Jacoby Ford to have foot surgery

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ALAMEDA, Calif. -- Coach Dennis Allen has a lot more to deal with than just a loss in his debut as Oakland Raiders coach.

Big-play receiver Jacoby Ford will undergo surgery on his injured left foot and miss significant time, and the Raiders must find a contingency at long snapper after a concussion to Pro Bowler Jon Condo played a major role in the team's 22-14 loss to San Diego on Monday night.

Backup long snapper Travis Goethel rolled two snaps back to punter Shane Lechler, who couldn't get a kick off on either try. Lechler also had a punt blocked after lining up closer to the line of scrimmage than usual. The three miscues led to three field goals for San Diego and left Allen lamenting that he didn't give Goethel more work in practice at long snapping.

Goethel hadn't snapped in a game since high school and got only limited work before practices before being thrown into a game on national television.

"That falls on me," Allen said. "I've got to do a better job of making sure we're prepared for all those different situations. We practiced Travis snapping the ball but we could have probably done a better job of putting him in more live-type situations and giving him the opportunity to do it, kind of representing what he would do in a regular game."

Condo will have to be cleared medically before he can return for practice this week and Allen said the team will have a contingency plan in place if he can't play Sunday at Miami.

The Raiders also will have to come up with a plan going forward without Ford, who decided to have the operation after consulting with a specialist in North Carolina when the injury did not heal as quickly as hoped.

"It will be a significant amount of time," Allen said. "I don't know exactly what that number would be."

Ford hurt his foot on Aug. 17 in an exhibition game against Arizona. He missed six games with the same injury last season and now is dealing with the same problem again.

"It's really basically the same injury that he had last year," Allen said. "When he re-injured it this season there was nothing new structurally different from where it was last year. After visiting with the foot specialist in Carolina, everybody thought that given a little bit of time he could come back from it. After giving it some time and re-evaluating, everybody, the medical people, felt like that surgery was probably the best thing for him."

The Raiders could place Ford on a new short-term injured reserve list, which would sideline him for at least six weeks and open up a roster spot for another player.

Ford has 44 catches for 749 yards and three touchdowns in 24 games over two seasons. He has also scored two touchdowns rushing and returned four kicks for TDs in his career.

Taiwan Jones had one return for 6 yards and downed the other six kicks in the end zone.

The Raiders hope to get a boost at receiver this week with the expected return of deep-threat Denarius Moore. Moore injured his hamstring in June and participated in only a handful of practices before last week. Allen said he's hopeful Moore will be able to play in Miami.

Allen also said he did not know until too late that the Raiders should have had one last play from their 5-yard line after the Chargers downed a punt before an Oakland player touched it. Allen said he knew the rule that the replacement officials did not follow but was not sure until it was too late which team touched the ball first.

Notes

Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press

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