"There were changes aplenty in the Raiders' white-knuckle, 16-14 come-from-behind victory over the St. Louis Rams on Sunday.

Of course, the second-half quarterback switch from Jason Campbell to Bruce Gradkowski is the most obvious. Because there is such a fine line between being bold and acting in a panic. And coach Tom Cable straddled said line with aplomb on Sunday.

But other, perhaps just as peculiar and, it turns out, successful changes contributed to the Raiders pleasing a desperate home crowd for the home opener. Even if it was against a team in the Rams that lost for the 27th time in 28 games.

Cable is an offensive-line guy at heart. So you know it hurt him on a personal level when his pride and joy looked so awful in the season opener at Tennessee a week earlier.

So he replaced Jared Veldheer, a rookie from Division II Hillsdale College who last played center in high school but started there in his NFL debut, at center with veteran Samson Satele.

Then he moved Veldheer back to his natural left-tackle position and had him in a rotation with the much-maligned Mario Henderson. At left tackle. The most crucial spot on the offensive line, what with the position charged with protecting the quarterback's blind side.

With so much upheaval up front, it would seem Gradkowski's improvisational style of play is more conducive when all heck is breaking loose than the classic, dropback manner of Campbell.

"I don't want to say (one's better), but yeah, they have different styles of playing," Satele said. "Jason's got a strong arm, so he trusts his arm more than his legs. And then Bruce got his legs and his arm. So it's just a different style of quarterback."

Another change saw the offense opening up - with 404 total yards, it was the first time the Raiders went over 400 yards in 76 games, since Oct. 23, 2005; yet it was only the second time since they moved back to Oakland in 1995 they had that many yards yet scored so few points, dating to Oct. 27, 2002."