Arkansas Business

This story is from the archives of ArkansasSports360.com.

Darren McFadden looked healthy, not so the Oakland Raiders.

D-Mac, (no, the “D” doesn’t stand for disabled list) looked whole and hearty in the Raiders’ season opener against the San Diego Chargers on Monday night.

But it might be a matter of be careful what you wish for in the case of McFadden, the ex-Arkansas Razorback whose season ended after seven games last year because of a foot injury.

The Raiders floundered to a 22-14 loss that hinged on some bad long snaps by backup snapper Travis Goethel, a blocked punt and a Carson Palmer-run offense described by NFL beat writer Dan Hanzus as  “rudderless.”

Palmer seemed intent on getting McFadden the ball, often to the exclusion of the rest of the offense. McFadden wound up as the leading rusher with a ho-hum 32 yards on 15 carries, but he also was the leading receiver as he made a career-high 13 receptions for 86 yards.

Nothing surprising about the workload. McFadden, a fifth-year pro reportedly in the best shape of his career, is primed to have a stellar season, especially now that he doesn’t have to share time with Michael Bush. And the Raiders had indicated they were going to work him more into the passing game.

But if Palmer keeps going to McFadden exclusively, how long before the sometimes fragile Oak Grove product — who missed 10 games his first three seasons with toe, knee and hamstring injuries — takes another hit from which he can’t recover?

On to Dallas...

We’re wondering why we never got to vote on the whole “America’s Team” thing, but the NFL season opener turned out to be a good day for the nation’s favorite expansion franchise, the Dallas Cowboys, and return man Felix Jones on Wednesday.

Jones, the former Razorback, had three kickoff returns for 61 yards as Dallas avenged last year’s season-ending loss to the New York Giants with a 24-17 victory over the defending Super Bowl champions in Cowboys Stadium, a suburb of Dallas.

Cowboys fans are no doubt mentally etching their team’s name on the Lombardi Trophy already, and it’s hard to blame them. A season opening victory in the NFL always makes one feel like a world-beater while a loss usually means it’s time to give the quarterback, coach, general manager and ownership a blindfold and cigarette.

Anyway, if Dallas is truly going to contend it will need to keep hitting on most cylinders as it did Wednesday, and that means Jones, who averaged 20.3 yards a return with a long of 25, must continue to get upfield on returns. And maybe get some carries before it’s over (he had 112 for 521 yards and a score last year).