct the mistakes made by special teams, defense and offense in time to get the them ready to face another division foe this week. Kansas played a - for the most part - Tom Brady less New England team very tough. Kansas will be a tough test for JaMarcus Russell's first away game start.

If the Raiders come out of this with a win then maybe the rest of this season looks a little more promising than the total collapse some of my Raider Nation brothers and sisters are preaching. I certainly don't see what happened this week as the final nail in Lane Kiffin's coffin as the Oakland Raiders head coach either. After all it was Al Davis who coined the phrase "Just Win Baby".

Another strong performance from the mainstays on the Raiders roster see's them take a 10-7 lead into half time. The secondary players fought to a point where they held a two point lead with less than a minute remaining. Only to see the Titans march down the field and win with a field goal kick to end the game.

Louis Rankin showcased his talents whilst the higher profile running backs on the Raiders watched on. Rankin rushed for 91 yards on 8 carries including a 72 yard run that led to a field goal. Rankin enter the game in the third after Michael Bush had scored a touchdown for the Raiders and the 49ers then fumbled on their next possession.

The win is a reverse of the loss suffered by Kiffin's Raiders last preseason to the 9ers (21-26).

The Raiders managed to double their win total last year but that was only enough to get them four wins. Two of the wins where big one because the Raiders finally managed to win in their own division. Something that had been a long time coming.

Now they look to build on that with another under the same coach (after three years of change with Turner, Shell and Kiffin himself). They now have two high draft picks that are essentially both rookie (thanks to Russell's contract dispute - I don't count the one start or limited action in a few other games) that must lead the way on offense.

Given that and an unchanged defensive scheme it looks to be a bumpy year for the Raiders as they gain experience but not one without hope. The Chargers after all still have Norv Turner as their head coach, the Chiefs have started thier rebuilding project and the Broncos no longer seem as good as they once where and neither does visiting their home turf.