This One's on Cable.

This game came down to two plays: the fake field goal and the 4th-and-3. You get 6 points out of those plays and the game is over. I mean, what a bunch of crap.

By the way, I hate the Raiders right now. Last week, I expected them to get blown out, and what happens? They put up a 31-10 beat down in Denver. I get all excited, thinking to myself, "Hey, they may have turned a corner. Let's get some."

But then they go out and lose to crappiest team not named "Detroit" or "St. Louis."

And now, once again, the Raiders are losers.

Thanksgiving Hangover Picks

So, Lance gets a new job. Jerry breaks down the Tennessee rumors. That seems to me like a much higher profile position than I expected him to get. I was thinking more like a lower-tier Pac-10 job. Anyway, good luck with that, buddy. If you thought working with Al was weird, at least he doesn't have a Body Farm in Alameda. At least that we know of. By the way, Mary Roach wrote an excellent book called Stiff that gives the Body Farm its own chapter.

You know what? I'm feeling optimistic this week. I don't know if this has less to do with the Raiders thumping Denver last week or the fact the Chefs are really, really bad. But I think we win one this week, and match last year's win total a week earlier in the season. Raiders 34, Chiefs 17.

As my father in-law informed this evening at dinner, the Buffalo Bills have the biggest offensive line in the National Football League. "You know John, I got into an argument with that goddamned nephew of Adeline's, old Ron, when he tried to tell me Dallas had the biggest line in the league. I said, 'Bullshit, Ron. Buffalo's line averages 332." You know what, I looked that shit up, and he's right. 332.2, to be exact. Anyway, the 9ers pass rush is not that great. So Buffalo wins, 28-13.

The Packers got their asses whupped in New Orleans last Monday night. This week, at home against Carolina, I think they win. 24-19.

So, for the last game, I'm picking Denver to continue their suckage against the Jets this weekend. 48-14.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Keep Kiffin?

Jason Jones has a link on his page to keepkiffin.com, where you can sign a petition urging Al Davis to keep Lane Kiffin as the head coach.

I like the idea of the fans ensuring their voices are heard, and I'm not even necessarily opposed to boycotts to force Al to stop being an idiot. I'm just not sure that keeping Lance Kiffin is a cause worth fighting for.

I know he said the other day that he doesn't want to be here. But do you really think if Al called him into the office, put a 5-year, $15 Million contract extension in front of him with hiring/firing power and every thing he says he wants, that he'd sign it?

I don't. This well is poisoned. It's a tribute to Kiffin's personality that so many of these young players (I'm thinking specifically of Nmamdi and JaMarcus--as much as I love Kirk Morrison, he's the Baghdad Bob of the Raiders defense) have bought into his system, and played through the distractions last week. I know the Chiefs are garbage, but this team had every reason and excuse to show up and get blown out. The Norv Turner Raiders of 2005 might have. The Art Shell Raiders of 2006 definitely would have. These guys didn't. Still, after all of the ridiculousness of this past week, there's no way Lance can remain the coach of this team. At some point, the players will be forced to choose, and they will choose the side that signs their paychecks.

Could be Worse, Part III

Jason Whitlock rips KC a new one. My favorite part:

"Why would a sane person pay $22 to park, $75 a ticket and fight the construction traffic to watch Carl Peterson and his flunkies build a football bridge to nowhere? You can put lipstick on a pig, and it’s still a five-year Super Bowl plan that’s 20 years past due." (h/t Williamson)

The only real problem I have is his blaming JaMarcus for the inadequacies of our passing game. It's not his fault. He did what he needed to do, which is not take a sack and not throw an INT. Our receivers are TERRIBLE. Name one good one. You can't. This WR Corps flat-out sucks.

Now, I know Al is probably going to fire Coach Sassy-Mouth tonight. That's too bad, but what are you going to do? Lance brought a lot of this on himself. But at least we've got McFadden, and Bush, and JaMarcus, and for this year (and most likely next), Nmamdi. In the right hands, that's a bridge to somewhere.

We just need those hands.

