Steelers, Raiders waiting for running games to bear fruit

OAKLAND, California — The Oakland Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers spent the offseason implementing new offenses designed to rely heavily on running games that could take a little pressure off their passers.

Two weeks into the season, neither running game has gotten off the ground.

Despite having a healthy Darren McFadden for a change, the Raiders (0-2) go into Sunday's game against the Steelers (1-1) with the league's second-worst rushing attack.

"You don't let it frustrate you. The saving grace is, you know McFadden is back there," Raiders quarterback Carson Palmer said. "He's one arm tackle away from breaking off a 40-, 50-yarder. He's got that potential, he's got that ability, he's done it before. We're going to stick with it. We're not frustrated. We're disappointed in ourselves for not executing it better but we're not going to let it frustrate us, we're not going to let it deter it from our goal."

The Steelers haven't had much better luck running the ball so far this season in new coordinator Todd Haley's offense.

Pittsburgh has rushed for just 141 yards the first two weeks and averaged a paltry 2.6 yards per carry, putting more pressure on Ben Roethlisberger and the passing game to get things going.

"It's obviously been a little frustrating because that was the emphasis of the offseason, getting a new coordinator, is running the ball and being able to pound it," Roethlisberger said. "But it's not working quite this minute and things aren't going well."

The Raiders have been much worse with just 68 yards rushing per game in losses to San Diego and Miami. For a team that has stressed being a run-first offense under coordinator Greg Knapp, it's not hard to figure why the offense has sputtered so much with a running game that can't get going.

McFadden, who missed the final nine games last season with a foot injury, is healthy but not productive. He has 54 yards on 26 carries as he once again has struggled while playing in a zone blocking system.

Knapp brought back the system the Raiders used in McFadden's first two seasons, which were filled with disappointments. McFadden emerged as one of the league's top backs once Hue Jackson brought his offense to Oakland that stressed more power running.

McFadden averaged 5.3 yards per carry under Jackson, compared to 3.7 in the other systems. The main difference has been the lack of big plays. He has also gone from having one of every 15 runs go for at least 20 yards to one of every 49.

"I just feel like going with the zone system is one of those situations where you're going to have to keep hitting it until you get going," McFadden said. "It's going to be 1 yard here or 2 yards there, but eventually it's going to start popping."

The Steelers hope it's not this week.

"We know he's an explosive back and can go off at any time," defensive lineman Casey Hampton said. "We know that. We're very aware. We're not taking it for granted."

Facing the Steelers stout defense has not usually been the tonic to cure struggling running games over the years. Pittsburgh has allowed the fewest yards rushing per game over the past 10 seasons because of its physical front and sure-tackling secondary.

In two games against the Steelers, McFadden has 39 yards on 19 carries.

"It's going to be a rough, tough fist fight out there," he said. "They are going to come in here with a hard-nose defense, and you know that's something you expect from the Steelers. We just have to go out there and play our game, and stay on schedule."

Roethlisberger has made up for the deficiencies in Pittsburgh's running game with sterling play on third downs. He has completed 19 of 25 passes for 251 yards, three touchdowns and a passer rating of 146.8 on third down, allowing Pittsburgh to overcome the long yardage situations created by the lack of a running game.

"It's obviously been a little frustrating because that was the emphasis of the offseason, getting a new coordinator, running the ball and being able to pound it," Roethlisberger said. "But it's not working quite this minute and things aren't going well. You got to find ways to keep holding on to the ball, possessing it, and we've been able to do that."

View the original article here

Jaguars running back Jones-Drew ends holdout

JACKSONVILLE, Florida — Maurice Jones-Drew remains as passionate as ever about his value.

Coming back: Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew ended his contract holdout on Sunday. AP

So when the Jacksonville Jaguars running back ended his 38-day holdout Sunday — without a new contract — he had no apologies, no regrets and no concerns about his standing with the franchise.

"I'm in a good place," he said. "I did something I felt was right, and I'm always going to feel right. I'm not going to feel wrong for what I did it at all. And that's why I can come back and not have a negative attitude. I think if you regret things, you're going to come back salty, be a distraction, things like that.

"I don't feel that way 'cause what I did was right. No one can tell me it was wrong. Not one person here can tell me what I did was wrong."

Jones-Drew arrived at the team facility Sunday morning, chatted with teammates and then had a 40-minute conversation with coach Mike Mularkey.

Later, he spent nearly half an hour answering questions about his holdout, even getting to a point where he told reporters to "make sure we all get this out of the way because I'm done after this."

"This is the last talk about the whole contract situation," he said. "We're going to move forward to football after this."

Jones-Drew considered skipping games, missing paychecks and causing an even bigger distraction for the team. Ultimately, though, he opted to report a week before the season opener.

"It really wasn't about budging," said Jones-Drew, who took a conditioning test later in the day. "For me, it got to the point where I wasn't going to be traded. Obviously, they weren't going to pay me. I could have easily sat out until Week 10, come back and been a distraction. It wasn't about that. I'm not going to come back and distract guys from playing the game the right way."

The NFL's leading rusher in 2011, Jones-Drew skipped the team's entire offseason schedule in what became a nasty contract dispute.

