Daily Madden: Raiders' Loss To Dolphins; 49ers Defense 'The Big Thing'
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) — It was another disappointing loss for the Raiders Sunday night at Wembley Stadium where Miami quarterback Ryan Tannehill threw for 278 yards and two touchdowns, leading the Dolphins to a 38-14 victory over Oakland.
Madden said this game looked a lot like their 30-14 loss to the Houston Texans in two weeks ago.
Daily Madden: Raiders' Loss To Dolphins; 49er Defense 'A Big Thing'
"There are teams that you think you are pretty even with, or think you should be even with and should win. Now, the Raiders, in this case, are one of the better teams, so if they play one of the better teams, you don't expect to win but when they play a team like Houston and when the play a team like Miami, you think they have a pretty good chance to win. And you're looking for a little better playing, a little better outcome," he said.
Matters only got worse for the Raiders when rookie quarterback Derek Carr injured his left ankle and knee in the third quarter and was replaced by third-stringer Matt McGloin.
Back at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Frank Gore caught a career-best 55-yard touchdown and ran for 119 yards in his first 100-yard game of 2014, leading the San Francisco 49ers past Philadelphia 26-21 on Sunday to hand the Eagles their first loss.
Eagles head coach Chip Kelly said "we lost because of the incredible, physical sort-of-attributes performance of Colin Kaepernick."
But Madden said that Frank Gore had a lot to do with it and he also went on to tout the defense.
"They played the five-wide receivers, they had no run threat there and so the only run threat became Kaepernick so they could play him for the run. Now you put Frank Gore in there—and Kaepernick—then the run threat becomes Kaepernick and Gore and there is always the pass threat. But the big thing…was the defense. That victory was about the defense and the way they played Philadelphia and they kind of choked them."
"They always talk about this up-tempo or hurry-up, get a lot of plays and tire the defense out and that's only good if you get first downs. If you go hurry-up up at the line and a lot of plays and you don't get first downs, then you get a lot of three-and-outs," Madden said.
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