T he Chiefs, tangled in recent weeks in the storm surrounding the suspension and release of running back Larry Johnson, are trying to move past the controversy and find a way to win a game.</p><p>That will put things out of kilter Sunday when the 1-7 Chiefs play the 2-6 Raiders in Oakland. The Raiders have had a tumultuous season, even by their standards, but things in Oakland have been relatively peaceful the past couple of weeks.</p><p>The Chiefs aren&rsquo;t strangers to controversy, particularly as it relates to Johnson, but normally that&rsquo;s an area where they can&rsquo;t compete with the Raiders. Oakland almost always had a drama or two keeping the Raiders occupied.</p><p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re still the controversial team, whether we have a week or two off from the media,&rdquo; said Oakland&rsquo;s Pro Bowl cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha. &ldquo;There&rsquo;s still so much to pull from what we&rsquo;ve had to deal with that we know it&rsquo;s always going to be something that&rsquo;s brought up. Whether the team we&rsquo;re playing against has an immediate issue at that time, that still doesn&rsquo;t overshadow the fact we&rsquo;ve had our issues and people have taken their stabs at us and will continue to.</p><p>&ldquo;You kind of grow numb to the stories. When there&rsquo;s a story out there, it&rsquo;s rarely a distraction because we hear stuff so often. It works in our favor &hellip; not in our favor, but it&rsquo;s a bigger deal to everyone not involved in the organization than it is to us.&rdquo;</p><p>That may be why the Raiders weren&rsquo;t tempted to take pleasure from the Chiefs&rsquo; miseries surrounding Johnson. The next embarrassment might be their own.</p><p>&ldquo;That stuff is someone else&rsquo;s business,&rdquo; Oakland coach Tom Cable said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re just trying to get this team on the right track. I know they&rsquo;re trying to do the same thing in Kansas City. I think we all kind of have the same battles going on.</p><p>&ldquo;Both teams are fighting their rear ends off to find their niche, find their way of success.&rdquo;</p><p>Cable was at the center of much of the controversy surrounding the Raiders this year. An assistant coach, Randy Hanson, alleged that Cable physically attacked him during a training-camp meeting. Cable denied Hanson&rsquo;s story, and no charges against him were filed in the case.</p><p>A former wife and former girlfriend recently accused Cable of physical abuse.</p><p>Oakland&rsquo;s season got off to a promising start. The Raiders almost upset San Diego in the Monday night opener, and they defeated the Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium the next week.</p><p>Since then, the Raiders are 1-5 and scored only 45 points.</p><p>&ldquo;I like our effort,&rdquo; Cable said. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re playing hard. But there&rsquo;s a difference in terms of execution. You&rsquo;ve still got to be able to throw the ball, put points on the board and stop the run.&rdquo;</p><p>The Raiders, like the Chiefs&rsquo; other AFC West rivals, are used to seeing Johnson in the Kansas City backfield. He had four 100-plus-yard games against Oakland, the most recent being in 2007.</p><p>Oakland will find it odd to see the Chiefs without Johnson, and Asomugha, for one, doesn&rsquo;t necessarily think his departure will make the Chiefs automatically better.</p><p>&ldquo;Distractions or not, you can&rsquo;t hide the fact he was one of the top rushers in Kansas City Chiefs history and you can&rsquo;t deny the things he brought to the table,&rdquo; Asomugha said. &ldquo;So I don&rsquo;t know if it will help them to get rid of him. Some of those distractions will be gone. But as far as on the field, the Larry Johnson I know &hellip; has always put out his best on the field.&rdquo;