Oakland Raiders beyond woeful in loss to the Kansas City Chiefs

Thoughts from the Dark Side

December 1, 2008

Oakland Raiders beyond woeful in loss to the Kansas City Chiefs

9 Comments

By Patrick Patterson

Recommended (0) | Share

Nnamdi Asomugha covering Tony Gonzalez (Photo by Patrick A. Patterson/TFDSsports.com)

There are few words to describe how head-scratching this loss was to the woeful Kansas City Chiefs. Once again, the Raiders offense returned to their inoffensive ways after seeming to break through against Denver. The defense could not get anything going consistently. In fact, Nnamdi Asomugha had two balls caught against him. Then there was the plain bizarre play call of a fake field goal with a pitch to Sebastian Janikowski. Even the usually sterling Shane Lechler had an off game. This was not a good game for the Raiders by any stretch of any imagination.

This is a game that all the tea-leaves said the Raiders should have won. In fact, the Raiders squandered nearly every opportunity they were given to make something happen. Its not that the Chiefs looked really good, but the Raiders not only played down to their competition, but managed to underperform the competition. This is just another one of those games that define the Jeckyll and Hyde team they have been this season.

The Oakland Raiders team that had dominated the Denver Broncos seemed to stay at the Oakland Hilton and sent along the earlier incarnation of the team that had been reeling off losses like crazy under Tom Cable. All the progress they had seemed to make was wiped out in one afternoon of what appeared to be lackadaisical play and inept coaching decisions. To add fuel to the fire, Kwame Harris is back to his penalty with a holding and false start call against him. JaMarcus Russell seemed to lose the magic touch he had found the week before, and was back to misfiring on a regular basis, drawing the ire of the crowd when he overthrew Darren McFadden on a screen pass late in the fourth quarter.

The defense didn't let up any really big plays, but let up enough plays for the Chiefs to move the ball with regularity and make Tyler Thigpen look good. A lack of discipline and penchant for overpursuit allowed Thigpen to get on the edge and break off several scrambles to keep drives alive.

The Raiders offense didn't show much of the creativity that it had shown the week before. They did flex McFadden out as a receiver, and ran a few plays out of the single-wing, but there was not the execution that had been there the week before, nor the use of Michael Bush for anything on offense. Ronald Curry caught one ball for no yards, and that was the entire extent of the contributions of the wide receiver corps.

With this loss, the Raiders have sealed the deal that this is going to be their sixth consecutive losing season, which is fitting as they looked like they mailed it in today.

The Good:

Chris Johnson had stellar coverage on his man all game.
I had a great time tailgating with my Raider family.
Sebastian Janikowski was 2/2 and booming his kickoffs.
Zach Miller is continually looking more and more like the second coming of Todd Christensen.

The Bad:

Shane Lechler was not his usual self, hitting a 33 yard punt, and putting another into the end zone.
The Raiders were not able to contain Thigpen.
JaMarcus Russell was wildly inaccurate.

The Ugly:

Kwame Harris was penalized twice for fifteen yards.
The Raiders should never have called that fake field goal. That was pure ugly.
The Raiders failing on an early fourth and two rather than letting Janikowski put up the points.
Justin Fargas had a fumble at the absolute worst time, which set up the Chiefs for their final field goal.

Tags: Chiefs, Darren McFadden, Denver Broncos, JaMarcus Russell, Kansas City Chiefs, Kwame Harris, Michael Bush, NFL, Nnamdi Asomugha, Oakland Raiders, Raiders, Tom Cable, Tony Gonzalez, Tyler Thigpen, Zach Miller

Discussion

9 Comments on "Oakland Raiders beyond woeful in loss to the Kansas City Chiefs"

Posted by RaiderDoc, December 1, 2008 11:53 AM

Patrick... two things... no more predicting wins... and no more actually attending Raider games for you!!! I am seeing a trend! lol

Hope you had fun despite the loss. The tailgait and hanging out with friends sounds like the only real upside.

Posted by Big John, December 1, 2008 12:27 PM

Zach Miller didn't look too good yesterday. He was diagnosed with alligator arms after he got jacked up on a continuous basis due to Jamarcus hanging him out to dry.

It's a shame that the one game we were supposed to win was an ugly loss. It sucks being a fan of these guys...

Posted by rodmoney, December 1, 2008 5:59 PM

Even Miller wasn't concentrating on the ball due to how wildly inaccurate Russell was and will remain. If we could trade Russell for a low 1st or high second I would be thrilled for this guy is not the answer.

