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A weekly examination of the Raiders’ ESPN.com Power Ranking:

Preseason: 29 | Last Week: 29 | ESPN.com Power Ranking since 2002

The Raiders’ challenge coming into the Year 2 of the Reggie McKenzie-Dennis Allen regime under Mark Davis was to win games, obviously. The secondary, and probably more realistic, goal was to be more competitive than they were a year ago, when they finished 4-12 and floundered a bit in November.

Taking the glass-half-full approach, then, Oakland is more competitive, even if the Raiders have just one victory after the first quarter of the season.

“The positive is we’ve had opportunities to, probably with exception of the Denver game, we’ve had opportunities to win games,” Allen said. “We could easily be sitting here at 3-1.”

Indeed, the Raiders were eight yards from beating Indianapolis in the opener and jumped out to a 14-0 lead against Washington. Still, at 1-3, the Raiders are where many preseason prognosticators had them after four games. The challenge, then, is to keep moving forward, even if the rewards of victory are not in the offing. Besides, they moved up a spot in our Power Rankings after a loss, right?

ALAMEDA, Calif. -- The Raiders saw a new but familiar face in their locker room Monday, that of receiver Andre Holmes. His four-game suspension for violating the NFL policy on performance enhancing substances came to an end.

And while Holmes has been transferred from the reserve/suspended list to the exempt list, the Raiders have a week to decide whether to activate Holmes to the active 53-man roster.

“We’ll have to see him,” Raiders coach Dennis Allen. “We haven’t even been able to work with him for a month, for four games. We’ll have to see how he is when he gets back in here.”

Holmes, who was claimed by Oakland off waivers on May 13 after New England waived him two days earlier, is a big, physical target who led the Raiders in the preseason with seven catches, for 86 yards. This after finding out he’d be serving his suspension for a failed test in April.

At the time, Holmes said in a statement he was surprised to learn he had tested positive for a banned amphetamine, according to the Associated Press.

"I know that I had been quite ill when I was tested in early April, as I reported to the sample collector at the time my sample was given, so I thought one of the medications I was taking was responsible,” Holmes said in his statement. “However, to this day, even after further testing, I do not know how the substance got into my system. The drug policy rules are very strict with a zero tolerance, so after consulting with the (NFL Players Association) and reviewing the medical documentation, I will not appeal the discipline.”

So after flashing in camp and the preseason, he sat at home and worked out on his own, and was not allowed any contact with the Raiders. Until Monday, when he walked into the facility’s locker room late in the afternoon.

“Whatever role that I get, I’ll just come in and try to do that to the best of my ability,” said Holmes, who has played in seven NFL games in his career, all with Dallas last year, and has two receptions for 11 yards.

“Whatever my opportunity is, I’ll just come in and try to do that the best I can.

“It really kind of (stunk) not to be out there to contribute or have my hand in it. So I’m excited to be back.”

Singling out Oakland’s wide receivers, Denarius Moore leads the Raiders with 15 receptions for 233 yards and two touchdowns, while Rod Streater has 13 catches for 172 yards. Rookie Brice Butler has seven catches for 78 yards and Jacoby Ford has four catches for 29 yards.

And that’s it for the Raiders receiving corps. If and when Oakland activates the 6-feet-4, 210-pound Holmes, the wideout to keep an eye on as a potential roster cut, then, might be second-year receiver Juron Criner. The fifth-round draft pick in 2012 has been inactive for all four games thus far.

Holmes said he thought he would be ready to play this weekend against San Diego, though he realizes that is not his call.

“I mean, there might be a little rustiness, just getting back to playing,” he said. “But I feel like I did a pretty good job these past four weeks in keeping myself mentally and physically prepared.”

ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Looking for a silver lining in the Raiders’ come-from-ahead 24-14 loss to Washington on Sunday?

Go to the 9:10 mark of the second quarter, when Oakland faced a fourth-and-1 at its own 28-yard line and was lined up to punt.

The result was described by Raiders coach Dennis Allen as “stealing a possession” against Washington.

Jacoby Ford went into motion and settled on the line of scrimmage before the snap and went directly to the speedy Taiwan Jones, who took off down the left side of the field for a 19-yard pick up and a first down.

Jones said the play had been installed two weeks prior.

“I was actually surprised we ran it,” Jones said Monday.

“We had it called right away, so it was already planned and we were just able to execute it.”

Jones, whose speed has never been in question, changed positions this season from running back to cornerback (no, Allen did not anticipate moving him back with Darren McFadden's hamstring now in question) but has stuck to the Raiders’ roster with his special teams play. Especially as a gunner.

But Sunday, he also showed himself to be a different kind of weapon.

“When your number’s called, I would hope your radar would go up,” Jones said. “It was just one of those things where (Allen) felt like we were in good position to make the call and he called it. My number was up and I had a good block up front so we were able to execute it.”

The storybook ending would be that Oakland, clinging to a 14-10 lead, finished the “stolen” possession with a score, right? Instead, the Raiders ran three more plays, picked up 8 yards and punted ... on fourth-and-2.

LAKE FOREST, Ill. – The expectation was for Chicago Bears No. 2 running back Michael Bush to have a larger role in the offense during the club’s Week 4 game against the Detroit Lions.

However, the Bears sent Bush on the field for just two of the team’s 72 offensive snaps in their 40-32 loss to the Detroit Lions. In stark contrast, starting tailback Matt Forte played 71 of the 72 snaps and carried the ball 14 times for 95 yards and one touchdown. Forte also caught the ball five times for 22 yards.

The Bears signed Bush to a four-year, $14 million contract in the spring of 2012 to serve as Forte’s primary backup. Bush will earn a total of $2.550 million this season ($1.5 million base salary, $1 million roster bonus and $50,000 workout bonus), but has run the ball just 16 times for 24 yards in four games.

Bears coach Marc Trestman explained that Bush’s role was limited on Sunday because the Bears fell behind by 20 points in the first half.

“I think it was the kind of game it was more than anything,” Trestman said. “It was a two-minute drill more than anything else. We want Michael to be part of our football team and hope to get him in the mix during the course of the game. We have to grow in that area. We just have to find more ways to get him out there. It’s just difficult because we don’t want to take Matt off the field, either.”

Bush appeared in 13 games for the Bears last season, carrying the ball 114 times for 411 yards and five touchdowns. He rushed for a career-high 977 yards for the Oakland Raiders in 2011.

An examination of four hot issues from the Oakland Raiders' 24-14 loss to the Washington Redskins:

Why no FG?: There was still more than 3 minutes left to play and the Raiders, down 10 points, were at Washington’s 17-yard line facing fourth-and-1. Surely it was time to trot out Sebastian Janikowski for the chippy 35-yard field goal and get within a touchdown, no? Well, um, no. Coach Dennis Allen decided to go for it, with a quarterback sneak by Matt Flynn. “It was fourth-and-inches and we have to be able to make inches,” Allen said. Flynn instead fumbled and the Raiders turned it over on downs, still needing two scores. “We hadn’t been moving the ball up and down the field, and to get a chance to be down there when you’re in scoring position,” Allen said, “you can possibly get a touchdown, we have to make inches.” Except, even if Flynn had been successful in getting a few inches, more time would have burned off the clock, and Oakland still would have had 16 yards to go with two timeouts.

Blocked punt reincarnate: It only looked like a repeat of Derrick Jensen blocking Jeff Hayes' punt and recovering it in the end zone for the Raiders’ first points of Super Bowl XVIII. But Rashad Jennings blocking Sav Rocca's punt did the same for Oakland on this day, as Jeremy Stewart recovered the ball in the end zone for the 7-0 advantage. It was Jennings’ second career block -- he almost had another in the fourth quarter -- and Stewart’s first career touchdown.

Hurry-up on the way? Washington prepared a blueprint for future Raiders opponents. Robert Griffin III running the no-huddle in the second quarter helped turn the momentum after the Raiders had taken a 14-0 lead. “When nothing is going your way,” Griffin said, “you’ve got to try something … it kind of tired their defense out a little bit. We were able to move the ball more consistently and convert third downs.”

Of explosive plays IV: And now for our weekly tracking of “explosive” plays. As deemed by Allen, such a play is one that gains at least 16 yards through the air, 12 yards on the ground. The Raiders had eight such plays against Washington, two runs and six passes. Washington also had eight explosive plays, two runs and six passes. In three games, the Raiders have 34 explosive plays (12 runs, 22 passes), with three passes for touchdowns. Oakland’s opponents have 31 explosive plays, eight runs and 23 passes with a touchdown each way.

OAKLAND -- For years, the responsibility fell on Michael Bush.

Then, last year, Mike Goodson and Marcel Reece shared the duties.

Now, paging Rashad Jennings.

The job description, of course, is being Darren McFadden’s backup, and being ready to play at the drop of a hat, or, in this case, the tweak of a hamstring.

Yes, McFadden went down to injury in the first half of Sunday’s 24-14 loss to Washington and Jennings, who signed with the Raiders as an unrestricted free agent this offseason, was put on the spot.

Jennings responded with 45 yards rushing (his second-highest total since 2010) on 15 carries and a career-high eight receptions for a career-best 71 yards. And don't sleep on his blocked punt that led to a quick 7-0 Raiders lead.

“You always have to see yourself as the guy,” said Jennings, who spent his first four seasons in Jacksonville, primarily as Maurice Jones-Drew's backup.

“I do back up Darren, (and I) make sure he’s always ready to go, and he’s an awesome player and we’re going to be excited when he returns.”

