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A good night's sleep and half a day's worth to collect his thoughts did nothing to sway coach Tom Cable's belief that the Raiders were victimized Monday night by a rule that needs to be changed.

The officials ruled Raiders wide receiver Louis Murphy scored a touchdown on a 19-yard pass from JaMarcus Russell with 50 seconds left in the first half. But a review of the play showed the ball came free once Murphy hit the ground, and the pass was ruled incomplete.

"Yeah, perhaps it is a rule that needs to be looked at," Cable said Tuesday in his weekly news conference. "If you had that play happen 20 times this season, 19 of them would be touchdowns."

Cable cited the fact that officials aren't supposed to overturn calls unless there's indisputable evidence that an error has been made.

"If you go to the replay booth, it's supposed to be absolute evidence that it needs to be overturned, whichever way it is," Cable said. "When you spend that much time in the booth, obviously, it wasn't that obvious."

Cable agreed that, perhaps, the officials made the proper call based on how the rule is written but that the rule needs to be amended.

The Raiders settled for a field goal on that drive. They lost 24-20 to San Diego, or by the difference in points between the disallowed touchdown and the subsequent field goal.

"I had no idea I lost the ball, honestly," Murphy said after the game. "I came down and when I was pushing myself up, that's the only time I really felt the ball come out, when I was getting up to celebrate. All my teammates said they thought it was a touchdown; both feet and my rear end land in the end zone."

# Wide receiver/punt returner Johnnie Lee Higgins sustained a sprain of the A-C joint in one of his shoulders. He underwent an MRI on Tuesday. Cable said he is unaware of the severity of the injury. Left guard Robert Gallery is sore from a back strain he sustained in the first half, but he returned in the second half. It also doesn't appear serious enough to keep him from playing against Kansas City on Sunday.

# Cable said Justin Fargas (hamstring) and Khalif Barnes (ankle) are cleared for full participation in practice this week. Barnes will settle into the role as a backup at left tackle and left guard. Fargas will be worked into the running back rotation with Darren McFadden and Michael Bush. Receiver Chaz Schilens is scheduled to resume running this week, a little less than a month after sustaining a broken bone in his left foot. Cable said it's unlikely Schilens will play against the Chiefs.

# Murphy caught four passes for 87 yards and a touchdown in his NFL debut. Fellow rookie Darrius Heyward-Bey had no catches. He dropped one pass and had another catchable ball hit off his hands. "I saw a real nervous, uptight young man, a lot of big eyes," Cable said of Heyward-Bey. "He has to learn how to handle this, no question." Murphy was a fourth-round selection in this year's NFL draft. Heyward-Bey was the No. 7 overall pick.

# Cable said it's real simple what receiver Javon Walker needs to do so that he can play in a regular-season game: "(Show) that he can run fast, get out of breaks and separate, those things."

Walker (knee injury) was deactivated for Monday's game. He said he is healthy enough to play. Cable begs to differ.

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The game's too big for DHB right now. He can't run and catch at the same time. Fucking Javon needs to push him out of the #1 spot.

Murphy is only going to get better. By the way, that was a fucked up call. I've seen plays like that hundreds of time's before and they never get overturned. That's a TD for any other team. God damn refs use every possible detail of each and every rule against this team. Pig bastards.

I think there's definitely something flawed about this situation. I don't know which side it's on, though.

Is he really trying to convince everyone that DHB and Murphy are better than Walker at any of "those things" right now? They might be able to beat Walker in a sprint, but I just don't think they could be better at getting open and/or catching the ball at this point.

There's something else to this that's not being told. Even at 80%, the Pro Bowl veteran should better than any rookie at "those things" especially in the first game.

Yeah, the call sucked. But how about this headline:

"DeadRinger Sees Many Flaws in QB Play"

Or

"DeadRinger Sees Flaw in Defensive Game Plan"

Or

"DeadRinger Sees Massive Flaws in Performance of #7 Overall Pick"

Or

"DeadRinger Sees Flaws in Kick Coverage"

Hey Cable, how about you address the stuff that wins games, hmmmm?? That call didn't lose us the game, we still took the lead with the FG. It's what happened before and after the call that fucked us up.

There was something weird about the Walker situation because the next day Cable was drooling about the possibilities his activation gives them this week. Ooops!

Funny what a shitty game by everyone else (WR's/QB) will do for a coach.