The Oakland Raiders were able to record the first win of the 2013 NFL season last Sunday at the expense of arguably the worst team in the NFL. The Jacksonville Jaguars put up a fight late in the game against the Raiders, but ultimately were unable to keep up with Darren McFadden and company losing, 19-9.
Unfortunately for the Raiders, the first win of the season proved to be costly. Oakland suffered a few injuries on the defensive side of the football with Mike Jenkins, Charles Woodson and Tyvon Branch going down one after the other. Although Woodson and Jenkins turned out to be fine, the same can’t be said for Branch.
Reportedly, Branch suffered a fractured fibula and will miss considerable time. Losing Branch is a major blow to a defense that has played much better than expected in the first two games of the season.
After learning about the severity of Branch’s injury, teammates Usama Young, Woodson and head coach Dennis Allen talked about the impact of losing a leader on defensive side of the football via Scott Bair of CSNBayArea.com:
