Raiders at Chiefs - Week 15 - Record: 8-6

Are you as tired as I am of seeing stuff like this show up in infographics on the television set? Here, look:

"Current streak of games without a 300-yard passing day: Chiefs 43, Dolphins 15, a bunch of other teams at something like 14, 13, and so on..."

"Chiefs rank: Receiving yards - LAST. Receiver touchdowns - LAST. Receiving anything - LAST..."

"Time since last wide receiver touchdown: 1 year, 6 days, 17 minutes [and counting...]"

The network showed that last one just about every time the Chiefs had the ball in Raiders territory, and indeed at one point showed a clip of the last one we had, Dwayne Bowe's nifty slip-&-slide into the Redskins endzone. But yeah, that was the last one.

Thing is, the commentators remarked that it is amazing that the Chiefs are in this thing with that situation. I mean, extremely nonplussed they were with their remarking. And extremely understandable.

Thing is, it was a Jekyll and Hyde day for our passing game. Damn, Alex Smith actually passed the ball down the field today. Damn, he actually made nice completions today. A lot of them! To his wide receivers even! Off the top of my head, a 48-yarder to Wilson -- yeah! -- a 48-yarder, down the middle of the field!!! A 37-yarder to Bowe. Another spiffy deep out-pass to Bowe starting the 3rd quarter leading to our first touchdown. Earlier a fine catch and run by Jason Avant -- let's get this guy more in the mix!

But then, especially at the end of the first half, there were lots of drops and much sluggishness. Some Smith passes were just bad, just plain bad. One play I remember had Smith throwing to his checkdown Jamaal Charles who got dumped for a loss. On the replay showing that view from behind it was easy to see two of his receivers get quick and easy separation from their guys. Now yeah I know there're safeties and stuff out there, but then, I read this piece my cousin sent me about Smith's overconservativeness, and as usual we all just go errrrrrghkkrrkkkkkkkk...

(Oh, and point of fact. Smith had 297 yards passing today. That's nice. What is that now, 44 straight games now without a Chiefs regular season 300-yard passing game?...)

The commentators mentioned that Andy Reid felt mental fatigue had started to set in among the players. Great, that's just great. Sure we got it together and had a beast 3rd quarter, but this is the Raiders. Taking nothing away from the team and its effort, but ::nnkfnkk:: -- we have the Steelers next week in Pittsburgh, and we'd better be channeling Albert Einstein.

That's our season right there. It is true, every game from today's game on is "a playoff game." I put that in quotes because we may certainly win the next two "playoff games", but if we dang-it-all lose our first actual playoff game, well, well... The great thing is that we do control our own destiny. We beat Pittsburgh and San Diego in the next two games, and we're in. We hold the tiebreaker against both of them, so we're good.

Ahem.

We just have to beat them.

That's all.

Will we? From the little I know I see Pittsburgh's got a QB having a monster season. The commentators said they have this receiver (I really know little about the Steelers) who's phenomenal. And they have this running back Le'veon Bell who's pretty good. Because I just don't analyze everything about stuff, much less about any team not the Chiefs, I just can't be so expert about it all. This blog is just a fun riff on my thoughts.

What I do see is this.

Our defensive backs do cover pretty damn well. They said we still have a tremendously high ranking pass defense. They were even saying we haven't been allowing 300-yard passing days, like, ever. At least there's that. Thing is, we may just damn well need to make an interception or two to stop Roethlisberger. We simply can't have the dropped picks we had last week if we hope to win. Parker, Fleming, Gaines, Smith, Owens, Abdullah -- these guys do smother their guys, that's great. They'll have to step it up to an even greater level and make sure to grab those balls thrown within their reach if we're going to have a chance. Roethlisberger is just too relentless.

Our pass rush is decent. It was nice to see Dee Ford out there today getting some reps in, and showing his speed off the edge. Today we got a good push up the middle and we disrupted their passing rhythm on just about every down. On one play the QB couldn't even get the snap from center and the ball just lay there for us to cuddle. How great was that. We go crazy trying to get turnovers. That thing with Jaye Howard just plain not hanging on to that ball hanging in the air for him was preposterous. Every time there's a chance, we are just that close to getting them and just don't -- it was about time we'd get a gift one like that one.

Our special teams is actually pretty damn great, when you think about it. We scream about how much more effective the offense would be if they did this or had that. We beam about our pass defense and wince when our run defense is far too bendy. But look at this special teams unit! De'Anthony got a terrific TD punt return. Dustin did a goofy fake-fake punt and booted it down to the Raiders five. Our return guys were getting the ball down into great field position all day -- remember last year when they did that all the time? Thing is, our kicker Cairo Santos had a miserable day. He missed two FG's that were gimmes. That scares me. He's just too raw and too new to be trusted. Great with that game-winner against San Diego a couple months ago. What'll happen now???

And I still ask this. Not going to stop asking it. I just think it'd be amazing if they did it. When are they going to design at least a couple more plays with Alex Smith scrambling to open things up? One of the announcers for today's game even said he should have a different release point than the one he has far too often: three steps back waiting for a pass rusher to sack him. I think they should run at least five plays designed to get Smith into open space so he can have more confidence to scan the field and get it to those open receivers, with those receivers already running defined, lengthened routes with that whole concept clearly in mind.

Today, though, it seemed like he did have more confidence.

Maybe today's game was the game that'll get him untracked.

For next week,

He's going to need it.
_