Tag: Las Vegas Raiders vs Cincinnati Bengals

Raiders OL ‘in flux’ Week 9 vs Bengals ‘everything is on the table’

With uncertainties due to injury, there are as many as four different alignments the Raiders could deploy on the offensive line Week 9.

We could be looking at another new starting lineup for the Raiders offensive line Sunday when they head to Cincinnati to face the Bengals.

Injuries at various positions have had the Raiders moving guys around all season, and this week carries with it probably the most uncertainty they’ve seen yet.

Primarily the question marks are at center and right guard. Andre James was injured last Sunday and missed practice Wednesday. Meanwhile Dylan Parham returned to practice after missing the past two weeks.

The team shuffled the personnel on the interior line to cover for Parham and James’s absences. First with Jordan Meredith stepping in at right guard for Parham and then Jackson Powers-Johnson moving over from left guard to center to cover for James. This meant Cody Whitehair had to come in at left guard.

At this moment, it’s still up in the air as to who will start at each spot this week.

“It’s just in such a flux right now,” Raiders OC Luke Getsy said of the interior offensive line. “Everything’s on the table, honestly. That’s the cool part, when you have guys that are smart in Dylan and Cody and Jordan and Jackson, you’re able to figure out at the end of the week what’s the best fit and what makes the most sense to get going. But, honestly everything’s on the table right now.”

That means, you have five different players who could start at the three interior spots and four different possible alignments. Fun, fun, fun.

Raiders looking to ‘get Zamir (White) going’ in run game

Could we see former Raiders starter Zamir White get more carries week 9 vs the Bengals?

At the end of last season, the Raiders really thought they had something in Zamir White. He came in for an injured Josh Jacobs and had some great looking performances over the final four games.

My response was simply to slow down a bit on the talk of him making Jacobs expendable. If for no other reason than what we saw was a running back who was completely fresh come in and face worn down defenses down the stretch. I wanted to see how he performed against fresh defenses and how he held up over a full NFL season.

Well, we didn’t have to wait a full season to see White struggle to get things going in 2024. He fumbled twice in four games with no touchdowns while averaging 3.1 yards per carry. The team then switched to Alexander Mattison as the starter.

White missed a couple games with injury, but has been back the past couple weeks. Meanwhile the run game has been inconsistent, including this past Sunday when the Raiders running backs averaged less than a yard per carry.

“I think [Alexander] Mattison’s still the starter, but we got to get Zamir [White] going,” Antonio Pierce said. “I mean, Zamir, I hate to keep referring, but last year we saw a lot of positive stuff from Zamir and seen a little bit of it earlier in this season. I think he’s just got to get out of the funk as well. I know those fumbles early on really got to him, then he had the injury, but it’s always good when we got him going downhill. I mean, he’s a big gentleman who’s physical, and obviously, I don’t think you ever see one running back in. You look at the whole league and everybody’s using two backs.”

The Chiefs loss was Mattison’s roughest outing of the season. He averaged 1.1 yards per carry and failed to get into the end zone despite four tries from inside the five. So, naturally the discussion has turned to whether White can help get things going.

The problem is, no matter how Mattison has looked this season — some good, some bad, depending on the opponent — White has always looked worse.

Now, maybe White’s had enough rest the past few weeks that he can provide a boost with fresh legs. It’s worth a shot. Got to try everything in your arsenal, rigtht?

Raiders vs Bengals injury report: Latest updates, news for Week 9

All the latest updates and news on Raiders injury report ahead of a Week 9 game vs. Bengals

The first Week nine injury report for the Raiders and Bengals is out.

Raiders, Bengals injury report

Andre James injury update

James missed Wednesday’s practice with an ankle injury. The starting center injured his ankle late in Sunday’s game against the Chiefs and didn’t return. He was replaced at center by Jackson Powers-Johnson.

Robert Spillane injury update

Spillane missed Wednesday’s practice with a knee injury. He injure it on the Chiefs’ first drive last Sunday, but missed just one snap. Antonio Pierce said he doesn’t anticipate Spillane will miss any games as a result.

Dylan Parham injury update

Parham returned to practice Wednesday for the first time since injuring his foot three weeks ago. While he was away, Jordan Meredith replaced him at right guard. He was limited in practice.

Harrison Bryant injury update

Bryant returned to practice for the first time since injuring his elbow two weeks ago against the Rams. He was Questionable last week despite not practicing all week, so his return Wednesday would seem to open up the possibility that he plays this week.

