Raiders notes: Janikowski's injury not as bad as it looked

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The sight of Sebastian Janikowski hobbling off the field and being stretched out on a table behind the sidelines in the first half of Oakland's 31-20 defeat of Detroit Saturday had to send shivers down the collective spine of Raiders fans.Even if backup placekicker Eddy Carmona later drilled a 56-yard field goal and sent a kickoff sailing through the back of the end zone, SeaBass-style, in Janikowski's absence.Raiders coach Dennis Allen allayed more fears in his conference call with beat writers Sunday afternoon, saying Janikowski's injury was not as bad as it may have looked."He's got basically a sore groin," Allen said. "He's a little tight but doesn't seem to be any pull or defect in the muscle or anything like that, so I don't anticipate it being a big deal."In fact, Allen said he expected Janikowski to be ready for the season opener on Sept. 10."That would be my assumption after seeing him today," Allen said, adding that Janikowski still might kick in the Raiders' preseason finale Thursday in Seattle. "I don't really anticipate that being anything that really carries over into the regular season."In fact, the only other injury of note to emerge from the exhibition game was cornerback Pat Lee's sore back that might keep him out of practice this week but not prevent him from playing against the Seahawks.So it sounds as if Lee survived the initial round of cuts, right?Teams need to have their rosters at a maximum of 75 players by 1 p.m. PT Monday and the Raiders entered Sunday with 87 players on their roster.Undrafted free agent rookie safety Aaron Henry tweeted Sunday afternoon he had been cut.Allen, though, said the Raiders were in the process of making the cuts as he spoke to reporters and the team would not announce anything until they were finalized.Teams have to be at 53-man rosters by 3 p.m. on Friday.After watching the film of the Raiders' exhibition victory over the Lions, Allen said several players stood out to him, including defensive tackle Jamie Cumbie, a roster longshot who who batted down three passes; defensive end Lamarr Houston, who was very active on the interior in the Raiders' nickel defense; cornerbacks Ron Bartell and Shantae Spencer, who shut down Calvin Johnson; and defensive tackle Desmond Bryant, filling in for Richard Seymour. Offensively, Allen mentioned running back Taiwan Jones, receivers Juron Criner and Darrius Heyward-Bey and third-string quarterback Terrelle Pryor."He did good," Allen said of Pryor. "He had his good plays and he had his bad plays. But the thing I was impressed with and the thing I took out of the game is there was progress."The Raiders' first four penalties -- they finished with nine for 59 yards -- were especially disheartening pre-snap flags. Legit calls, or flag-happy replacement refs?"Every single one of them was a legit call," Allen said. "Every single one of them was inexcusableespecially the two where we lined up offsides on defense."Paging David Tollefson and Matt Shaghnessy.

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