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2B – Daily News – Friday, September 17, 2010 Raiders line could miss Gallery Oakland Raiders ALAMEDA (AP) — The Oakland Raiders had plenty of problems on the offensive line in the season opener even with Robert Gallery in the lineup. Now as they prepare for their sec- ond game, the Raiders face the real possibility of being without their most reliable lineman. Gallery missed prac- tice for the second straight day Thurs- day with a hamstring injury and his sta- tus for Sunday’s game against St. Louis is in doubt. Coach Tom Cable said he would know more Friday whether Gallery could go this week. If Gallery is unable to play, Daniel Loper would get the start. Loper has started just five games in his five-year career, all with Detroit last season. The Raiders struggled without Gallery last season when he missed 10 games with a broken leg and a bad back. They went just 2-8 in games he missed, scoring 9.8 points per contest. Oakland was 3-3 when Gallery started, scoring 16.5 points per game. They were counting on him to anchor a line this year that features rookie center Jared Veldheer, who was playing tackle at Division II Hillsdale College a year ago, and a pair of tack- les in Mario Henderson and Langston Walker, who struggled mightily in the opener. ‘‘We got to keep him on the field and keep him healthy, because when he is, he’s been very good, very produc- tive and you miss him when he’s not there,’’ Cable said. ‘‘And so, what does he mean to it? That is a unit that needs to play together as much and as often as they possibly can to be good. And so, when you take a piece out, an important piece, I think it does hurt you.’’ ATLANTA (AP) — The Seattle Storm are champions again. Seattle completed its undefeated march through the postseason, beating the Atlanta Dream 87-84 on Thursday night for a three-game sweep in the WNBA finals. The Storm won each of its seven postseason games for its second WNBA title. The Storm also won the 2004 championship. Swin Cash scored 18 points to lead a balanced offense as Seattle overcame 35 points by Atlanta’s Angel McCoughtry. Lauren Jackson, who had 26 points in each of the Storm’s first two wins in the series, had 15 points and nine rebounds and was selected MVP of the finals. McCoughtry, who set a WNBA playoff record with 42 points in the Dream’s Eastern Conference finals 49ERS (Continued from page 1B) this week claiming there is tension between the players and coaches and that some players approached Single- tary this offseason to com- plain about Raye. Singletary expressed dis- appointment in the piece. Yahoo! reporter Jason Cole said through a pool reporter: ‘‘That’s fine. I stand by what I wrote.’’ ‘‘I believe in our country, in society, the saddest thing has happened,’’ Singletary said. ‘‘One thing that I want to teach our guys is to be men. If there’s something that you have to say, go say it, and say that you said it. But don’t go say a bunch of stuff, ’But don’t tell him I said it.’ To me, that’s a rat, that’s a coward, so those things I can’t spend my time on. ... ‘‘I don’t want to deal with a rat. I don’t want to spend my time trying to find out who said this, who did that. The article is not factual, No. 1. No. 2, I don’t want to spend my time trying to find a rat. In time, the smell will come.’’ Smith was surprised to read the information that he said was all new to him. ‘‘I’m not going to lie. I found most of the article pretty ridiculous,’’ Smith said. ‘‘Stuff that I had absolutely no idea about. Stuff that was news to me that players were going to coach Singletary this offsea- son and had these issues. That’s something I certainly had no idea about and I meet with Singletary pretty often. So, no idea. I was complete- ly unaware of. You can ask the rest of my team, but as far as I’m concerned com- pletely coming from Even with Gallery in the lineup, the Raiders had trouble moving the ball in the 38-13 loss at Tennessee in the opener. The Raiders gained just 106 yards in the first half as Jason Camp- bell had little time to throw the ball most of the game. The line committed four false starts, one holding call, and allowed four sacks, leading Cable to say the team needs much better play from its tackles this week. Cable, the former line coach, is still involved heavily with the group and said he takes their struggles harder than he would another position’s because of the time he has put in with those play- ers. He said there are times he’d like to spend ‘‘every second’’ coaching that group but he has bigger issues to deal with as head coach. Cable isn’t ready to write off his line, pointing out the two of the sacks came on the second drive and the team gained 135 yards on the ground. ‘‘Let’s not dump on that group,’’ Cable said. ‘‘That would be stupidity by all of us. We ran the ball with some consistency. We’ve got to clean up the sacks early in the first two drives. We do that, you look at it and say, ’Wow, that really isn’t a bad for them.’ But because of that issue on the first two drives, it’s not acceptable. But I’d like to see us continue to run the ball on that pace and improve from there, because I think we’ll be pretty good at that.’’ One of the biggest issues was Ten- nessee’s ability to get off the line quick- er than the Raiders. That was most evi- dent on a play in the first quarter when defensive end Jacob Ford got in the backfield before Henderson had even gotten off the line, leading to a strip sack that led to a field goal for the Titans. Henderson believes Ford was off- clinching win over the New York Lib- erty, tried to rally Atlanta with nine points in the final 2:30. But McCoughtry and Coco Miller missed 3-pointers in the final 6 seconds, setting off a celebration by Seattle’s players. McCoughtry’s three-point play with 46 seconds remaining cut Seattle’s lead to 85-80. Seattle’s Tanisha Wright missed two free throws and McCoughtry was fouled by Cash while missing a 3. McCoughtry made two of three free throws to cut the lead to three points with 31 seconds remaining. Seattle’s Sue Bird dribbled away the shot clock before missing a shot to set up a basket by Atlanta’s Iziane Castro Marques with 6.9 seconds left. McCoughtry immediately fouled Camille Little, who made two free throws to give Seattle an 87-84 lead. nowhere. False.’’ Raye isn’t a stranger for taking heat. There were questions whether he would return for a second season with the Niners, but Single- tary stood by him. This is first time in eight years the franchise hasn’t had a new person in the job. ‘‘I’ve done this a long time. This is my 34th year in the National Football League. I’m not flawless,’’ Raye said. ‘‘I think I speak with good diction. I don’t garble anything. I think I express myself pretty well. So, whoever Yahoo! is, maybe he should come call the plays.’’ Raye said in many instances he’d rather accept a 5-yard penalty than use a timeout. Smith said the situ- ations Sunday were too cru- cial and he made the choice to call timeout. Smith point- ed to one situation on their third offensive play of the game, a first-and-10 on the 18, when he might not have needed to do so but didn’t want to disrupt any momen- tum with a penalty. Raye said there is a group of ‘‘fail-safe’’ plays Smith can go to in case of a mixup or in a case like Sunday when he didn’t get the entire play. Yet shifting to those options with the clock run- ning down isn’t necessarily the easiest thing to do, either, for a quarterback who thrives when things are run- ning smoothly. The 49ers (0-1), the pre- season favorite to win the NFC West, didn’t manage a touchdown in their opener — and now things get even tougher with the Saints com- ing to town for a prime time matchup. ‘‘I think it’s important that all of you understand that this game has a human element to it,’’ Raye said. ‘‘Of the games that were side on the play, but no penalty was called. ‘‘If you just turned on ESPN, you seen me get beat by a sack-fumble,’’ he said. ‘‘Nobody knows he was offsides because they didn’t throw the flags. They jumped us a few times in the game. But once again, playing left tackle, a guy jumps offsides, I have no chance. None. And it always looks the worst coming from the backside, the blind side. I really learned that.’’ The opening test was difficult, com- ing on the road against a good defense with a unit that had little time together leading up to the game. Veldheer played only one exhibition game as the first-team center after taking the place of Samson Satele, sitting out the final preseason with the rest of the starters. Cable said he hadn’t decided whether Veldheer would start Sunday. While Henderson, Gallery and Carlisle were starters last season, Walker was mostly a reserve after rejoining the Raiders and played guard as well as right tackle. Campbell said it will take time for this group to gel. ‘‘It’s not something that’s going to happen overnight, or happen in one or two games, it’s something that as the season continues to progress, we’ll get on the same page and continue to have that trust in one another,’’ he said. ‘‘Right now everyone’s learning, and playing at the same time, and every- one’s trying to get a feel for each other. But there’s a lot of progress that we took out of the game.’’ NOTES: Dodgers manager Joe Torre and former Raiders coach John Madden attended practice. ... RB Michael Bush (broken left thumb) was limited at practice. ... DL Richard Seymour (hamstring) was among those who missed practice. Storm hold off Dream to win 2nd WNBAtitle McCoughtry missed a 3-pointer but the rebound went to Atlanta before Coco Miller also missed a last-second 3. Each of Seattle’s starters scored in double figures. Bird, who along with Jackson are the only players remaining from the Storm’s 2004 title team, had 14 points and seven assists. Little had 15 and Wright had 13. The Storm became the first team to win the championship without a post- season loss since the Los Angeles Sparks went 6-0 in 2002, when the finals were a best-of-three series. The sweep wasn’t easy. The Storm won the first two games in Seattle by a combined margin of five points and struggled at times against Atlanta’s relentless defense in the decisive Game 3. played last week, I would dare say that there was any- one in the position I’m in that was flawless. So, what could I have done better? I could have maybe had a bet- ter plan. I could maybe have made some better decisions. Hopefully the ones that I made were the correct ones. You hope they play out that way. Because of that there are any number of things that you always think back on when you lose that you could have done better. And if you don’t, then you proba- bly shouldn’t be in the game.’’ Raye said he approved of Smith bringing up the prob- lems with the calls getting in on time, which Singletary initially understood as being caused by Smith’s headset malfunctioning. On Mon- day, Singletary changed his tune. MLB West Division Texas A’s American League WL Pct GB 82 63 .566 — 72 73 .497 10 Angels 71 75 .486 11.5 Seattle 55 91 .377 27.5 East Division WL Pct GB Tampa Bay 88 57 .607 — New York 88 58 .603 .5 Boston 82 64 .562 6.5 Toronto 73 73 .500 15.5 Baltimore 58 88 .397 30.5 Central Division WL Pct GB Minnesota 88 58 .603 — Chicago 79 67 .541 8.5 Detroit 72 74 .493 16.5 Kansas City 60 85 .414 27.5 Cleveland 59 86 .407 28.5 ————————————————— Thursday’s results Cleveland 3, Los Angeles 2, 11 innings Minnesota 8, Chicago 5 Today’s games Oakland (Bre.Anderson 5-6) at Minn.(Blackburn 9-9),5:10 p.m.,CSNC New York (A.J.Burnett 10-13) at Baltimore (Millwood 3-15), 4:05 p.m. Los Angeles (Haren 3-4) at Tampa Bay (W.Davis 12-9), 4:10 p.m. Toronto (Cecil 12-7) at Boston (Lackey 12-10), 4:10 p.m. Cleveland (C.Carrasco 0-0) at Kansas City (Davies 8-9), 5:10 p.m. Detroit (Scherzer 10-10) at Chicago (E.Jackson 3-1), 5:10 p.m. Texas (C.Wilson 14-6) at Seattle (F.Hernandez 11-11), 7:10 p.m. Smith said it was a prob- lem from time to time last season, too. He took over as starter from Shaun Hill on Oct. 25 at Houston. The 49ers aren’t the only ones dealing with this. Saints coach Sean Payton said Thursday they blew two timeouts in their opening 14- 9 win over the Minnesota Vikings, a rematch of last season’s NFC championship game. ‘‘You just want the quar- terback to have enough time, not to feel hurried. We had a couple of similar issues. Last week, we had to burn a time- out twice. I was late getting plays in and it ended up hurt- ing us. I think it’s fairly com- mon in Week 1.’’ MLB West Division National League WL Pct GB Padres 82 64 .562 — GIANTS 82 64 .562 — Colorado 80 66 .548 2 Dodgers 72 74 .493 10 Arizona 59 88 .401 23.5 East Division WL Pct GB Philadelphia 86 61 .585 — Atlanta 83 64 .565 3 Florida 73 72 .503 12 New York 74 73 .503 12 Washington 62 84 .425 23.5 Central Division WL Pct GB Cincinnati 83 64 .565 — St. Louis 75 70 .517 7 Houston 70 76 .479 12.5 Milwaukee 67 78 .462 15 Chicago 65 81 .445 17.5 Pittsburgh 48 98 .329 34.5 ————————————————— Thursday’s results Los Angeles at San Francisco, late Arizona 3, Cincinnati 1 New York 6, Pittsburgh 2 St. Louis 4, San Diego 0 Today’s games Milwaukee (Ra.Wolf 11-11) at S.F.(Bumgarner 5-5),7:15 p.m.,CSNB Arizona (I.Kennedy 9-9) at Pittsburgh (Burres 3-3), 4:05 p.m. Washington (Marquis 2-8) at Philadelphia (Oswalt 12-13), 4:05 p.m. Atlanta (Hanson 9-11) at New York (Niese 9-8), 4:10 p.m., MLBN Chicago (Dempster 13-10) at Florida (Sanabia 4-2), 4:10 p.m. Cincinnati (Cueto 12-5) at Houston (W.Rodriguez 11-12), 5:05 p.m. San Diego (Latos 14-6) at St. Louis (Lohse 3-7), 5:15 p.m. Colorado (Jimenez 18-6) at Los Angeles (Kuroda 10-12), 7:10 p.m. Wednesday’s late result San Francisco 2,Los Angeles 1 ST. LOUIS (0-1) at OAKLAND (0-1) Sunday, 1:05 p.m., FOX OPENING LINE — Raiders by 6 RECORD VS. SPREAD — St. Louis 0-1; Oakland 0- 1 SERIES RECORD — Raiders lead 7-4 LAST MEETING — Rams won at Raiders 20-0, Dec. 17, 2006 LAST WEEK — Rams lost to Cardinals 17-13; Raiders lost at Titans 38-13 RAMS OFFENSE — OVERALL (14), RUSH (24), PASS (10) PASS (26) (5T), PASS (25) RAMS DEFENSE — OVERALL (27), RUSH (19), RAIDERS OFFENSE — OVERALL (22), RUSH RAIDERS DEFENSE — OVERALL (21), RUSH (31), PASS (5) STREAKS, STATS AND NOTES — Rams won in Oakland for only time in last meeting in 2006; also beat Raiders on road in 1988 when both based in Los Ange- les. ... St. Louis has lost 26 of 27 games. ... No. 1 overall pick Sam Bradford set records with 55 attempts and 32 completions in his NFL debut last week for St. Louis. ... WR Mark Clayton had career-high 10 catches for 119 yards last week less than a week after joining Rams. ... St. Louis DE Chris Long plays first against the team his father, Howie, starred for during 13-year