Is Dylan Parham playing this week? Injury updates for Raiders guard

Raiders G Dylan Parham has been dealing with a foot injury. Here are the latest updates.

In the Raiders week six game against the Steelers, Dylan Parham was lost to a foot injury. He has missed the past two weeks because of it.

Dylan Parham injury update

Parham returned to practice Wednesday. Head coach Antonio Pierce said Parham would be back on the field limited, opening up the possibility he could return to action this week when the team travels to Cincinnati to face the Bengals.

Raiders OL depth chart

Filling in for Parham since he went down was third year guard Jordan Meredith. That would likely continue if it turns out Parham is not ready.

Other guards on the roster who could step into the role if necessary include Cody Whitehair and Andrus Peat. Though Whitehair could be asked to fill in at left guard for Jackson Powers-Johnson, who could be asked to fill in at center for Andre James who is dealing with and ankle injury.

So, yeah, a lot of potential moving pieces.

Ballers & Busters for Raiders Wild Card Playoff vs Bengals

Ballers & Busters for Raiders Wild Card Playoff vs Bengals

For just the second time in the history of Ballers & Busters, I was able to put the word “playoff” in the title. But unlike the other time, the word signaled the Raiders played up to the level of a playoff team. Not being forced to give a rookie QB his first-ever start helped with that.

In what proved to be easily the most competitive game of the Wild Card weekend, the Raiders and Bengals spent a good portion of this game one score away from each other.

That’s the positive news. The glass-half-empty look is the Bengals took the lead on their first drive of the game and never let go of it.

The Raiders’ biggest problem was that they would go on a long drive only to stall in the red zone. In five trips into the red zone, they came away with just one touchdown. And unlike their win in the season finale, they went away from Josh Jacobs entirely in the fourth quarter in an attempt to quickly score twice. But appropriately enough, it was two more failed trips to the red zone that did them in.

Ballers

CB Nate Hobbs

The standout rookie showed up big time on the biggest stage for this team. He made the first tackle of the day as the gunner on special teams. The Bengals would drive for a TD on their first drive, but none of the catches given up were by him.

After a Derek Carr fumble gave the Bengals the ball at the Vegas 15-yard-line, the defense stiffened with Hobbs in tight coverage on third down to force Burrow to throw the ball away. It limited the damage on the turnover to a field goal which was a big win in the early going.

Early in the second quarter, Hobbs once again showed his gunner prowess, making the stop on the return at the 18-yard-line. He then made the second tackle of the possession on a four-yard run that was stopped short of the marker to bring up third and one.

The Bengals converted, but a few plays later they were again in third-and-one. This time Burrow tried Hobbs and he knocked the pass down to force them to go for it on fourth down. They would convert and finish it off for a TD, but Hobbs did his part to not make it easy.

The Bengals got the ball to start the third quarter and were moving into scoring range again. They were lined up at the 34 on first down and Hobbs had tight coverage to force an incompletion and two plays later, on third and 15, he made the tackle short of the sticks to force another field goal.

The biggest possession of the game for this defense came with 3:34 left. They needed a quick stop in order to have any chance to win it. Down seven, with no timeouts, even one first down would mean an almost certain end to their hopes. Two run stops brought up third and 11. Burrow completed the pass to his tight end and Hobbs teamed up with KJ Wright to make the stop short of the first down to keep the Raiders’ hopes alive.

RB Josh Jacobs

I mentioned in the opening that the Raiders went away from the ground game entirely in the fourth quarter. They were down ten and switched to the pass to move the ball quickly. Much the same way Justin Herbert led two touchdown drives to send the season finale to overtime.

That game plan was a real shame because Jacobs was really starting to pick up steam, just as he did in overtime of that Chargers game.

Early in the second quarter, Jacobs broke off his longest run of the season, streaking 35 yards to put the Raiders at the Bengals’ 12-yard-line. His efforts were somewhat squandered with consecutive incompletions leading to a field goal.

Late in the third quarter, Jacobs started picking up yards in chunks. On four consecutive players, he ran for eight, seven, five, and seven yards. The drive would end up in first and goal from the nine-yard line.

On second down, they ran it up the middle and for a moment it looked like the Raiders would be lining up in third and goal from the one, but Jacobs’s run was courtesy of a John Simpson hold and two plays later the Raiders again lined up for a field goal.

