ALAMEDA, Calif. - Oakland Raiders running back Rashad Jennings was speaking to a group of local high school students earlier this week when the conversation turned to the importance of being prepared when opportunities in life arise. The veteran backup is certainly qualified to speak on the topic, having received a crash course on it over the past 15 months. Jennings will make his second start of the season Sunday against the New York Giants while Darren McFadden rests his sore hamstring. He also started six games for Jacksonville in 2012 while Maurice Jones-Drew was sidelined with a foot injury. The message Jennings delivered? Dont wait or its too late. "When I was in high school I kept a quote: When opportunity presents itself, its too late to prepare for it," Jennings said. "So every day be prepared to be that guy." Thats been the case for Jennings, who has been a jack-of-all-trades in his first season with the Raiders. Besides filling in for McFadden, hes blocked two punts and recovered an onside kick on special teams this season. Despite his part-time status, Jennings is also the only Oakland player to catch more than six passes in a game this season. He had eight against Washington on Sept. 29 after McFadden left that game injured, then grabbed another seven in last weeks 49-20 loss to Philadelphia. When McFadden got hurt last week against Philadelphia, Jennings responded with his first 100-yard game in nearly three years. "It just goes back to the mental preparation and trying to put yourself in the game," Jennings said. "You never know when youre going to get called, you really dont. I dont think thats coined as much as its really said and its kind of passed over. But you dont know, you never know. So make sure youre ready." Jennings game against the Eagles marked just the second time this season that an Oakland running back has topped the century mark. McFadden ran for 129 yards against Jacksonville in Week 2 but has been mostly ineffective and is averaging just 3.6 yards a carry. Quarterback Terrelle Pryor, who has a pair of 100-yard rushing games this season, has given the ground game a lift. He leads the team with 485 yards rushing and is the primary reason the Raiders have the fourth-ranked running offence. Jennings would be content with anything as long as Oakland wins. The Raiders (3-5) play four of their next five games on the road and are just 7-25 in November since 2005. McFadden didnt accompany the team on its trip to New York. Neither did right tackle Matt McCants, who has a foot injury. McCants injury means second-round pick Menelik Watson will make his first start in New York, one week after making his NFL debut. Hell also be the third different starting right tackle Oakland has used this season. "Obviously, hes gotten limited exposure but we have confidence in him," Raiders coach Dennis Allen said Friday. "Really, thats what your job is. When youre called upon to go in and do a job, you have to go in and do the job. Thats the way of the National Football League." Rookie nickelback D.J. Hayden will also be held out of the game. Oaklands first-round draft pick injured a groin muscle earlier this week and has been held out of practice each of the past two days. ___ AP NFL website:
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Juan Samuel Jersey . -- Ben Bishop had a milestone game against one of the NHLs greatest goalies.NEW YORK -- Andy Murray chuckled as he explained the very best part about owning a pair of Grand Slam titles, one from the U.S. Open last year, the other from Wimbledon last month. No more of those nagging, oft-repeated queries -- the ones he heard over and over and over again. "Not too much for me has changed. But the one thing thats been nice is that, literally for five or six years, I did a press conference before every tournament and after every single match, and I got asked that question, Id say, 90 per cent of the time: Why have you never won Wimbledon? When are you going to win Wimbledon? Why have you not won a Grand Slam?" Murray said in an interview with The Associated Press. "So thats the thing that, for me, has been the nicest: Not having to answer that question," he added, standing outside the locker rooms at Arthur Ashe Stadium, not far from the oversized colour picture and silver plaque that commemorate his 2012 victory at Flushing Meadows. "I can just play tennis now and not have to worry about that anymore." Thats right. When the years last major tennis tournament begins on the U.S. Opens blue hard courts Monday, Murray will have other concerns. For example: What might it feel like to defend a Grand Slam championship? Thats something hes never tried to do before, of course. Or how many of these can he win? Or, really, will he even be able to win one more? Yes, for a guy who has accomplished so much over the past 13 months, redefining his career and place in the game, Murray still sounds very much like someone