Chiefs know Raiders will run

With passing game on fritz, Oakland will pound at weak run defense

? If the Oakland Raiders are having trouble game-planning for Kansas City, let them talk to Ryan Sims.

“Run the ball,” the Chiefs’ defensive tackle said. “Hey, we haven’t stopped the run all year. Run the ball.”

Actually, the Chiefs (9-1) have stopped the run. The problem is how far opposing rushers get before they’re halted. On average, they’ve picked up 4.9 yards per carry.

That’s terrible, next-to-last in the NFL. And it would seem to play right into the hands of the injury-weakened Raiders (3-7), who have run the ball 95 times for 360 yards in their last two games against the New York Jets and Minnesota Vikings.

With third-teamer Rick Mirer at quarterback, what other gameplan makes sense against a team that ranks 25th overall in run defense with an average yield of more than 130 yards per game?

Tim Brown agrees — and he’s a Raiders wide receiver.

“We’ve been running the ball because the teams we were playing against were No. 31 and No. 30 against the run,” said Brown, who needs just two more touchdown catches to move into third place all-time. “Obviously, we felt that gave us the best chance to win, so that’s why we’re doing it.”

Tyrone Wheatley, who gained a season-high 109 yards on 32 carries last week against the Vikings, is the kind of big bruiser who’s been giving the poor-tackling Chiefs fits. Last week’s loss to Cincinnati, which snapped their nine-game winning streak, saw Rudi Johnson rush for 165 of the Bengals’ 200 yards on the ground.

“We know what they’re going to do,” Sims said. “Can you stop them? We’ve just got to go out and continue playing Chiefs football and win the game. We’re two smash-mouth teams, two old-school teams who run the ball.”

While beating the Vikings last week and snapping a five-game losing streak, the Raiders asked Mirer to pass only 13 times. He hit nine for 195 yards, but in one stretch the Raiders had 21 straight running plays.

“He hands the ball off. That’s all he does,” Sims said. “From the film we saw today he doesn’t do much more than hand the ball.”

Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil figures his tackle knows what he’s talking about.

“I know this — you’d better commit eight people to stop the run, and then if you can find a ninth guy let him line up in there, too, because they just rush the heck out of you,” he said.