Niners’ Shanahan on loss to Chiefs: “We got our ass kicked today”

They were calling it a Super Bowl rematch. It was more like a mismatch.

"There's no way to sugarcoat this. We got our ass kicked today," said Kyle Shanahan, the San Francisco 49ers coach. 

The final score made it seem close, Kansas City Chiefs 28, Niners 18. It wasn’t. A more accurate reflection would come from the time of possession: Kansas City owned the ball for more than 35 minutes. It owns the 49ers seemingly forever, now having beaten San Francisco the last five times they played.

The Chiefs only defeated San Francisco 25-22 in overtime in Super Bowl LVIII last February, and yes, the 49ers could have won that game. They had no chance of winning this one, Sunday, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, as Shanahan so tersely pointed out.

Not only was it because of the three interceptions of quarterback Brock Purdy, who concedes he tried to force the last two of the throws. Indeed Purdy and the Niners were without three top receivers, Jauan Jennings, Deebo Samuel and then when he got hurt in the fourth quarter—apparently a torn ACL—Brandon Ayuik. The loss of those players understandably had a huge effect on the Niners' offense, but every team in the NFL has injuries. KC was without several players, and the best teams survive if not thrive.

The Chiefs indeed are thriving at 6-0. They are the only team in pro football still undefeated with the Vikings falling to Detroit earlier Sunday. So much for any thought that KC would have a letdown after last season's title.   

The Niners are 3-4. While the situation figures to improve if and when halfback Christian McCaffrey returns, along with several of the missing receivers, it will not be easy to return to the playoffs. 

So many things have gone wrong this year, including the inability to finish games. If the Niners are to regain their once-exalted position as one of the NFL’s leading franchises, Sunday night’s game against the Dallas Cowboys would be a good place to start. 

The Cowboys have had their own troubles, and have owner Jerry Jones giving various explanations. Long ago Dallas was labeled “America’s team,” and whether that was justified, the Cowboys have earned as much respect and disdain as any team in any sport. 

The Chiefs have simply gained admiration under coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes. They just kept winning and on Sunday the Niners were their victim. Again.

KC did it with a defense that wasn’t overwhelming, just efficient. The Niners gained 384 net yards, compared to the 358 for the Chiefs, but San Francisco, as has been the case, could not turn yardage into enough points.

Purdy’s three interceptions were part of the reason. Turnovers hurt even the best teams, and it is obvious that San Francisco, now behind Seattle in the division, isn’t one of the very best teams at the moment. The Niners still have more than half of their season remaining, which could be good news if they figure out how to complete the drives and somehow keep players healthy enough to play.

Mahomes does it to Niners. Again.

The Super Bowl. Again. The Kansas City Chiefs. Again. Patrick Mahomes. Again. Heartbreak for Northern California. Again.

This is the fact of sports: Sometimes the other guy is better. Sometimes the other team is better.

You train and work out. You try your hardest. And you lose.

So much excitement. So many dreams of glory. And then defeat. That’s the way it went for guys facing Roger Federer. Or women facing Serena Williams. Or NFL teams facing Mahomes in the biggest games.

No ifs. No might-haves. No, “They got all the good breaks.”

No blaming the offensive line or the fact that an injury caused Dre Greenlaw to miss the entire second half. Just Chiefs, 25, San Francisco, 22, Sunday in Super Bowl LVIII, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

“Two good teams facing each other,” Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said honestly and sadly.

And the 49ers weren’t quite as good as Kansas City because of Patrick Mahomes at quarterback.

“He can pass, and he can run,” affirmed Niners linebacker Fred Warner.

Most of all he can beat you.

The Niners went far this season, and won the NFC Championship. But for Niner fans who carry in their head reminders of the glory days of the 1980s, that’s not far enough.

Strange, so strange, and so perplexing. This time the San Francisco defense was king. For a while. Until Mahomes, virtually unstoppable, knocked away the crown.

The anticipation kept growing as the Niners kept advancing. The Bay Area’s television stations were relentless in the promotion. Overkill is a way of life in the media.

America’s so-called favorite city and the city’s favorite sports franchise. Add in the bright lights and myths of Vegas, and well isn’t that a bit of perfection?

Yes, until game time. Until the Niners had trouble scoring and until Mahomes — the necessary evil in this plot — got up and lifted Kansas City.

“Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes are great players,” said Shanahan, who, when he was an assistant at Atlanta lost a lead in the Super Bowl to Brady, and as head coach of the Niners, has lost two leads and two Super Bowls to Mahomes.

He didn’t blame his guys, whether second-year quarterback Brock Purdy or veteran running back Christian McCaffrey, the offensive player of the year, or the special teams for a missed extra point. Which in the end didn’t really matter.

He simply gave credit to that quarterback, Mahomes, who produced a great ending for the Chiefs and a miserable one for the Niners and their followers.

“We are all hurting,” said Shanahan. Again.

Super Bowl gave us what we needed — an escape from the real world

America needed that, a sporting event dramatic and exciting enough for a few minutes — OK, for four quarters — that we might be taken away from the real world.

A few years ago, when critics whined the Super Bowl had become too overwhelming in our lives with the halftime show and commercials, the late NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle insisted, “All we are is entertainment.”