harbouring quite a bit of uncertainty. His success at the U.S. Open in 2012 did, after all, make him the first British man since Fred Perry in 1936 to win a Grand Slam title. His success at Wimbledon in July, as everyone knows by now, made him the first British man since Perry 77 years ago to earn the singles trophy at the All England Club. Toss in a London Olympics gold medal, and its been quite a run. "Hes turned into a great player. Hes always been a good hitter of the ball, been a great mover. I think mentally hes a bit better now," 14-time major champion Pete Sampras said recently. "Now he feels like he belongs." Maybe. But Murray also remembers what came before. He remembers -- and, much to his chagrin, there was a time when he frequently was reminded of it by others -- that he lost each of the first four Grand Slam finals he reached. "I know how long it took me to win one and how hard it is to win them. I know its possible I may not win another one," the 26-year-old from Scotland said, his tone and facial expression earnest. "So I just want to keep trying to put myself in position to win Grand Slams and hopefully I can do the same again here." Indeed, Murray anticipates some shakiness at the start of the U.S. Open. Instead of declaring that he will step on court with the bravado of a defending champion, Murray wonders whether his play might be affected in a bad way at the outset of this U.S. Open because of what happened a year ago. "Depending on how the tournament goes, at the start of the tournament, I expect to be pretty nervous and feel maybe more pressure than I have in some years," he said. "But then I would hope, if I can do well and get tthrough the first few rounds, that it would actually give me confidence.dddddddddddd Once I get myself into the tournament, I may calm down and actually start feeling more confident that I can win the event. Whereas before, it might have actually been the opposite. I might have felt OK at the start, and when I got closer to the end of the tournament, felt more pressure and more nerves and less confidence." The 2012 womens champion, Serena Williams, owns 16 Grand Slam titles, four at the U.S. Open. Usually when she loses at a major tournament, the sting sticks around for a while. That was the case with this years Wimbledon, where her 34-match winning streak surprisingly ended with a fourth-round exit. "I was obviously bothered. I wanted to do better. I was disappointed. Im still disappointed," Williams said, 7 1/2 weeks after that setback. "But I had opportunities and I didnt take them in the match. I have to realize that I have to just be better and learn from the experience. Its not the end of the world. I can always do better and keep growing." Asked what advice she might offer Murray about attempting to repeat as champion at a Grand Slam tournament, the No. 1-seeded Williams said: "For me, its not about defending. Its about: This is the U.S Open. I want to try to win this title. Last year was last year. Now its time to try to have fun this year. Thats how I look at it." Murray is seeded No. 3, and the expectation is that he or one of the men ahead of him, No. 1 Novak Djokovic and No. 2 Rafael Nadal, will hold the trophy after the final, which is scheduled for Sept. 9. Its the first time since 1954 that the tournament is supposed to end on a Monday (the mens final was played on a Monday each of the past five years, but that was because of rain delays). That trio divvied up the seasons first three Grand Slam titles, with Djokovic winning his fourth at the Australian Open, and Nadal his eighth at the French Open. They also have split the past three U.S. Open titles (Nadal won in 2010, Djokovic in 2011). Another past U.S. Open champion, Roger Federer, is seeded only No. 7 this time, his lowest spot in New York since 2002. Federer is coming off a second-round loss at Wimbledon, ending his record run of 36 consecutive major quarterfinal appearances. Another streak remains intact, though: The U.S. Open will be Federers 56th Grand Slam tournament in a row, tying the mens record. Federer turned 32 this month, and hes dealt with a bothersome back and a brief experiment with a different racket, while losing matches to a couple of guys ranked outside the top 100. Any chance he could add to his 17 Grand Slam trophies? "At this stage," said John McEnroe, a seven-time major champion and ESPN analyst, "its going to be quite, quite difficult for him to win another one." A photograph of Federer hangs in a hall near the Arthur Ashe Stadium locker rooms, staring right at Murrays poster across the way. The big difference: Federer won the U.S. Open five times, every year from 2004-08. "I came here for the first time when I was 15. You walk down these corridors, and you look at all the great players who have played here," Murray said. "To be up on the wall next to them is a nice feeling."
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