Raiders coach Dennis Allen, though, was not sure of a timetable for McFadden’s return in the immediate aftermath of the game. But this much is true -- McFadden has an injury history and the sixth-year pro in a contract year has never played more than 13 games in a season.

McFadden burst through the line for a 14-yard pickup on his first carry, outgaining his entire rushing production of 9 yards on 12 carries a game earlier. But something grabbed at his hammy shortly thereafter -- he left the game to get his leg wrapped and returned for a few plays, but his day was done.

He returned from the locker room at halftime in street clothes and watched the second half from the sidelines.

Jennings, meanwhile, became the Raiders’ bell cow running back.

“I thought he went in there and ran the ball hard,” Allen said. “I thought he did an admirable job of filling in for McFadden.”

It’s in the job description, no?

“As a player, period, in the NFL, you have the mindset that there aren’t any backups, we all believe that those are the guys sitting at home,” Jennings said. “Everybody that’s in this locker room is capable of going out and making plays. We’re accountable to go out there and make plays, and we always have the ‘next man up’ mentality.

“That’s kind of how we took it as a whole backfield.”

That’s how Jennings has to take it for the time being.

OAKLAND -- The thinking went like this and, really, never deviated, despite some cloak and dagger gamesmanship from Oakland Raiders coach Dennis Allen late in the week and conflicting reports: If Terrelle Pryor was healthy enough to suit up against the Washington Redskins, he would start under center. Otherwise, he would not play at all and be made inactive. There would be no shenanigans of starting Matt Flynn and then bringing in Pryor off the bench for some trickery.

Besides, it would be a good chance, the reasoning went, to see what Flynn and his $6.5-million salary had to offer against what had been a porous defense.

Little, it turned out, especially with the Raiders losing both running back Darren McFadden and fullback Marcel Reece to hamstring and knee injuries, respectively, in the first half.

And with the less-mobile Flynn, Washington did not have to respect the Raiders quarterbacks’ running ability as it would with Pryor back there. Washington could simply pin its ears back and bull rush Flynn.

A 24-14 Washington victory later, the result was obvious.

“They’re completely different in the way they move back there in the pocket,” Raiders center Stefen Wisniewski said of Pryor and Flynn. “I think people probably rush them differently. We have to figure out what that looks like exactly. They definitely handle themselves back there differently. So we have to try to block differently.

“It’s tough to change at the drop of a hat, though. We found out last night we had a different quarterback so we have to adjust to that.”

Pryor, who suffered a concussion late in the Raiders’ loss at Denver on Monday night, was not cleared for full contact by the NFL’s concussion protocol until Friday. He also had to pass a team-mandated test on Saturday and thus, missed out on so much offensive installation throughout a shortened week.

Allen said he did not like what he saw Saturday.

“It just wasn’t the right thing to do and we wanted to make sure we did right by him,” Allen said. “With all the emphasis on head injuries or brain injuries, we wanted to use extreme caution in that situation and that’s what we did. I think we did the right thing by Terrelle Pryor by not playing him in this game.

“I just didn’t want to have any doubt in my mind at all that this kid was 100 percent. After visiting with the doctors, there was doubt in my mind and I wasn’t going to put him in harm’s way.”

Pryor was not in the locker room after the game, though he did run on the field in street clothes at one point -- dark shades still on his face -- to celebrate a fumble recovered by the Oakland defense.

So will Pryor be starting for the Raiders next week against San Diego before an adoring fan base in Oakland?

“I’m very hopeful,” Allen said. “We were right at the point where we were just about ready to say, ‘He’s got it.’ But we just didn’t feel comfortable going ahead and letting him play.”

And no, Allen was not ready to pull the plug on Flynn and insert undrafted rookie Matt McGloin on Sunday, either.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Oh yeah, Matt Flynn heard the boos and catcalls.

How could he not? They grew louder with each sack (seven in all), miscue (a pick-6 interception that turned the tide) and fumble (try two).

Coming into the game, his biggest perceived sin was that he was not the ultra-popular Terrelle Pryor. After the 24-14 loss to Washington, in which the Raiders blew a 14-0 lead, it was that he was anything but, ahem, Flynn-tastic.

Just Flynn, baby? Not on this day.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s hard not to hear it,” a deflated Flynn said of the hisses and jeering emanating from the sold-out O.co Coliseum crowd announced as being 53,549.

“You just try to focus on your job and do what you can. But it’s definitely hard not to hear.”

True, Flynn’s performance -- an 83.7 quarterback rating on 21-of-32 passing for 227 yards with a touchdown and interception -- was not anything a $6.5-million QB should write home about.

But let’s play Devil’s Advocate for a minute.

The game quickly turned into a perfect storm for Flynn, who learned just Saturday night that he would be starting under center against Washington, despite taking the lion’s share of reps in practice this week.