For proof, you are offered the happenings Sunday in the Arizona desert of Super Bowl LVII, which fulfilled Rozelle’s argument and in the process showed the Kansas City Chiefs to be a franchise of destiny, if not history.

Trailing virtually from the opening minutes against the favored Philadelphia Eagles, the Chiefs first rallied from 10 points down and then, after gaining and losing leads, won 38-35 on a field goal with eight seconds remaining.

The tale of this game was supposed to be the Eagles’ offense, but just as it was three years ago when he rallied a K.C. comeback over the 49ers, the story instead was Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

Earlier in the week Mahomes, so agile and so reliable, had been voted the NFL’s Most Valuable Player. In theory, it was a guarantee his team would not win the championship game. Young Mahomes is not burdened by theories.

“Patrick Mahomes and our offensive line,” was the answer that Chiefs head coach Andy Reid gave when asked how his team took control and took the victory.

That Kansas City defense wasn’t bad either, limiting Philly to only a touchdown in the second half.

This was a game that on the surface didn’t seem that enticing. No 49ers, no Cowboys, no Tom Brady. Who cared other than the people from KC and Philly — and the segment of the population that had bet millions on the outcome?

Let’s amend that last sentence. The game turned out to be a thriller. And a warning that the Chiefs very well could become the replacement for the New England Patriots as the league’s most dominant team.

So many things can get in the way, injuries, fumbles — you’ve heard the litany, but who or what is going to stop the Chiefs, especially after the Eagles, who from game one of the regular season were anointed the No. 1 team?

And early in the Super Bowl it appeared to be the better team, though Philly quarterback Jalen Hurts maybe runs better than he throws — he set a Super Bowl record for quarterbacks by rushing for two touchdowns.

There’s no doubting the NFL can be a harrowing place to earn a living, as the frightening collapse of Damar Hamlin reminded us in early January. But a game like Super Bowl LVII will not allow us to step away.

At the beginning of the week, when there’s more nonsense than sense for the Super Bowl, Andy Reid, who is 64 and whose musical tastes run in a different direction, was asked to name the five greatest rappers ever.

He named two. Big deal.

We’d rather he choose his team for the excitement it gave us in the Super Bowl.

Shanahan: ‘Players just need to play better’

You say the Niners might need something more than Christian McCaffrey? Not a bad guess.

You could start with a defense, except as we were reminded on the telecast the Niners have the No. 1 defense in the NFL. And defense wins, right?  

Unless it is defenseless.

What do you call it? A reality check? A surprise? It certainly was a downer to close a week that had seemed perfect for the Niners.

They had out-snookered the others, we were advised, by trading a few draft picks for Christian McCaffrey, who could run and receive, do everything except leap tall buildings in a single bound.

He did play Sunday, but the Niners did not, at least to what was supposed to be their capability, getting overwhelmed, 44-23, by the Chiefs.

You want a word to describe the way the 49ers looked? How about terrible? They gave up a first down when the Chiefs had a third-and-20.

“We have good players,” said head coach Kyle Shanahan, notably bewildered. “They just have to play better.”

So simple. And so mystifying. Maybe the Niners on Sunday played as well as they are able. After all, they have a 3-4 record, and much of the perception of their power comes from that huge victory over the Rams.

That’s when the defense embellished a reputation that soon may be far less than it was. The D that day contributed six quarterback sacks. In this game they had just one, although KC’s Patrick Mahomes is particularly elusive.

Indeed, so is the Super Bowl, in which only a few winters past, Super Bowl LIV, the Niners faced the Chiefs. The chance for a repeat of that game was good. No longer.

The Chiefs looked every bit as strong as promised, running and passing for 529 yards. They are confident and well programmed.  

They grabbed the game, which fell far short of being competitive as the 1½-point spread would indicate.

Strange things happen in pro football, where nobody (except the 1972 Dolphins) wins them all. Virtually nobody loses them all, and the popular slogan is: “On any given Sunday.” 

Still, you don’t get outclassed as the Niners were if there is to be more than a thimbleful of hope. It isn’t so much about what went wrong but what didn’t go wrong.

It wasn’t wrong for Shanahan to pull quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo in the closing minutes, the game decided. It was an act of mercy. Something the Niners needed.

“Our defense prides itself on eliminating explosive plays,” said linebacker Fred Warner. “And that’s what the game felt like, explosive plays, one after another.”

But only for one team and against one team.  

“That was just general frustration,” said Warner. “Knowing that we are better than that. And I felt they were marching down the field.”

He felt that way because that’s what the Chiefs were doing. The numbers are depressing as well as shocking. The Chiefs scored on six of their first eight possessions and didn’t punt until it didn’t matter, with only minutes remaining.

The 44 points were the most allowed in a home game since a 45-10 loss to Atlanta on Oct. 11, 2009. That’s before Shanahan arrived, the days when the Niners were as inefficient as they were on Sunday.

McCaffrey in a limited role was responsible for 62 yards on 10 touches. Wonder if he would be willing to try defense?

