Battle of the Bay: By the numbers

Battle of the Bay: By the numbers

Mark Lindahl, Sports editor

Even with the Oakland Raiders planning to skip town after the next couple of seasons, Battle of the Bay against the San Francisco 49ers will always be relevant to football fans residing in the Bay Area.

Although the two storied franchises aren’t slated to play each other this season, we can still have a little competitive rivalry by comparing fantasy production so far.

Coming into the season, everyone and their mom knew that the 49ers were going to be struggling to put up points with relatively no weapons and an aging quarterback in Brian Hoyer, but two games in and the offense has still failed to come off of the field with a touchdown, resulting in a 2-0 record.

While Hoyer has three turnovers, two interceptions and one fumble lost, compared to no touchdowns, not all of the blame can be placed on his shoulder pads.

The only established threat out of the stable of receivers they employ is Pierre Garcon, who is known as a possession receiver who needs volume to lead to production. With the offense not able to move the ball down the field, Garcon isn’t getting as many looks, especially in the red zone.

Last season Carlos Hyde posted nine games with at least 10 points out of 12 games played, along with nine touchdowns. This season, while he has racked up decent yardage amounts, he still hasn’t found the end zone.

The 49ers inability to move the ball downfield, whether through the air or pounding on the ground, is making any skilled player on their team borderline unplayable. Hyde has potential to be a solid RB2 for your fantasy team purely based on the fact that he has the starting running back position locked down, but Garcon will be a match up based flex option throughout the year.

On the flip side, the Oakland Raiders have been chugging away as they have a 2-0 record with wins over the Titans and Jets.

With Derek Carr leading the charge, Amari Cooper and Michael Crabtree have been eating up targets, resulting in 21 catches on 31 targets between the two plus four touchdowns. Throw in another TD catch by Seth Roberts and now Carr has five touchdowns through only two games.

While Marshawn Lynch hasn’t reached full beast mode status yet, he has produced good enough results to be a solid RB2, having games with 76 yards on 18 carries and 45 yards on 12 carries along with a touchdown.

Give tight end Jared Cook a few more games to feel comfortable within the offense, and he may start posting big numbers as well, thanks to the explosive offense. Cook had five catches for 56 yards in game one and four catches for 25 yards in the second game, showing that Cook gets his looks every game.

If you’re betting on your favorite local players to carry your fantasy team to the top, choose the surging Raiders looking to make noise deep into the playoffs this year, instead of the bottom dwelling 49ers who are spiraling out of control.