ALAMEDA — Five things we learned Thursday as the Raiders prepared to host the Kansas City Chiefs:
1. Forget the aerial circus
Although Jon Gruden’s reputation is tied to quarterbacks in large part due to his “Gruden’s QB Camp” shows on ESPN, he has long been a proponent of a smash-mouth brand of football and ideally wants to run the ball as much as pass it — if not more.
He once said, “The best thing about running for four yards on first down is you can run it again,” and the Raiders against Denver ran the ball 28 times and passed it 26.