The bye week apparently didn’t help the Oakland Raiders completely heal, because the report on the Raiders injuries in Sunday’s game at home against the Denver Broncos is that they’re going to be without their star running back Darren McFadden. The Raiders’ back went down in their last game against the Kansas City Chiefs and he was heavily taped up on the sidelines during the rest of the game. Now even after two weeks, he remains out.
Insstead, Vittorio Tafur says the Raiders are prepped to go with back-up Michael Bush and rookie running back Taiwan Jones. That’s still a potent backfield and Bush in particular can punish defenses. Still it will hurt a Raiders team trying to adjust to several new additions, including a starting quarterback in Carson Palmer and the newly signed T.J. Houshmandzadeh.