Hall of Fame career. ... Rams recovered four Arizona fumbles in open- er, the most for team since recovering four against Balti- more in 2003. ... Raiders have lost five straight home openers but are still are 34-15-1 in first home game of season. ... RB Darren McFadden had 150 yards from scrimmage last week for Raiders, the most he’s had since gaining 173 in second career game at Kansas City in 2008. ... QB Jason Campbell makes home debut for Raiders. He threw for 222 yards and two TDs in only pre- vious game in Oakland last year with Washington. ... Raiders have allowed an NFL-worst five carries for at least 50 yards since start of 2009 season. NEW ORLEANS (1-0) at SAN FRANCISCO (0-1) Monday, 5:30 p.m., ESPN OPENING LINE — Saints by 4 1/2 RECORD VS. SPREAD — New Orleans 1-0-0; San Francisco 0-1-0 SERIES RECORD — 49ers lead 45-23-2 LAST MEETING — Saints beat 49ers 31-17, Sept. 28, 2008 to Seahawks 31-6 (25), PASS (14) PASS (10) PASS (15) PASS (12T) LAST WEEK — Saints beat Vikings 14-9; 49ers lost SAINTS OFFENSE — OVERALL (16), RUSH SAINTS DEFENSE — OVERALL (8), RUSH (14), 49ERS OFFENSE — OVERALL (24), RUSH (29T), 49ERS DEFENSE — OVERALL (6), RUSH (7), STREAKS, STATS AND NOTES — Saints try to begin 2-0 in back-to-back seasons for first time in fran- chise history. ... They’ve won last five meetings with 49ers, but five of last six matchups were played in Super- dome. ... Saints last visited Candlestick Park on Oct. 28, 2007 (winning 31-10). ... Teams are former longtime rivals in NFC West before NFL realignment in 2002. ... Saints QB Drew Brees coming off 14-9 opening win over Vikings in which he completed 27 of 36 passes for 237 yards and a touchdown and connected with nine different players. Brees had QB rating of 101.3, the 30th time in 64 regular season games with the Saints that his rating was above 100. ... Saints’ 14 points were their fewest in a win since Sean Payton took over as coach in 2006. ... New Orleans had 33:43 to 26:17 edge in time of possession against Minnesota. Saints have had plenty of prep time considering they opened Sept. 9 against Brett Favre and Vikings. ... Saints defense held Vikings to 253 total yards. San Francisco managed 263 in season-opening 31-6 loss at Seattle. ... 49ers committed eight penalties in Week 1. ... San Francisco looks for more from RB Frank Gore, who had 38 yards on 17 carries vs. Seahawks. QB Alex Smith, too. He went 26 for 45 for 225 yards and no TDs for dismal 52.5 passer rating in opener. MLS Thursday’s result New York at FC Dallas, late Week 3 Schedule Today’s games WNBA FINALS Seattle 3, Atlanta 0 Game 1:Seattle 79, Atlanta 77 Game 2:Seattle 87, Atlanta 84 Thursday: Seattle 87, Atlanta 84 GOLDEN Championship Chico 2, Maui 0 Game 1:Chico 5, Maui 2 Wednesday:Chico 5, Maui 1 Friday: at Maui, 9:05 p.m. Saturday: at Maui, 9:05 p.m. Sunday: at Maui, 9:05 p.m. Corning at Red Bluff, 7:30 p.m. University Prep at Los Molinos,7:30 p.m. Anderson at Las Plumas, 7:30 p.m. Antelope at Enterprise, 7:30 p.m. Burney at Chester, 7:30 p.m. Chico at Nevada Union, 7:15 p.m. Dixon at Winters, 7:30 p.m. Durham at Hamilton, 7:30 p.m. East Nicolaus at Biggs, 7:30 p.m. Eureka at Shasta, 7:30 p.m. Fall River at Quincy, 7:30 p.m. Gridley at Live Oak, 7:30 p.m. Henley at Yreka, 7:30 p.m. Lassen at Foothill, 7:30 p.m. Marysville at Sutter, 7:30 p.m. Mt. Shasta at Weed, 7:30 p.m. Orland at Willows, 7:30 p.m. Oroville at Central Valley, 7:30 p.m. Pierce at Williams, 7:30 p.m. Pleasant Valley at Paradise, 7:30 p.m. Portola vs Stone Ridge Christian, 7 p.m. Trinity at Modoc, 7:30 p.m. Tulelake at Maxwell, 7:30 p.m. View Park at Esparto, 7 p.m. West Valley at Fortuna, 7 p.m. Wheatland at Lincoln, 7:30 p.m. FOOTBALL