Posted by kirk in reply to comment from rodmoney, December 1, 2008 6:42 PM

Rod$ I agee that the best thing to do is to ship Russell and ask for a refund. It all starts with Al he has one foot in the grave and his still living in the 70s & early 80s. Al is a legend but he is the problem we will not win till he is out of the picture. We need a good coach!!!!!Name a coach that won a S.Bowl with out the system 49ers,patiots,dallas, steelers even baltimore,bills went to 4 in a row they had one coach-one system. You have a good core & a good coach- u have a chance to win!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by kirk, December 1, 2008 7:11 PM

I have to say to everone and all the faithfuls, these are dark days. We have an old guy who lost his mables that is kill are nation. Sure he started this a great legacy. But its like when a player is on a team that cannot help his team win. It was "chuckes" great coaching that got us to the s.bowl in 02. Not Al.....look at t.b now!!!!!!Jan.7th I leave for basic traing. The army for 6 years infantry. I am at the point I could care less to watch a game till someone takes over. Will I still cheer and love my team sure do I hate Al davis right now sure. FOOD FOR THOUGHT - the raiders where I say where on the up swing with kiffen. WHAT????????if you look at the progress it was their. Kiffen inherited a mess bigger than what gruden got. Following Art, are you kidden me. It takes time!!!! Kiffen made some coach mistakes sure, Oh what about ryan look at the defense. I know the their on the field alot. But with their talent they never make the 3rd down stops- bad system. At least w Kiffen they showed progress. 3rd down stops every...I SAY AGAIN EVERY GAME THEY NeER STEP UP.-bad coaching. O.K for the record is kiffen a raider coach....NO. did he have a good football mind? sure. But, the reason we got kiffen,art,norv is BECAUSE NO ONE WANTS TO WORK FOR THE OLD BIRD IN THE WHEEL CHAIR!!!!!!!! look at norv in s,d; results speak for themselves. nov sucks im glad hes in s.d. OH I for got THE ENEMY OF THE NATION ........MIKE "SOMEDAY I HOPE HE'S RAOD KILL" SHANAHAN-RESULTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES

I HAD TO VENT IM JUST PISSED!!!I GOT A RAIDER TAT THIS YEAR-----I STILL LOVE MY TEAM

Posted by LDizzle, December 1, 2008 9:39 PM

Kirk I think your punctuation keys are sticking........................ No more surfing for porn on the internet for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by Bill, December 2, 2008 7:47 AM

I'm glad at least some people watch the game and can see that Miller was dropping as many as he was catching too. Also Ashley was a drop machine too. Russell still has more talent them most QBs in the game. WHO THE FUCK IS HE SUPPOSED TO THROW TO?

Posted by Bill, December 2, 2008 8:07 AM

Hey all you Russell bashers. Can anyone give me the total on dropped passes? This includes your boy Zack Miller's four drops. the first 4 passes of the game went like this. 1 compleation, 1 incompleation, 2 drops. I wonder how that affects your mind set if your a QB? Do you think that after the first 10 minuts of the game Russell is thinking "who the fuck am I supposed to throw the ball to?"I feel bad for Russell. Why don't the Raiders try to get someone to catch the ball? Zack Miller? PLease! For every three great catches Miller makes he has one drop. Try watching the game, keep track of Miller you all will see what I mean. Hey our Raiders suck! They are still my team and will always be my team. Lets put the blame where it should be....
Greg Knapp, has this guy done anything with the past teams he was on? Atlanta, SF, besides being predictable this guy does nothing.
Rob Ryan, get a set of balls ryan! every third down I swear I see a little elf run down to the side line and grab this guys nuts and won't give them back until the opposing team has a first down again.
WR's & TE's, Try catching the ball once in a while, not just for one game but a entire season. lookat the last 4 game each week its a diffrent WR getting the catches and the rest dropping them.
LB's & Safety's, These guys have no heart. they can't tackle and this includes Morrison and Howard and Wilson. We need some size, not a bunch of "speed guys" get ride of either Morrison or Howard and get a nasty big LB. Figure out which safty you want in coverage and which safty is our big hitter run stuffer PLEASE!
OL & DL, Do I really need to comment on these jackasses?
In other words we need a good two year rebuilding project started and hopfuly we can find a coach and stick with him for 3-4 years to see it get done.

Posted by Big John, December 2, 2008 4:50 PM

Bill is 100% correct on this. There is absolutely no reason to trade Russell, he's still virtually a rookie!

We do need to find some BALL players and not track stars. It all starts with the poor scouting on this team...