Jones-Drew is scheduled to make $4.45 million in 2012 and $4.95 million next year.

He wanted to renegotiate the final two years of a five-year, $31 million deal that paid him nearly $22 million the last three seasons. Owner Shad Khan and general manager Gene Smith refused, not wanting to set a precedent of paying players in the middle of lucrative deals.

Things got tense after Khan said publicly that Jones-Drew's absence "doesn't even move the needle." Khan also said his message to Jones-Drew is the "train's leaving the station. Run, get on it."

Those comments didn't sit well with Jones-Drew, who would have accepted a trade if it meant getting a new deal.

"I was disappointed about the comments," Jones-Drew said. "I expect you guys or people outside the organization to make those comments like that. But when you do get it inside the organization, with how hard we work, with the time you put in through the offseason, the time you spend away from your family here at the facility, you expect a little more appreciation."

Khan welcomed Jones-Drew aboard Sunday.

"The Jaguars are a better football team today than we were yesterday, and now our entire franchise can move forward together and as one," Khan said in a statement. "Nothing more needs to be said."

View the original article here

Zaccheroni needs European contingent to hit ground running

Teenage kicks: Ryo Miyaichi is expected to be named in Japan's squad for next Wednesday's friendly against Azerbaijan after impressing on loan for Bolton Wanderers this season. AP

Alberto Zaccheroni may have blotted his copybook with defeats in Japan's last two competitive matches, but the national team manager will only have eyes for the here and now as he begins his preparations for the final round of World Cup qualifiers this week.

Zaccheroni on Friday names his squad for next Wednesday's warmup friendly against Azerbaijan in Shizuoka, with the Italian set to draw heavily from his Europe-based contingent ahead of next month's qualifiers against Oman, Jordan and Australia. Losses to North Korea and Uzbekistan at the end of the previous round cost Zaccheroni the unbeaten record he had held since taking over in September 2010, but with the majority of his players arriving straight from the end of the European club season, the dynamic this time will be significantly different.

Where Zaccheroni stands to gain most is with the seemingly unstoppable momentum Shinji Kagawa has picked up over the second half of the German league season. The forward was instrumental in helping Borussia Dortmund to its first-ever domestic league-and-cup double, and with Manchester United now leading a host of elite clubs competing for his signature, there could never be a better time to establish himself as Japan's undisputed key player.

Keisuke Honda was the man who filled that role until his career was interrupted by injury last year, but after returning to action with club side CSKA Moscow, the midfielder is now set for his first international appearance in over nine months. Honda will feel he has something to prove having been out of the spotlight for so long, and with the qualifiers providing the perfect shop window for a transfer to a bigger European league, the 25-year-old will be determined to make the most of the opportunity.

Zaccheroni must also decide what to do with teenage attacker Ryo Miyaichi, who was disappointed not to make his debut after being called up for the first time against Uzbekistan in February. Miyaichi's explosive early performances on loan for Bolton Wanderers tailed off slightly as the demands of the Premier League season began to take their toll, but the 19-year-old is nevertheless a rare talent who the manager must be keen to take a look at sooner rather than later.

Strikers, as always, will give the Italian more food for thought, with Tadanari Lee injured and Mike Havenaar not getting as much playing time as he would like at Vitesse Arnhem. Hisato Sato leads the J. League scoring charts with nine goals from 11 games this season, but with Zaccheroni's preferred system favoring a taller target man, a place in the squad may be the best the Sanfrecce Hiroshima player can hope for.

Zaccheroni will, then, be looking for answers in Wednesday's friendly, and with his team having been in cold storage for almost three months since losing to Uzbekistan, it is impossible to predict how smoothly it will function. Intense concentration on the final stages of the European club season has consumed attention during that time, but with a strong start to the World Cup qualifiers imperative, the manager must make sure focus shifts quickly back to the international arena.

There is little Zaccheroni does not already know about his players' capabilities, but where their form, fitness and ability to come together as a team currently stand are the factors that will make the difference.

If everything is in working order, an early claim on a ticket to Brazil is there for the taking.

View the original article here

Noguchi not running in Osaka race

Osaka — Injury-plagued 2004 Athens Olympic champion Mizuki Noguchi has withdrawn from Sunday's Osaka International Women's Marathon because of left hamstring inflammation, organizers said Wednesday.

Noguchi will instead run the Nagoya Women's Marathon on March 11, the last of the three domestic selection races for the London Olympics.

Hisakazu Hirose, head coach of the Sysmex corporate athletics team, said, "Noguchi will be able to resume training after resting for a week to 10 days, but she isn't in condition to run Sunday."

In Osaka, the 33-year-old was going to run her first marathon in more than four years, after making two trips to the U.S. state of Colorado for high-altitude training in the last three months.

She complained of discomfort in her leg just before the end of her second trip and went to hospital in Japan last Friday.

"Not to be able to run the Osaka marathon is a shock to me," Noguchi said in a statement through the organizers. "But I'll just accept what happened and prepare myself for Nagoya. I'll never give up (on earning an Olympic berth)."

Noguchi could not defend her title at the 2008 Beijing Olympics due to leg injuries.

View the original article here