Raiders at Chiefs - Week 16 - Record: 6-9

Remember Christmas Day 2004? The Chiefs and the Raiders, at Arrowhead, a wild back-and-forth affair that ended with one of the best Christmas gifts a Chiefs fan could ever have. Down 30-28 with a minute left, Dante Hall takes the kick-off and splendidly scampers deep into Raiders territory so we can kick the game-winning field goal. Final score: Chiefs 31, Raiders 30.

It was a nice Christmas gift to have at the close of a miserable season that year when we went off to lose too many games in really stupid ways. Well, yeah -- sorry. You're right. What other kinds of ways do the Chiefs lose games?

We got no such Christmas gift this year -- and it's at the end of a season that was typically stupid.

Okay, okay, it's Christmas, I shouldn't be so Scroogely.

It was nice that Dexter McCluster finally got untracked and zipped for the yards and yards and yards he should be zipping regularly after getting a screen pass -- this one in the last minute of regulation to set up the tying score that gave us a chance to win. Okay, okay, so there was something nice.

But there wasn't much else.

For one thing we just don't have that "X Factor." Yes, for as overrated as some say Dante Hall was, he was still a gamer, a go-to-guy, a leader -- and I'm sorry, he was an exciting player who did get the job done on the field when it needed getting done.

In contrast, one play typified the way the Chiefs play football today -- at least the way the offense plays football. We were driving at about midfield, and QB Kyle Orton had to scamble out of the pocket and run. He got the first down, except... you know what happened.

The ref put the ball at an awful spot.

4th and half-an-inch. Literally, it was half-an-inch.

So they give the ball to Jackie Battle, who on virtually every one of his runs he chugs for about two more yards after getting hit. He really does, the guy is a genius at that.

But here his mind is telling him, "All I need is half-an-inch."

He gets a quarter-of-an-inch.

Grrreat. The Raiders zip on down, kick a field goal to make it 13-6, a score that really allowed them to win it in overtime.

The point is, why isn't this team thinking about just getting tons of yardage -- as many tons of yardage as they could get on any play they run? Every other play Battle has the ball he's getting three, four yards -- why not now? And if the other team has 57 guys lined up right at the point where the runner is going to try to get the first down, then why can't we do other things, such as, ohhh, pass to the guy who should be wide open and get the first down that way?

It's because we just don't have that "X Factor" mentality. We just don't.

Maybe this is a good thing, however.

After the wonderfully splendiferous win over Green Bay last week, I started getting scared the Chiefs would go ahead and make Romeo Crennel our permanent head coach. Yikes. Sorry, but we need a true solid leader-type to take the troops into battle. I love Romeo Crennel, his defense is the best thing about this team, but he's not head-coach material.

Clark, Scott, please please please please please please please please please please please go insane to find the next Bill Parcells or Bill Belichick or Bill Walsh -- why are all the great coaches named Bill? Well there ya go, start looking at guys named Bill, but not Todd or Herman or John or Frank or Gunther or any of the guys who are just not going to get us to the promised land.

Fact is with Romeo at the helm this game was a disaster. Yet again we got close to the end zone and failed time after time after time. We had a complete breakdown on the special teams line when we got two field goals blocked. And the penalties just piled up again.

The Raiders themselves were getting penalized themselves out of their rear ends -- but we were matching them penalty for penalty, how wretched was that. (The Raiders, BTW, are on pace to break the record for most penalties by a team, set by - ::sigh:: - the 1998 Kansas City Chiefs, who had over 150 for the season. That's about ten a game. I simply did not know that -- still, eerrr-rahlphff [gratuitous upchuck noise]. 1998 was the year I stopped paying attention to sports cold turkey -- now I know some of why...)

So yeah, the best thing for Chiefs fans to do in this last game is endure -- I know it will be very difficult -- to endure the Chiefs looking miserable in a final season loss to the Broncos. This will ensure a number of things:

1. A better slot in the draft so we have a better shot at getting that future Hall-of-Fame quarterback we so desperately need.

2. Chiefs management seeing that Romeo Crennel is not the guy and Bill Exceptionallyterrificprofootballcoach is.

3. The Raiders will be booted from the playoffs. I mean, come on, how bad is this. If the Chiefs beat the Broncos and the Raiders win, the Raiders go into the playoffs. I mean we can put up with a lot -- hey, we're Chiefs fans -- but this goes beyond the pale...

Now yes, I will never root against the Chiefs, ever, in any game. But the fact is this.

A Chiefs win helps the Raiders.

The humanity!
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