By Gregg Bell --Sacramento Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Monday, October 20, 2003
OAKLAND -- The woeful, desperate Raiders will take encouragement any place they can find it these dark days.
Even from Las Vegas.
The NFL doesn't exactly encourage its players to discuss or even acknowledge the betting point spread, the huge, multimillion dollar elephant that hovers over the league's games and helps drive its weekly injury reports and daily, fevered national interest.
Or don't you remember the 1970s fall of Alex Karras?
But the NFL's no-no didn't stop Raiders future Hall of Famers Rod Woodson and Jerry Rice from referencing the Vegas line in an effort to put their team's monumental, must-win task tonight against the raging Kansas City Chiefs in perspective.
"I don't know what the spread is," Woodson said of this matchup between 2-4 desperados and 6-0 indestructibles. "But it could be 24 points."
When informed the line favored Kansas City by three points, Rice chuckled and said, "I'm surprised it's three."
Within this dark comedy lies the grim reality for these barely defending AFC champions: Seize the underdog role. For a home game.
"I think it's great. We're playing a team that's way up in the clouds," Woodson said. "They don't think they can be beaten.
"I think it's going to be fun to play these guys. I might pass out."
The Raiders can only hope Woodson's would-be wooziness comes from a "fun" night at the Coliseum.
But is this your idea of fun?
The Raiders are undeniably in must-win mode against a red-hot foe, a stunning fact given they're just six games removed from the Super Bowl. A loss would put them five games behind Kansas City in the AFC West with nine regular-season games remaining.
"They'll come in here with pitchforks and shovels, wanting to bury us," Raiders captain Tim Brown told the Kansas City press last week.
"Desperately, this team needs a win right now," said Pro Bowl tackle Lincoln Kennedy, hoping he can play tonight for the first time in four weeks since tearing a muscle in his left calf.
"Yeah, we need to win this game," cornerback Charles Woodson added. "It's now or never. We can't be 2-5. We need a win right now."
The Raiders will have to earn it by somehow fixing their league-worst run defense enough to slow Priest Holmes, the Chiefs' raging-bull running back. Holmes is second in the AFC in rushing and first in the options for a Kansas City offense that leads the NFL with 31.8 points per game. With 564 yards, Holmes has 70 more than Cleveland Browns runner William Green, who rolled the Raiders for 145 yards last week.
The last time Holmes played in Oakland, in December 2001, he romped for 277 total yards and two touchdowns. He was out with a hip injury during the Chiefs' most recent visit to Oakland -- a 24-0 loss in the 2002 regular-season finale played in monsoon-like rains. It was Kansas City's third consecutive defeat at the Coliseum.
The fact that Holmes will play encourages reborn quarterback Trent Green, the former St. Louis Ram who's coming off a 400-yard passing day in the Chiefs' franchise-best, 17-point, fourth-quarter rally and overtime victory at Green Bay on Oct. 12.
"No. 1, we're coming out with Priest Holmes this time," Green said. "The last game when we played out there, I think ultimately Rich (Gannon) threw maybe 10 times that game (actually 14), whereas we ended up throwing it in the 30s.
"So what's going to be different for us is, hopefully we won't have that weather again, and hopefully we'll be able to do our combination of run and pass that we've been real successful with up to this point."
Furthermore, the Raiders' backward offense -- having scored one touchdown in four of its last five games -- will try to correct itself against a vastly improved Chiefs defense. Hard-smacking linebacker Shaun Barber, pass-rush lineman Vonnie Holiday and playmaking cornerback Dexter McCleon have boosted what was the NFL's worst defense in 2002.
These new Chiefs are allowing 13 fewer points per game after six weeks this season versus the first six games of 2002 (19 per game, down from 32). Opponents that used to pick on Kansas City's secondary are picking a different fight now.
"I think Dexter McCleon, so far, is the most consistent addition on defense," Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil said. "(He's) the most consistent in everything you ask him to do at the right corner."
Then there's Kansas City kick returner Dante Hall, who this season became the first player in NFL history to return kicks for scores in three consecutive games, then extended the streak to four with a game-winning, 93-yard punt return against the Denver Broncos on Oct. 5. After six games, he's already tied for the league season record with four returns for TDs.
Tonight, Hall faces a Raiders special-teams unit that has left opponents with many happy returns this season.
Speaking of runbacks, this is the first appearance of a Vermeil-coached team in a Monday night game since his Philadelphia Eagles went to Miami in 1981. That seems odd -- until you remember Vermeil was out of coaching from 1982 until 1997.
Tonight also will be a mini-homecoming for the Calistoga native. Vermeil, who'll turn 67 on Oct. 30, said he'll be hosting some of his wine-folk friends tonight at the Coliseum.
Well, sort of hosting.
"The people that run the On the Edge Winery with me, that make the Vermeil cabernet, they'll be there," Vermeil said. "My daughter will be there from the valley. My sister won't come up in that crowd."
Good thing -- especially if those oddsmakers are right tonight.
wil.
