Moore ‘ready to rock' against Dolphins

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ALAMEDA -- Sitting Denarius Moore out of the Raiders' season opener against San Diego on Monday might turn out to be the best move of rookie coach Dennis Allen's nascent career.Especially with Jacoby Ford out for possibly the season having undergone Lisfranc surgery on Tuesday and Moore's balky right hamstring simply getting stronger with each practice, let alone getting into football shape.RELATED: Surgery for Ford
"In the grand scheme of things, youthink about it in the long run," Moore said Wednesday. "It is a long season, so you have to think about the season and not just one game, and thats what (Allen) was doing. And so I agree with him."Moore worked out on the field with the other inactive players and practice squad guys hours before opening kickoff. He was listed as "limited" in practice Wednesday.NEWS: Raiders injury report
"He looked like Denarius of old," said quarterback Carson Palmer. "He made a couple phenomenal catches. His burst was there last week, its just I think more conditioning, really, getting in practice. Theres a totally different type of shape. You can run wind sprints, you can get on the treadmill and on the bike and all those things."But he got a great week of practice in last week and probably couldve played, but it was a very smart move by the staff and the training guys to hold him out and let him really get his lungs right and get his game tempo, game speed right. And hes back this week. You can tell."Moore being healthy and ready to play would give the Raiders five receivers -- which is the number Allen wants active on gameday -- in Moore, Darius Heyward-Bey, Rod Streater, Juron Criner and Derek Hagan.But against San Diego, the Raiders only had four receivers active."We would have liked to have been in some three-wide sets, but numbers-wise we couldnt," Palmer said. "So what happened was Streater and Darrius Heyward(-Bey), they were just worn out. They were running deep routes and getting covered downfield because they were dropping the coverage, and a couple times just didnt have it in them, just because numbers-wise they didnt get any breaks. They never came off the field."So just getting another guy in the mix will save their legs a little bit and it definitely gives the defense somebody to prepare for."And the extra week of practice addressed not only Moore's conditioning, but pumped up his confidence as well."I think it helped out a whole bunch because the first day back my lungs were all the way gone," Moore said. "But now you can really tell the difference because Im able to stand up now instead of bending over all the time. Its a big difference."Im very excited. Im back with my teammates. Im ready to rock."

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