What is this Strange Sensation?

It's a positive feeling on a Sunday afternoon after a Raiders victory on the road in Kansas City.

Outstanding.

The defense had pressure all day. The corners covered their receivers. There were a lot of offsides penalties, but they didn't seem to be consequential.

I'll probably be back to hating tomorrow; especially if Corkran's reportage is true.

But today?

Victory.

Chief's Punter

Seriously, his name is like Jean Pierre DARSH.

No Hugs

So Huggy, Jr. pulls a groin, and that sucks. I mean, he's our third best player after Nmamdi and Shane Lechler.

But Burgess is playing like I haven't seen him in play in two years. That's exciting.

Our receivers suck. They suck ass. But hey, Just Win, Baby, right? 6-0 might hold up.

Not Bad.

Especially considering that I was expecting KC to be 17 at this point, I'm impressed. Not quite hopeful, but impressed. The Branch INT was exciting, and we seem to be blitzing. The Offside penalties don't really bother me, because they show aggression. The fact that the Chiefs are acting like a D-III college team and mixing up their QBs is helping.

Now if the Offense can do something, we'll be in business.

Corkran: It Might Not Matter.

This morning brings an article by Steve Corkran detailing the deterioration of the Davis-Kiffin relationship. He quotes sources saying that Kiffin is going to be fired, maybe tomorrow, no matter what happens, and that the reason is his taking the battle public. He'll be taking Mark Jackson with him.

Apparently, in August, Al Davis said, "He's not the guy I hired," in a conversation about Kiffin in mid-August. I wish that had come out then. The most damaging information is the line about how Kiffin has alienated everyone in the organization who doesn't "run, pass, or block," and the his "lone know ally is director of football development Mark Jackson."

So not even Knapp and Cable? Is it because they just don't care, because they know they'll be on Mora, Jr.'s staff in Seattle next year?

And Corkran is generous in the last line, attributing Davis' infamous introduction of "Lance" Kiffin at the hiring press conference to a subconscious realization that he "hired the wrong guy."

I think it's the reason he said, "He's not the guy I hired." He really thought he was hiring a guy named "Lance."

Anyway, good times. Should be an awesome game today.

Bill Williamson's Readers on Best AFC West Rivalry

Everyone hates us.

Week 2 Picks: Sllaacs Didn't get the Memo

The fourth game is supposed to whoever is playing the Packers, in honor of occasional poster dobolina.

So let's do five games:

If you've been reading me at all this week, you know I'm picking the Chiefs. 31-10.

The 49ers will lose, but it will be close. Seattle sucks, and I like 49ers D. Maybe if Mike Nolan gets fired, Al can pull a reverse-Norv and hire him to be his defensive coordinator. But probably not, because he doesn't hire good defensive coaches, because he coaches the D himself. 13-10.

Pittsburgh vs. Cleveland: I like the Steelers. 31-17.

Dallas vs. Philly on Monday night. Now, here's a football game. Donovan is my fantasy quarterback; I lucked into him when I forgot to login to the live draft and my computer drafted him for me. He then lit up the Rams for 363 and 3 TDs. The Cowboys are not the Lambs, obviously. But I'm going with Dallas, breaking in a new Stadium. I wonder if Jerry Jones got a new 12-person hot tub shaped like Texas Stadium.

Packers vs. Detroit. The Lions suck. Along with the Rams, they're the only other team ranked lower than the Raiders on ESPN.com's Week 2 Power rankings. Packers, 27-7.

I Know It's Over. It Never Really Began.

All over the internets, people seem to be piling on after Monday night's debacle.

Warren Sapp: "...they have unrealistic ideas about what their people can do.." "They're going to suck."

Adam Treu: "There are a few things I miss about playing professional football, but getting beat 41-14 is not one of them."

Kurt Snibbe: Replace Randolph Scott with Buccaneer Bruce.

And then in his conference call with the Chefs' beat writers yesterday, Kiffin:

"You have to look at the history," Kiffin said. "History is what it is, that he doesn’t keep people very long. We don’t have a general manager. Everything goes through the owner. That sets up a difficult situation at times.