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Monday, October 20, 2003
OAKLAND -- The woeful, desperate Raiders will take encouragement any place they can find it these dark days.
Even from Las Vegas.
The NFL doesn't exactly encourage its players to discuss or even acknowledge the betting point spread, the huge, multimillion dollar elephant that hovers over the league's games and helps drive its weekly injury reports and daily, fevered national interest.
Or don't you remember the 1970s fall of Alex Karras?
But the NFL's no-no didn't stop Raiders future Hall of Famers Rod Woodson and Jerry Rice from referencing the Vegas line in an effort to put their team's monumental, must-win task tonight against the raging Kansas City Chiefs in perspective.
"I don't know what the spread is," Woodson said of this matchup between 2-4 desperados and 6-0 indestructibles. "But it could be 24 points."
When informed the line favored Kansas City by three points, Rice chuckled and said, "I'm surprised it's three."
Within this dark comedy lies the grim reality for these barely defending AFC champions: Seize the underdog role. For a home game.
"I think it's great. We're playing a team that's way up in the clouds," Woodson said. "They don't think they can be beaten.
"I think it's going to be fun to play these guys. I might pass out."
The Raiders can only hope Woodson's would-be wooziness comes from a "fun" night at the Coliseum.
But is this your idea of fun?
The Raiders are undeniably in must-win mode against a red-hot foe, a stunning fact given they're just six games removed from the Super Bowl. A loss would put them five games behind Kansas City in the AFC West with nine regular-season games remaining.
"They'll come in here with pitchforks and shovels, wanting to bury us," Raiders captain Tim Brown told the Kansas City press last week.
"Desperately, this team needs a win right now," said Pro Bowl tackle Lincoln Kennedy, hoping he can play tonight for the first time in four weeks since tearing a muscle in his left calf.
"Yeah, we need to win this game," cornerback Charles Woodson added. "It's now or never. We can't be 2-5. We need a win right now."
The Raiders will have to earn it by somehow fixing their league-worst run defense enough to slow Priest Holmes, the Chiefs' raging-bull running back. Holmes is second in the AFC in rushing and first in the options for a Kansas City offense that leads the NFL with 31.8 points per game. With 564 yards, Holmes has 70 more than Cleveland Browns runner William Green, who rolled the Raiders for 145 yards last week.
The last time Holmes played in Oakland, in December 2001, he romped for 277 total yards and two touchdowns. He was out with a hip injury during the Chiefs' most recent visit to Oakland -- a 24-0 loss in the 2002 regular-season finale played in monsoon-like rains. It was Kansas City's third consecutive defeat at the Coliseum.
The fact that Holmes will play encourages reborn quarterback Trent Green, the former St. Louis Ram who's coming off a 400-yard passing day in the Chiefs' franchise-best, 17-point, fourth-quarter rally and overtime victory at Green Bay on Oct. 12.
"No. 1, we're coming out with Priest Holmes this time," Green said. "The last game when we played out there, I think ultimately Rich (Gannon) threw maybe 10 times that game (actually 14), whereas we ended up throwing it in the 30s.
"So what's going to be different for us is, hopefully we won't have that weather again, and hopefully we'll be able to do our combination of run and pass that we've been real successful with up to this point."
Furthermore, the Raiders' backward offense -- having scored one touchdown in four of its last five games -- will try to correct itself against a vastly improved Chiefs defense. Hard-smacking linebacker Shaun Barber, pass-rush lineman Vonnie Holiday and playmaking cornerback Dexter McCleon have boosted what was the NFL's worst defense in 2002.
These new Chiefs are allowing 13 fewer points per game after six weeks this season versus the first six games of 2002 (19 per game, down from 32). Opponents that used to pick on Kansas City's secondary are picking a different fight now.
"I think Dexter McCleon, so far, is the most consistent addition on defense," Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil said. "(He's) the most consistent in everything you ask him to do at the right corner."
Then there's Kansas City kick returner Dante Hall, who this season became the first player in NFL history to return kicks for scores in three consecutive games, then extended the streak to four with a game-winning, 93-yard punt return against the Denver Broncos on Oct. 5. After six games, he's already tied for the league season record with four returns for TDs.
Tonight, Hall faces a Raiders special-teams unit that has left opponents with many happy returns this season.
Speaking of runbacks, this is the first appearance of a Vermeil-coached team in a Monday night game since his Philadelphia Eagles went to Miami in 1981. That seems odd -- until you remember Vermeil was out of coaching from 1982 until 1997.
Tonight also will be a mini-homecoming for the Calistoga native. Vermeil, who'll turn 67 on Oct. 30, said he'll be hosting some of his wine-folk friends tonight at the Coliseum.
Well, sort of hosting.
"The people that run the On the Edge Winery with me, that make the Vermeil cabernet, they'll be there," Vermeil said. "My daughter will be there from the valley. My sister won't come up in that crowd."
Good thing -- especially if those oddsmakers are right tonight.
wil.
