OAKLAND _ The Raiders were all excited a week ago when Daunte Culpepper
took a knee to beat the Kansas City Chiefs.
Imagine how it felt to watch the Denver Broncos take a knee in defeat.
The Raiders led 34-20, three seconds remained, and the Broncos went into
their turtle formation Sunday at McAfee Coliseum. Jay Cutler, surrounded
by the protective shell of his teammates, tapped a knee to the ground
and said ``uncle.''
If this is the high point of Lane Kiffin's fledgling coaching career, he
is not letting on. But getting a concession out of Mike Shanahan will
score more points with Al Davis than the Raiders scored on the Broncos,
and at the very least, go a long way toward removing Kiffin's name from
the fictitious list of candidates at Arkansas.
It took until December 2, and there are no guarantees what we saw will
be in evidence at Lambeau Field next Sunday, but the Raiders that Kiffin
envisioned finally had their coming out party.
Josh McCown, who rumor has it was considering filing court papers to
change his middle name to ``much-maligned,'' was so active, resourceful
and productive he took the home fans out of the game and overshadowed
the encouraging debut of JaMarcus Russell (4-for-7, 56 yards, zero
turnovers).
Kind of hard to boo a guy when he is completing 14 of 21 passes for 141
yards, three touchdowns and executing bootlegs and rollouts in a
perimeter attack which had Denver on its heels all day as Culpepper
rested a right quadriceps injury.
McCown turned it over once on a fumbled center exchange, and was
fortunate when a forced pass into the end zone fell incomplete. Other
than that, you'd have to go back to Rich Gannon to find a Raiders
quarterback who played a more complete game.
In fact, the last time the Raiders scored 34 against the Broncos was
Nov. 11, 2002, the night Gannon had his near-perfect game on Monday
Night Football in a 34-10 win at Invesco Field.
The 34 the Raiders got against the Broncos Sunday could have been more.
Sebastian Janikowski missed field goal attempts of 58 and 35 yards, and
the Raiders settled for field goals from 38 and 44 yards when red zone
opportunities got away.
``We put our field-goal kicker out there too many times,'' Kiffin said.
``We don't like putting him out there, as good as he is. We want to
finish drives by scoring.''
Justin Fargas willed his way to another 146 yards on 33 carries and a
touchdown, as the Raiders piled up 175 yards rushing.
The Broncos, meanwhile, penetrated the NFL's 32nd ranked rushing defense
for all of 86 yards on 29 carries. The Raiders got interceptions from
Thomas Howard and Fabian Washington and fumble recoveries from Tyler
Brayton and Chris Clemons.
Penalties were barely worth mentioning _ three for 20 yards. Raiders
quarterbacks weren't sacked.
Over the past two weeks, it is as if the Raiders have managed to reverse
polarity with their division rivals. The Broncos, as the Chiefs did the
previous week, were the ones losing the turnover battle (4-to-1) and
making the big mistake at the worst possible time.
The Raiders scored on their opening drive for the first time in 36
games, an 80-yard, 13-play thing of beauty that took 6:53 off the clock
and ended when McCown lofted a perfect 15-yard touchdown to Tim Dwight
on third-and-5 in the left corner of the north end zone.
The drive could have stalled at the 50 had the Broncos not had a
Raider-like moment on fourth-and-3, with Cecil Sapp running into Shane
Lechler and giving Oakland a first down at the 45-yard line.
Broncos safety John Lynch sounded like countless Raiders in most
postgame locker rooms since 2003.
``They beat us in every phase,'' Lynch said. ``Penalties beat us.
Turnovers beat us. Not stopping the run beat us.''
Although no one is satisfied with 4-8, Kiffin managed to break another
streak _ this one Oakland's 12-game losing streak at home against AFC
West teams.
``It's big. It's not just another game for us,'' cornerback Nnamdi
Asomugha said. ``Back-to-back AFC (West) teams, that's huge. It's never
been done since I've been here.''
You could make a case that Sunday's game was the best all-around game
the Raiders have played since the start of the start of the 2003 season.
There was a 38-17 win over Buffalo in 2005 in the sixth game, but that
came against a poor team en route to a 5-11 season and with a statue
named Drew Bledsoe playing quarterback.
Think about it a minute.
When was the last time you watched the Raiders and came away thinking
they were significantly above average?
`` I think this was our best team win in a long time,'' Fargas said.
``It speaks a lot about the guys we have in this locker room. We're not
going to quit, not going to worry about our confidence. We're going to
keep working together and good things will happen.''
Kiffin was so into it he went after Broncos defensive tackle Alvin
McKinley with some choice words after McCown, running to his left and
throwing back across his body to his right, found Jerry Porter alone in
the middle of the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown and a 24-7 lead.
One problem. It was Ian Gold, and not McKinley, who had hit McCown after
the play.
An official ordered Kiffin from the field, and Kiffin found McKinley
afterward to say he was sorry.
It may have been the only mistake Kiffin made all day.
