Oakland -- Raiders cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha made the 59th post-loss
trudge to the locker room in his 84-game career. To be honest, it gets a
little ancient after awhile.
"I'm tired of losing," Asomugha said to no one in particular before
stepping inside the locker-room doors.
"Yeah," right guard Cooper Carlisle said from behind. "It sucks."
The Raiders, of all teams, would know.
They lost 21-14 to the world-champion Colts before a sold-out Coliseum
on Sunday, dropping to 4-10 on the season with two games to spend.
While the Colts clinched a divisional title with their NFL-record fifth
straight 12-win season, the Raiders secured nothing more than their
franchise-record fifth straight 10-or-more loss season.
Sure, it was close, what with a 99-yard drive, three goal-line stops and
one last chance to tie. In the end, a loss is a loss, and Asomugha
pretty much cornered the team sentiment on that matter.
"I'm over that," Raiders coach Lane Kiffin said of close losses, and he
has been around for only 14 games. "We're far too along to feel good
because we played the world champs down at the 16-yard line to win the game.
"Who cares? We lost. We gotta start winning these games. Some day, we'll
be that team that makes the plays and finishes people off like that."
Until then, the Raiders will settle for being the team that comes up shy
in the red zone and complains afterward about calls and uncalled penalties.
Well, almost everyone.
"Coach said don't say anything about it," wide receiver Jerry Porter said.
"It" is the Raiders' final offensive play of the game, a 4th-and-9 from
the Colts' 16 with 1:54 left in the game. Kiffin called for a double
slant, and quarterback Josh McCown fired to Porter near the right hash
at the Colts' 5.
Colts cornerback Kelvin Hayden wrapped his right arm around Porter's
back and gripped the back of his right forearm. The pass skidded to
incompletion land. Porter sat on the ground, gesturing for a flag.
Porter also asked for a penalty three plays earlier when cornerback
Marlin Jackson gripped him in the end zone for another incompletion.
"I'll just tell you what the ref told me," Porter said. "He said he
grabbed me but he didn't turn me. I had a chance, just couldn't get to
the ball. I'm trying to do what my coach said."
Kiffin wasn't bound by such gags.
"I feel bad about the fourth-down play," Kiffin said. "It comes down to
one play and I don't think Jerry had a chance to catch it because I
think he got grabbed.
"I'm never one to complain about the calls or make excuses. It's just
unfortunate that the game comes down to one play and you don't have a
chance to make a play on it."
Kiffin also brought up a play on the Colts' go-ahead touchdown drive
that should have been overruled, only he didn't challenge the ruling.
Reggie Wayne made a one-arm, 19-yard catch against Nnamdi Asomugha on
3rd-and-3, but replays showed his foot landed out of bounds. The Colts
quick-snapped the next play before Kiffin could see a replay.
Eight plays later, Peyton Manning threw a 20-yard touchdown throw to
Anthony Gonzalez, followed by a two-point conversion run by Joseph
Addai, for a 21-14 lead with 4:49 left in the game.
"He didn't make the catch," Kiffin said about Wayne.
All this spoiled an otherwise productive day at the office.
The Raiders' run defense, ranked 31st in the NFL, stuffed Addai, a
1,000-yard rusher, into a 44-yard box. Their pass rush sacked Peyton
Manning three times and kept him to 22 completions in 39 tries with one
touchdown.
Best of all, their goal-line defense forced the Colts to settle for two
field goals in three trips inside the Raiders' 5. The one time the Colts
didn't score, they were stopped at the 1-yard line while trying to
expand a 10-0 lead in the second quarter.
"We're at the half-yard line, they didn't give up," Colts coach Tony
Dungy said. "They stopped us and got that big drive to get back in the
ballgame."
"That big drive" was a 20-play, 99-yard, 11:26 touchdown drive,
Oakland's longest of the season on all three counts. The Raiders
actually had to go 109 yards because of a 10-yard holding penalty.
Justin Fargas ran eight times for 38 yards on the drive. He later scored
a go-ahead 2-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter and passed the
1,000-yard mark for the season before leaving the game with a knee injury.
"It's definitely a mental and physical challenge to go 99 yards,
especially against the Colts," Fargas said.
McCown completed 6 of 7 passes for 41 yards and ran for 11 yards,
including a 1-yard sneak on 4th-and-inches.
"The one-mile drive," McCown said. "That was pretty cool."
Ronald Curry ended it with a 3-yard touchdown catch with 3:06 left in
the half.
"It was very tiring," left tackle Barry Sims said.
Raiders lose 21-14: That's a moral victory if the NFL has them. Which they don’t. I know that. But think of the start of this game — the Colts led 10-0 and seemed to score a touchdown that made it 17-0.
But Lane Kiffin challenged and won. Not that it meant a lot, right? The
Colts would just bust it in from a half-yard out on fourth down.
But the Raiders batted down the pass. But surely their offense was in a
vulnerable position, right, and the Colts would just keep pushing until
they had the ball in the end zone just by pure geography and physics?
No, the Raiders went on a 12-minute drive that in one nice nutshell
showed everything good that has happened in Kiffin’s first year.
And the Raiders led into the fourth quarter, and they had a chance to
tie the score, and yes, that was a pass interference on fourth down when
Kelvin Hayden held Jerry Porter’s arm.
But … the stands were packed and the Raiders went toe-to-toe with the
NFL’s second-best team. That’s a whole lot of achievement. December has
been checkout/early holiday planning time for four years in Raiderland,
and Lane Kiffin has his team fighting.
