Red Raiders in the NFL 12.3.14

Waddle finding his groove. After being held back by various injuries most of the season, LaAdrian Waddle seems to be settling in and has done well the last two games.

The past two weeks, though, have been much better. He played every snap against New England and Chicago, earning his first two highly positive grades from Pro Football Focus this season. While PFF says he allowed four sacks this season, none have come in the past two weeks. He's only allowed Matthew Stafford to be hit once this season and he's been charged with 11 quarterback hurries -- although none last week against the Bears when he was often matched up against his former teammate, Willie Young.

"I feel like I've kind of got a little groove the last couple of games," Waddle said. "Still kind of banged up, but I feel like I've got in a groove, kind of got comfortable.

"Started off good and kind of build it off of that and just try to keep that going."

Davis shines. Cody Davis had a big week, recording 3 tackles on special teams in the St. Louis Rams' 52-0 beatdown of the Raiders.

Our big guys in Denver doing well. Despite the shuffling of players on Denver Broncos' offensive line due to injury, Louis Vasquez believes that they already have good chemistry. You can see him answering questions about the offensive line in a press conference here. They helped lead the Broncos to a 29-16 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.

Welker struggles. Although Wes Welker played in much of the game against Kansas City, he only had one catch for 12-yards and has been limited in practice this week due to injury. He is clearly not healthy and has had a rough season so far.

Crabtree with mystery injury. Michael Crabtree was injured in just the second offensive play in the San Francisco 49ers loss to the Seahawks, but he should be good to go against the Raiders on Saturday. There seems to be some confusion about the nature of the injury.

On Thursday, the 49ers announced wide receiver Michael Crabtree had a rib injury, Jim Harbaugh said he hurt his knee and Crabtree told reporters the issue involved his abdomen.

Whatever the case, it doesn't appear Crabtree will be sidelined when the 49ers visit the Raiders on Sunday. Crabtree participated in practice today after he was injured on the second offensive play of a 19-3 loss to the Seahawks. Crabtree played 37 snaps, which matched a season-low.

"He's working through some things," Harbaugh said Monday. "Talked to him this morning. He said it was going well."

Unfortunately Jace Amaro is still out with a concussion.

Danny Amendola has quite a bit of personality. The Patriots made a weird and wacky video of Danny Amendola answering questions. You should watch it here. Turns out, he hates emoji, can two-step and whistle the Andy Griffith theme song quite well.

"I'm one of the best ping pong players on the face of the planet."
-Danny Amendola

I missed it because there was no post last week, but Amendola had a monster kickoff return of 81-yards that I wanted to at least mention. Good to see him making plays with his limited opportunities.