To play what-if for a second, had that Jacobs run counted, the Raiders may have stuck with him on third and goal from the one and may have scored. If that had happened, it would have been a 23-20 game instead of 23-16.

And, again, if all other things were the same, the Bengals add a field goal to make it 26-20. In a six-point game, the Raiders may not have gone away from the run as they did. Not that they had a legit excuse to completely shut down the run game, but that’s the decision they made.

Even still, Jacobs became a weapon in the passing game. He caught a pass for 13 yards on the first drive for a field goal and a 15-yarder to lead out the final  drive.

Despite only getting 13 carries in the game, he ran for 83 yards (6.4 yards per carry) and put up 127 total yards on 17 touches.

DE Maxx Crosby

Midway through the third quarter, the Bengals had yet to punt in the game. They had scored on every one of their drives with two touchdowns and three field goals. That streak ended when on third and 12, Crosby came up the middle on a stunt and flew in to wrap up Burrow for the sack.

The Raiders’ final defensive stand to maintain a shot at driving for the tie was led by Crosby. He teamed up with Carl Nassib to stop the run for a loss of two on first down. Then on the sweep to Jamarr Chase on second down, he stayed with it to make the stop for one yard to bring up third-and-11. The Bengals couldn’t convert and the Raiders offense got the ball with 1:51 to work with.

TE Darren Waller

Welcome Waller back among the Ballers. In just his second game back after missing five weeks to injury and COVID, Waller looked much more in sync with the offense. The false start that helped stall the first drive notwithstanding. Waller also had a seven-yard catch on third and three to keep that drive alive, so there’s that.

The Raiders’ first touchdown of the game came in the final seconds of the second quarter. On third and six from the 25-yard-line, Carr found Waller for an 11-yard completion. Two plays later, Carr and Zay Jones hooked up for the score to make for a more manageable 20-13 halftime deficit.

Down ten with 6:41 left in the game, the Raiders needed to score quickly. A touchdown would have been preferable, but a field goal was vital. The first big play was a 13-yard completion to Waller. The drive would reach the ten-yard line. And on third and three, Waller broke open out right, Carr saw him and threw it only to have the pass be a bit too low and bounce off Sam Hubbard’s helmet. Big missed opportunity on what looked like a sure first down and a possible score.

With one more shot to score, the Raiders started moving. They got a big assist from a terrible roughing the pass penalty on the Bengals that added 15 yards to a 15-yard Jacobs catch and run. A sack on Carr threatened to spoil the gift, but on third and 17, Carr threw an absolute laser through a defender and Waller made the seemingly improbable catch with the defender blocking his view for 23 yards. That set the Raiders up at the 19-yard-line.

From there, unfortunately, Waller was not targeted again and the Raiders were unable to finish off the drive.

K Daniel Carlson

The Raiders scored 19 points with 13 of them off of Carlson’s leg. He nailed all four of his field goals, including a 47-yarder. He did this in the season finale, but that was at home in a dome. This was on the road in a cold outdoor stadium. Same result. Money.

DT Quinton Jefferson

With a second straight Raiders possession ended in a sack that had AJ Cole punt out of the back of their own end zone, the Bengals would once again take over inside Vegas territory. Once again the defense stiffened and on third and goal from the four-yard-line, Jefferson sacked Burrow to force them to settle for another field goal.

LB Denzel Perryman

Perryman joked in his season-ending press conference about how everyone gives him crap about his coverage abilities. But he was actually pretty great in his coverage duties in this game. In the first play of the game, he put a hit on Bengals star receiver Jamarr Chase to knock the ball out incomplete. Later in the drive, he had a run stop too, which is what he is more known for.

The longest catch of the day Perryman gave up went for seven yards. He also made a stop on a five-yard Chase catch. Again, no small thing for Perryman to be making stops on a wide receiver the caliber of Chase.

Early in the fourth quarter, when a Bengals TD would have basically killed the Raiders’ hopes, he made a run stop short of the sticks to bring up third and one. And then had containment on the outside to keep Joe Mixon from getting the edge and he was stuffed for no gain by Johnathan Hankins. The Bengals would settle for a field goal.

And speaking of things Perryman is known for, he also led the Raiders in tackles (9) and solo tackles (6).

Honorable Mention

CB Casey Hayward — Had tight coverage on several incompletions as well as a pass breakup. And had the presence of mind to call a timeout when the Raiders had 12 men on the field.

LB Divine Deablo — Finished second on the team in tackles despite not playing the second half due to a concussion.

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5 things that tripped up Raiders in Wild Card loss to Bengals

Red zone issues cap list of mishaps for Raiders in their Wild Card loss to Bengals

It was nice for Raiders fans to have their season go a week longer than usual. Well, actually it was two weeks considering the extra regular season game this year. But after most NFL teams’ seasons were done, they were still playing. Something they haven’t experienced but one time in the previous 19 years.

That extra time is up, though. They exited the playoffs without a win, falling to the high-powered Bengals.

Even with the Bengals playing as well as they have lately, the Raiders have been playing well above what anyone expected as well. And they kept it close most of the game. But they knew they couldn’t afford for a lot to go wrong in order to win. But a lot did go wrong.

Here are the five issues the Raiders had that kept them from pulling this one out.

1. Red zone woes

Let’s just start with this stat:

That’s right. A zero passer rating in goal-to-go situations. But equally problematic is that he was passing the ball seven times in the first place. The Raiders didn’t stick with the run as they should have. Josh Jacobs carries it just 13 times.

The first time they moved into the red zone was in the second quarter, off two huge runs by Jacobs that went for a combined 49 yards. They ran it with Jacobs one first down from the 12 for two yards. Then two Carr incompletions – the second being a Desean Jackson drop – and they were kicking the field goal.

Late in the third quarter, they were back in the red zone in first and goal at the nine. From there Carr went one for three and they settled for a field goal. That was his lone completion and it came on third and 19.

With under seven minutes left, the Raiders needed two scores. In the best case scenario, they score a touchdown right away and then if they had another shot they could drive for a field goal to tie or a touchdown to win. The first drive got to first down at the 17-yard-line. A seven-yard pass to Zay Jones was followed by two incompletions and they were lining up for a field goal.

The defense stopped the Bengals with a three-and-out to give the offense another shot. They drove down to first and goal at the nine. Three incompletions, including one that was nearly picked when Carr threw into the traffic for Zay Jones, brought up fourth and goal for the game.

He again threw for Jones who was double covered and this time it was picked. And it wouldn’t have mattered if Jones had caught it because he was outside the end zone and would’ve been tackled right away. That’s a losing throw any way you look at it.

The Raiders would make four trips to the red zone and came away with one touchdown.

Josh Jacobs got the ball twice in the red zone. One of those carries was called back by penalty, for one official carry in the red zone. And he didn’t get a single carry in the fourth quarter. Mostly because of all the times they couldn’t finish a drive had them so far behind that they abandoned the run.

2. Costly penalties

The opening drive of the day stalled following a Darren Waller false start penalty on second and one. And a once-promising drive ended in a field goal. Their third drive, Brandon Parker had a false start and they once again weren’t able to recover and punted it away.

Late in the third quarter, the Raiders went on one of their most impressive drives of the game. It started with an Alex Leatherwood holding that brought back a 35-yard catch by Desean Jackson. The Raiders were able to regroup and move downfield anyway. But when John Simpson was called for holding on first and goal, they weren’t able to recover and settled for yet another field goal.

3. No consistent pressure

The first drive for the Bengals went for a touchdown with Burrow having his way. He completed five of seven passes including the touchdown. The only time he even lined up in third-down was the touchdown pass itself which came on third and goal from the seven.

Early in the second quarter, the Bengals drove for another touchdown. Once again, he completed five of seven passes including the touchdown.

Midway through the fourth, they went on another long drive, this time with Burrow completing six of seven passes. It was switching to the run and getting stopped on consecutive plays that would end the drive and they added a field goal to go up 26-16.

The Raiders had two sacks in the game. Both stopped drives. One in the second quarter by Quinton Jefferson that led to a field goal and one by Maxx Crosby that led to their first punt…in the third quarter.

4. Special teams mishap

One of the biggest bonehead plays of the game was committed by Peyton Barber who chased down a kickoff and then stepped out of bounds, which downed it at the two-yard line. It seemed like he was trying to do what Dwayne Harris did a few years back and step out of bounds FIRST and then touch the ball which would have given the Raiders the ball at the 40. But Barber touched the ball first and THEN stepped out and…that’s not how that works. 

A few plays into the ensuing drive, Derek Carr ended up getting sacked at the one-yard-line on third down. The punt would go 58 yards but be returned to the Raiders 45, starting the Bengals in Las Vegas territory two drives in a row. They would get another field goal out of it to take a 13-3 lead.

5. Lost turnover battle

No takeaways of any kind for the Raiders. They had one against the Chargers last week that helped tremendously. Two if you count the turnover on downs. They got none against the Bengals. But the Raiders had a couple of their own.

The Raiders’ second drive, Carr either didn’t notice or simply didn’t prepare for the fact that tight end Foster Moreau was lined up one-on-one with Bengals’ best pass rusher Tyler Hendrickson. He was sacked and fumbled it. The Bengals recovered at the 15-yard-line and added a field goal to go up 10-3. You might recall last week Carr fumbled inside his own 20 too, but that time the Raiders got lucky when Brandon Parker fell on it.

The game ended with Carr throwing an interception. The turnover didn’t really matter as an incompletion would’ve resulted in the same thing and even the catch being that Zay Jones was not in the end zone. But throwing to him twice while he was well covered up — either pass could’ve been the one picked — was playing with fire and the Raiders got burned.

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Raiders players make their case for return of Rich Bisaccia as head coach

Following their Wild Card loss to the Bengals, Raiders leaders on offense and defense make their pitch for return of Rich Bisaccia as head coach

No question Rich Bisaccia deserves a ton of credit for the job he’s done with the Raiders this season. He took over a team in utter turmoil and guided them to their first playoff appearance in five years.

Jon Gruden resigned after several offensive emails surfaced. The team was just five games into the season and had lost two straight games. Then Bisaccia steps in and they won two straight.

Following that second win, everything completely fell apart. The morning after the team’s win over the Eagles to bring them to 5-2 on the season, number one receiver Henry Ruggs III was allegedly driving drunk and struck a vehicle with a woman and her dog in it, killing both and landing Ruggs in jail on several serious charges.

The fallout of that contributed to the Raiders going into a tailspin, losing five of six games. But just when their playoff hopes were on the brink, they started winning. And they didn’t stop. They reeled off four straight wins to finish the season 10-7 and make the playoffs.

Though they would fall to the Bengals, it once again came down to the wire, showing this team’s resilience facing a team that had already beaten them this season and on paper looked far superior.

The whole of this has some wondering if Bisaccia deserves the chance to have the interim tag stripped off and see if he can keep it going. His players made their cases following the playoff loss in Cincinnati.

“If it was up to me, I think everyone in the world knows my decision. I love Rich,” said Maxx Crosby. “I’m biased obviously, but he’s a great coach. He came in and got us to ten wins. We came on the road, on a short week, and gave Cincinnati everything they could handle. It just shows Rich is a great leader. One of the best people I know, one of the most honest dudes I know, and I’ll go to bat for him any day of the week. I love that dude to death. He knows that. And I appreciate everything he’s brought to the table. And I hope we keep doing it.”

The leader on offense also had strong words of support for Bisaccia.

“We all think that he’s the right guy,” Derek Carr said. “Not just one player, not just one side [of the ball], but everybody. People listen to him. Our team listens to him. And I love him so much and I’m thankful for him. All of those things will be decisions that I don’t get to make. I just play quarterback and do my best to complete every pass. But I think that with everything that went on . . . the fact that that staff kept everything together and kept us competitive and kept us winning, finding ways to win football games. I think that’s what our organization is about, right?”

Carr is, of course, speaking of the Al Davis mantra “Just Win, Baby.” Which, despite it never being easy, they did four straight times to get here.

Whether the team thinks Bisaccia is the guy to lead this team after this season could depend more on who his competition is for the job.

The most prevalent rumor has been the possible interest in Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh.

The former NFL coach once led the 49ers to a Super Bowl. He never had a losing season as an NFL head coach and owns an impressive .695 winning percentage over four seasons on the job. He coached his last NFL season in 2014.

There are a good many interesting head coach candidates out there and the Raiders will do their due diligence along with giving Bisaccia his shot to interview to keep the job. Although his four-game winning streak to close out the season and a playoff berth is probably the best interview he has had.

Whether Bisaccia returns as head coach, he earned serious respect from around the league. Respect the longtime Special Teams already had from his players.

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Job one for Bengals offense vs Raiders: Contain Maxx Crosby ‘He can disrupt and entire game’

Bengals head coach Zac Taylor knows they must have a plan against Maxx Crosby ‘He can disrupt and entire game’

Hopes and dreams are important. But you can want all day long. It doesn’t mean you’ll get it. For instance, the Bengals would very much like to keep Maxx Crosby from wreaking havoc on the pocket and taking down their high-flying offense in the process.

But they know full well what he is capable of doing and are hoping to be ready for it.

“He’s one of the best players in the NFL,” Bengals head coach Zac Tayor said of Crosby this week. “He is. And you have to have a plan for him. He can disrupt an entire game. Outside of the players in our locker room here, he’s one of my favorite players in this league.

Just how he goes about every single snap, the run game, the pass game, the leadership that he’s shown on that team. He’s helped absolutely put them in a position to be in the playoffs where they’re at right now. There’s a lot of players around the league that I respect and he’s certainly top-notch and one of the top up there for me.”

It’s smart for Taylor to respect Crosby. But that may not be enough. The Pro Bowl edge rusher undoubtedly had the respect of the Chargers, but that didn’t stop him from terrorizing them to the tune of ten pressures, six tackles, four QB hits, three tackles for loss, three pass breakups, and two sacks. And one of his QB hits led to an interception.

Those numbers put him over 100 pressures on the season (101) and earned him Defensive Player of the Week. More importantly, it helped thrust the Raiders into the playoffs. Now he becomes Bengals QB Joe Burrow’s problem.

“He’s obviously a great player,” Burrow said this week. “He did the same thing to us in week (11), so we’re going to have to have a plan for him and have to get the ball out quickly and just understand that my time might be limited in the pocket because those guys they have on that side.”

Burrow knows a bit about being sacked. No QB this season was sacked more than he was (51).

In these two teams’ first meeting he was sacked three times. And none of them were Crosby who put up one QB hit and one tackle for loss. But just because he wasn’t the one doing the sacking, doesn’t mean the pressure he brings didn’t free others up to get to Burrow. In that game, it was Yannick Ngakoue, Quinton Jefferson, and Solomon Thomas who got home.

But as you can see in this clip, Crosby is always affecting the passer, even when it isn’t him who makes the sack.

Take away Crosby, and this team isn’t in the playoffs. That’s exactly what the Bengals would like to do. Good luck with that.

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LB Nicholas Morrow not expected to return for Raiders Wild Card Playoff vs Bengals

Raiders IHC Rich Bisaccia said of LB Nicholas Morrow ‘as of right now he won’t be playing’ vs Bengals

This week we heard a name we haven’t heard in a while. Nicholas Morrow was designated for return from a foot injury he suffered in training camp. He was placed on injured reserve to start the year and the initial prognosis was for a lengthy healing process.

It certainly was a long process, as he missed the entire regular season, but with the team now in the postseason, his return becomes a possibility. Just perhaps not right away according to interim head coach Rich Bisaccia.

“He didn’t get many reps today,” Bisaccia said of Morrow. “He got a little bit with some of the show team, not many, a little bit with some of the show kicking game, but we’ll see what his soreness level is today. He really didn’t get many yesterday or the day before in the walk-thru, but I know he wanted to kind of get himself in position to run around with his teammates again a little bit. We’ll see where we’re at with more reps and how sore his foot is, but as of right now he won’t be playing.”

From the sounds of it, this could mean that Morrow very well could be back next week should the Raiders beat the Bengals and advance to the Divisional Playoff round.

In Morrow’s absence, the team has gotten good reps from veteran KJ Wright and rookie Divine Deablo. Lately former starter Cory Littleton has been relegated to special teams, which is a good sign for the job Deablo has done stepping up.

Raiders, Bengals Wild Card Playoff final injury report: DT Johnathan Hankins expected to play

DT Johnathan Hankins returned to practice for Raiders and is expected to play vs Bengals

After missing the first two practices this week with back and knee injuries, Raiders got back Johnathan Hankins Thursday for their final practice in preparation for Saturday’s Wild Card playoff game in Cincinnati.

Hankins has been dealing with a back issue for a few weeks now. It cost him the team’s Week 17 game in Indianapolis, but he returned for the season finale against the Chargers. And Interim Head Coach Rich Bisaccia is expecting Hankins to be ready to go for Saturday as well.

“Johnathan Hankins was limited today but he did get a few reps in every one of our defensive sets,” said Bisaccia. “We’ll see how he comes back tomorrow from the soreness, but with a full anticipation of hopefully he’ll be ready to go.”

With the loss of Darius Philon this week, the Raiders were already thin at the nose tackle, making Hankins’ status all the more important. The only other nose tackles are on the practice squad.