It's fits and false starts for Raiders' offense

ALAMEDA – The occasional false start or holding call had been a problem for the Raiders' offensive line all season.

But the penalties reached epidemic proportions in the Raiders' 13-9 loss at Tennessee on Sunday.

Four different offensive linemen had at least one penalty. The offense committed 11 of the team's season-high 14 infractions – eight of those by the offensive line.

After the offensive line was showered with praise in the first month of the season, it is back to drawing negative attention because of the penalties and problems in pass protection.

Seven games into the season, Raiders coach Lane Kiffin doesn't have any alternatives except to work with the group he has and get the most out of it.

"There aren't a lot of options to look at as far as changing personnel," Kiffin said. "But what's there we'll look at."

Kiffin indicated roster moves could happen soon, but didn't go into specifics except to say the Raiders deciding not to keep Andrew Walter as a fourth quarterback might be one of them.

The offensive line was weakened when starting right tackle Cornell Green left the game with a left knee injury in the first quarter. Paul McQuistan, who never had played tackle in an NFL game, replaced him and had two false starts.

The Raiders tried to help him in pass protection, but left tackle Barry Sims (three false starts and a holding penalty) also needed help to keep Kyle Vanden Bosch off Daunte Culpepper.

Adding to the Raiders' troubles is the fact the Titans' defensive line is good – Tennessee had five sacks – and hardly needed Oakland mistakes to be effective.

Raiders linemen were looking for any edge to be ready to block, which led to them getting out too fast more than once.

"Those penalties can happen whether you're better than someone or not," Kiffin said. "Do they happen more often when someone is not confident they can block the guy? Yeah, they do."

Kiffin said Green's status would be updated Wednesday. Green didn't elaborate on the injury Monday except to say he would be fine.

As far as getting the offensive line back on a roll, Kiffin said there is only so much music he can play at practice to simulate crowd noise.

But he'll go through everything he can think of to fix the penalties.

"We'll look at the way we call plays," Kiffin said. "We'll look at who we help in our protections, all that, as we always would to try to get better."

Getting the offense to produce is a must, as the Raiders' improving defense continues to be hit with injuries to its line.

Starting defensive end Tommy Kelly left Sunday's game in the third quarter with a right knee injury.

"We'll know more Wednesday," Kiffin said. "But it doesn't sound good at this point."

Kelly leads Raiders defensive linemen with 25 tackles. The Raiders have been without defensive tackle Gerard Warren the past three games because of a quadriceps injury.

Rookie Jay Richardson would start for Kelly, leaving only Tyler Brayton and Chris Clemons as backup defensive linemen.