Not only did the Raiders lose breakaway threat tailback Darren McFadden in the first half with a hamstring injury, Oakland was also without Pro Bowl fullback Marcel Reece after the first quarter due to a knee injury.

“No question, those two guys are the heart and soul of the offense,” Flynn said. “Two great players. I still feel like we ran the ball well after that, but that was definitely a big blow for us.”

Flynn’s security blankets were gone and it was on him to be something he is not -- an electric playmaker. It quickly became obvious that Pryor has made the offensive line look good, even if Flynn suffered from a serious lack of pocket presence.

“I don’t think he saw the field very good today,” said coach Dennis Allen. “I think he was obviously part of some of the sacks that we gave up in the game. It was a tough situation for him to go into and obviously, with the loss of McFadden and Reece, that didn’t help him out any.

“Offensively, we didn’t get it done, and that’s really the bottom line.”

Especially with some curious play-calling by offensive coordinator Greg Olson that did not move the pocket in an effort to try and buy Flynn some time.

It was as if Rashad Jennings and Jamize Olawale were the equivalents of McFadden and Reece.

But Allen had no issue with the play-calling. That whole next-man-up philosophy, right?

And yet ...

“I felt like I was seeing things fairly well,” Flynn said. “There were a couple of times on some play-actions where there was a big jump on the line of scrimmage and I had a hard time making sure there were guys open, so I didn’t want to force it by making any bad throws.

“I didn’t think I wasn’t seeing the field. I just didn’t make the plays.”

As the boos would attest.

OAKLAND -- Observed in the locker room after the Oakland Raiders' 24-14 loss to the Washington Redskins.

Long gone: Neither running back Darren McFadden nor Pro Bowl fullback Marcel Reece were at their locker in the immediate aftermath of coach Dennis Allen’s postgame news conference in an adjacent room. All that was left in their respective stalls were bottles of Gatorade, water and game programs, and unanswered questions. Then again, both left the game because of first-half injuries.

Like solitary soldiers: While Allen took a seemingly extra long time in his news conference, the locker room was a virtual wasteland, socks and athletic tape strewn about the floor. But in the middle of the room were the player’s jerseys, being stacked on top of each other with care, like solitary silver and black soldiers.

Media crush: Of course, Matt Flynn had the biggest media throng surrounding him at his locker. Charles Woodson also had the usual gathering. Running back Rashad Jennings, who rushed for 45 yards on 15 carries, caught a game-high eight passes for 71 yards and blocked a punt that resulted in a Raiders touchdown, had three different waves of reporters come his way.

Something to smile about?: As a team, the Raiders had little to celebrate. And as units, very few stood out in the locker room ... save for the defensive line. No, the players that make up the defensive line were not laughing about in their corner, but they seemed to enjoy talking with each other in hushed tones. Nothing wrong with that, not when they seemed to give everything until being worn out late.

OAKLAND –- A few thoughts on the Oakland Raiders’ 24-14 loss to Washington:

What it means: Depth is an issue for the Raiders, no doubt. So when they had to play the final three quarters without their starting offensive backfield -- quarterback Terrelle Pryor (concussion) was inactive and running back Darren McFadden (hamstring) and fullback Marcel Reece (knee) were both lost in the first half -- it didn't go well. Simply put, Matt Flynn, Rashad Jennings and Jamize Olawale did not have enough staying power as Flynn was sacked seven times. And the defense, which started out hot, ran out of gas after taking a 14-0 lead.

Stock watch: Falling: McFadden. He’s in a contract year and has never played more than 13 games in a season, so give yourself a pat on the back if you had the injury-prone back going down in Week 4. He started strong, carrying the ball five times for 29 yards, including a 14-yard gain on his first carry. But he was lost in the first half with a hamstring injury and watched the second half in street clothes on the bench.

Just Flynn, baby? With each sack he absorbed, the crowd’s booing of Flynn grew. And sure, his pocket presence left something to be desired. But now you see why Pryor was a more attractive starting QB candidate. His running and ability to extend plays cover up many of the offensive line’s deficiencies. Opposing defenses have to respect Pryor more than Flynn, so to speak, so they are able to pin their ears back and bull-rush Flynn, who finished 21-for-32 for 227 yards, one TD and a pick-six interception. He also lost two fumbles.

What's next: The Raiders (1-3) play host to San Diego (2-2) next Sunday, the day after the A’s play Game 2 of their American League Division Series at the O.co Coliseum. What is not settled yet, though, is the start time for Raiders-Chargers. If the A’s play an earlier game on Saturday, the Raiders kick off at the regularly-scheduled time of 1:25 p.m. PT. But if the A’s have a later game, kickoff will be at 8:30 p.m. PT. Major League Baseball is expected to announce its times early this week.