"Knowing who the owner is, you know from day one there’s no job security."

Just fire him. Promote Lofton or Knapp, or whomever. Either way, lock Knapp and Cable up so they can't just leave for Seattle next. Or, shit, I don't care, bring back Art Shell. One of the funnest parts of the game the other night was seeing Dan's Art impersonation, where he made his hat 4 sizes too small and rested it down on his forehead, and scowled.

I wish to revisit my post about NFL.com using Morrissey's "Every Day is Like Sunday" in their commercial. They should make a Raiders-specific ad using a different Morrissey song, something even more depressing, like "I Know it's Over" by the Smiths.

That one even has Spanish subtitles, perfect for Fiesta Latina 2008.

Gene Wojciechowski is a Hater

Gene Wojciechowski has a column up about how much the Packers suck for trading Favre to the Jets. I'll let dobolina or Dan or Mikey (who is both a Wisconsinite and a Jets fan) discuss whether or not he's right about any of that. I don't really have an opinion on that.

But what I do have an opinion on is his apparent disdain for the Oakland Raiders. Discussing the Jets allegedly easy non-division schedule, he writes:

They play Oakland, Kansas City, St. Louis and San Francisco. A nine-win season, maybe a game better, isn't inconceivable.

Why does he have to put the Raiders at the front of that list?

We're easily better than the Chiefs, the Rams, or the 49ers. Even Nancy Gay knows that.

Kiff vs. Herm

Okay, so this is an old clip. But as numerous columnists have pointed out, and Dan and I discussed as it was happening, that 4th and 1 play was retarded. Burning two timeouts and then going for it? Sure, we were absolutely certain that Smith was going to pick up that yard. We hadn't stopped him all day. But when Kirk Morrison and Thomas Howard stuffed him, the jubilation in the room almost woke the baby up from her nap.

As Carl Steward writes, Kiffin turned it loose in the fourth quarter. When Miller made that 28 yard catch-and-run, Dan turned and said, "That's exactly what Miller should be doing." And Daunte unleashed that strike to JP, followed by Huggy Jr's TD, and it was on.

And the streak is over. I just hope Cam Inman hasn't jinxed us.

Oh, speaking of jinxes, as Dan wrote yesterday, we both picked the Quiefs to win. We firmly believe this reverse-jinx helped the Raiders get over the hump, mostly because we're insane. But anyway, I'm not sure what to do this week, since I'll actually be in the House. I'm thinking I'll do like Joe Theisman used to do on espn.com, where he'd abstain from picking the Sunday Night game he was calling. Not sure why he did that, like it would influence who his predictable, boring comentary would favor. But I'm feeling good about the Raiders--I mean really, actually positive about them--for the first time in like 4 years. All of Norv's wins (except for the Denver Snow Game) and Art's wins felt like relief more than progress. But this win shows me that Kiffin knows what he's doing.

Boring

So Dan came over to watch the game. We figured if we united both COI bloggers in the same room, the collective karma would put the Raiders over the top.

So far, it's not really working.

The Huff interception was nice. But our run defense is still abysmal. It must be nice to be a rookie RB getting your first start against the Raiders. Talk about a confidence builder.

The offense isn't horrible so much as it's boring. Fargas looks okay but our receivers are dropping too many balls. There's no speed whatsoever. It almost makes me wish we had Alvis Whitted. He couldn't catch a cold, but at least it was exciting watching the ball float through the air before it bounced off his face mask.

John's Picks

Happy Thanksgiving. Let's get right to it.

The Raiders are smart not to cut Lamont or Dominic this week, because LJ's out, and Priest is retired. They didn't want one of them running wild on us. I bet they get cut next week after the Denver game. Anyway, we're losing 13-9.

The Niners are losing, too. Only they're losing by a lot more than four points. The Cardinals run them off the field, 27-0.

The other game, Washington vs. Tampa, well, it's coming down to Coach Janky Spanky, Southeast Jerome, and Dolemite Jenkins.



Redskins win, 21-18.