Shane Life

Alli and I (thanks to the generous nature of one of my former co-workers - thanks Teresa!) got to go to the Chiefs-Raiders game today. Now, I will go to any game, any day, any weather, and today was no exception. However, the fact that it was a Chiefs-Raiders game made it that much more fun.

Chiefs-Raiders is one of the great rivalries in the NFL. It’s over 40 years old and there is a serious nature to it…it goes all the way to the owners on this one (rumor has it that Lamar Hunt and Al Davis once got into a bar brawl that left both with multiple wounds…and that was only 2 years ago!).

Today also marked the return of Trent Green to the lineup. Let’s be honest…Damon Huard, you did a nice enough job, but after your godawful performance in Miami, you deserve to be benched, ESPECIALLY for Trent Green (the second-best statistical passer in the NFL over the last 4 years only to some dude from Indianapolis named Archie or something like that).

The first drive, the Chiefs marched down the field behind the strong running of Larry Johnson, but let’s be honest…Trent didn’t even have the OPPORTUNITY to contribute to the drive because Mike “Herm Edwards” Solari just took the ball out of Trent’s hands, only allowing him one throw on the drive, a crappy wide receiver screen to the most worthless of all Chiefs - Dante Hall. It looked as though the Chiefs would be in good shape as they held Oakland to field goals on their first two drives (although the defense had some struggles tackling people and letting Aaron Brooks look like Michael Vick instead of…well…Aaron Brooks. (After the game I heard Herm Edwards say, “yeah, we heard that Brooks would be getting the start and that concerned us a bit.” Um, really? We’re talking about Aaron Brooks, the human turnover machine. That dude sucked so bad that THE SAINTS let him go.)

Anyway, the Chiefs defense stalled because Herm Edwards couldn’t gameplan his way out of a paper bag. To be honest, the Chiefs offense has a better chance of being more explosive if they go to a no-huddle Colts-style offense and just let Trent call the game from the field. He knows more about offensive play-calling than Solari (and certainly Herm Edwards) ever will. Fortunately, the defense played pretty well and we went into the locker room at halftime only down 13-7.

After halftime, it looked like more of the same. We drove the field and got a field goal, but again, the un-brilliance of Edwards’ staff kept the offense from blowing the game open. It’s almost like Edwards and Johnson have a behind-doors deal that guarantees Larry Johnson (who is a great back, mind you, but is going to get hurt if we don’t stop leaning on him so hard) 30 touches and 150+ yards per game. Our offense is so boringly predictable that Michael Bay might as well be directing the games.

Still, even with Lawrence Tynes (who has also been money this season) missing a field goal to tie the game at 13, we found ourselves up 17-13 with 1 minute and 32 seconds to go in the game as Johnson pounded it into the end zone for his 2nd touchdown of the game to cap off a brilliant Trent Green-led drive.

BUT

That didn’t stop the defense from trying to give up the game. We of course went into a prevent against a team with receivers that are ALL faster than us and Oakland drove to the 8 before ROOKIE Jerrod Page saved the game by intercepting a pass intended for Randy Moss in the end zone. Game over. Chiefs win.

Phew.

The win brings us to 6-4, still 2 games behind the division leading winner of the San Diego-Denver game tonight. Hopefully San Diego wins so we can pull even with Denver on Thanksgiving at home. But I am not real confident about that game. We BARELY got by Oakland. How will we do against the BEST DEFENSE IN THE LEAGUE. With Edwards and Solari calling the shots…probably not very well.

But here’s hoping…