It was much closer than anyone would have thought, but what game during the second half of this season hasn’t been like this?

Peyton Manning was without Marvin Harrison, and Joseph Addai couldn’t walk down a clear sidewalk last night. But Manning’s receiving corps showed up to play! Of course Reggie Wayne was making amazing catches while Anthony Gonzalez has emerged as one of the best rookies the league’s seen this year. And our defense made some blazing hits on the Raiders too…but that kind of stuff is old hat for Bob Sanders and Co., right? And how about big T.J. Rushing with the kickoff runback in the Q1, eh?

Now, not to strip LaMont Jordan or Dominic Rhodes of anything, but why on Earth did it take so long to put in Justin Fargas? I know those Cheifs, Broncos and Bolts fans probably know too well Fargas’ lethality, but the Colts only play the Raiders once every four years so I couldn’t care less about them until this game, but Fargas was impressive! But this brings up an interesting dilemma for the Raiders’ offseason that we should probably keep an eye on: With three quality RBs, who will the Raiders choose to keep? Jordan, Rhodes and Fargas are all great, but there’s only room for one superstar RB on each time (maybe two, if you ask Jacksonville or Minnesota). Anyway, I digress…

It was a quality win in Oakland and I hope our defense took some notes on just how easily our rush defense can be exploited. They plugged in the postseason last year; they can do it again!

Here are some stats of yesterday’s game: