Key Matchups: Bengals vs. Raiders

No chipping or helping here.

"When they're healthy the Bengals tackles are as good as anybody in the game," The Guru says. "And the way those guys have stepped in for the injured guys, you just wouldn't have seen many teams put up the offense they did with all those backups. It's a credit to their coaching and depth."

And how good are the Raiders against the run? In Oakland's last three games Ron Dayne nicked the Raiders defense for 5.3 yards per carry on his 19 carries while LaDainian Tomlinson and Larry Johnson went for 119 and 154 yards, respectively.

Its strength vs. strength all the way around. The Raiders are ranked first against the pass, the Bengals are fourth throwing it. Chad Johnson has scored four touchdowns of at least 41 yards and the Raiders defense hasn't allowed a touchdown pass longer than 40 yards all season. The Raiders have the fourth best defense on third down in the NFL by winning two-thirds of the time and Bengals wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh is tied for second in the NFL with 23 third-down catches.

Graham missed a 46-yarder in the wind and rain last Thursday night. But he's still the NFL's most accurate active kicker at 84 percent. At 13-for-19 this year and 77.4 percent career, Janikowski is not. As steady as Graham is, Janikowski is wild. Felix vs. Oscar. He drilled a 55-yarder last month and then last week yanked a 29-yarder off the left upright.

Now the question is if two weeks are enough time to fix a scheme.

Sunday may be the day for Joseph's first NFL pick. The Raiders are barely completing half their passes and have thrown for just six touchdowns. Carson Palmer has done that in the last three games.

Another good special match. Oakland's Shane Lechler is one of the best punters in the league and he's first in gross punting average and ninth in net average while the Bengals are second covering punts.