Bucs win belongs as much to Bowles as Brady

By Art Spander

Tom Brady was the MVP, of course, because the prediction was that Super Bowl LV either was going to belong to him or the shell-shocked kid on the other side, Patrick Mahomes. And yes, Brady is the greatest ever.

But this one, this mismatch, no less belongs to Todd Bowles as it does to Brady.

Bowles is the Tampa Bay Bucs’ defensive coordinator, the guy who designed the formations and called the plays that for the first time in the season of 2020, really the the first time in the career for young Mr. Mahomes, left him virtually helpless and hopeless.
 Never in his brief career had Mahomes, harassed, chased, and sacked, been unable to create a single touchdown.

Tampa Bay limited K.C. to three field goals in its overwhelming 31-9 victory.

Brady will get the attention, and unquestionably he deserves it, quarterback on the winning Super Bowl team for a record seventh time, having wisely joined the Bucs last spring as a free agent after 20 years with the New England Patriots.

Brady threw three touchdown passes, two to his once and current teammate, tight end Rob Gronkowski. Offense glows, but as we’ve been told, defense wins.

“Todd Bowles, Todd Bowles,” Devin White, the Bucs linebacker, said to CBS-TV. “He did it.”

Bowles once was head coach of the New York Jets, and there was a report before the kickoff of the Super Bowl that if the Bucs won, Bruce Arians would retire as Tampa Bay head coach and Bowles would replace him.

Arians denied as much after the game, for now at least, saying, “This is fun. This is what I wanted.”

For a long while. At 68, Arians is the oldest coach in the NFL. And now, certainly, the most elated.

Particularly since his Bucs not only won, but since the game was played at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium, where because of the pandemic there were more cardboard cutouts than live fans, also won the first Super Bowl held in a home stadium.

Kansas City was the defending champion and a narrow favorite (3 points). But after taking a 3-0 lead, the Chiefs were barely in the game. They struggled with a patch-up offensive line, true, but in truth they struggled with the Bucs’ relentless pursuit

There were reminders of Super Bowl 50 at Levi’s Stadium, when the Denver Broncos, underdogs, stopped a brilliant Carolina Panthers offense and Cam Newton.

Somehow these defensive coaches, with a two-week window between the conference championships and the Super Bowl, figure out how to unnerve the big boys — like Mahomes.

“Our timing was not there,” said Mahomes, who was 26 of 49 for 243 yards. He was sacked three times and intercepted twice.

Their timing wasn’t there because invariably someone from the Bucs — White, Antoine Winfield — was there, in their face. Mahomes, known for his scrambling, could not escape. Tampa defenders went wide, Mahomes not knowing which way to go.

“Give them credit,” said Mahomes about the Bucs.

So we will, as we give Brady credit, a 43-year-old who seems destined to play until he’s 53. The Serra High (San Mateo) grad is the essence of confidence and reliability. Wisdom and guile, goes the aphorism, make up for age and immobility.

Arians knew last spring he needed a quarterback, and when the Patriots decided for one reason or another not to bring back Brady, the Bucs had one. And now, after languishing since winning the 2003 Super Bowl, they have another title.

Tom indeed is one of a kind, and brought to the same franchise where Todd Bowles put together the defense, it’s a perfect union.

One knows the way to get points, the other the way to keep from getting them.

A super matchup of quarterbacks in the Super Bowl

By Art Spander

It’s about the quarterback. Isn’t it always? It’s about Joe Montana or Terry Bradshaw or John Elway. Or Sunday in Super Bowl LV, Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes.

Decision maker. Play caller. Man in bubble. Man under pressure.

Brady, 43, arguably the best ever; Mahomes, 25, arguably the best now.

Such a disparity in ages. Such a similarity in production.

So much is made of quarterbacks, yet it never can be too much. Montana was the reason the 49ers became champs. Bradshaw was the Steelers’ anchor, Elway the force on the Broncos.

There’s never been a great team without a great quarterback. Defense may dominate — it won Super Bowl 50 for the Broncos. The other team will have the ball.

But what you do when you have the ball? That’s where the quarterback makes the difference. As Brady completing 43 of 62 attempts in New England’s comeback win over Atlanta in Super Bowl LI made a difference. As Mahomes completing passes to lead K.C. from behind in the fourth quarter to beat the 49ers in Super Bowl LIV made a difference.

Now with possibly the best Super Bowl quarterback matchup of all time, Brady of Tampa Bay vs. Mahomes of Kansas City — yes, Montana vs. Dan Marino in XIX is up there — the question is who will be the difference maker?

Mahomes has the arm, as well as the legs. He’s stronger, longer and, when needing to escape or run the ball, faster. Brady, in his 10th Super Bowl, is wiser.

Mahomes was MVP of last year’s Super Bowl in Miami. Brady has been MVP of multiple Super Bowls — his team, the New England Patriots, winner in six of them.

The Chiefs liked what was available. Mahomes lasted until the 10th pick of the 2017 draft (the Bears took QB Mitch Trubisky with the second overall pick).

The Bucs knew what they needed in the spring of 2020, a free agent quarterback. “Of course it was Tom Brady,” said coach Bruce Arians, “not thinking he would become a free agent.”

Brady became one, after 20 years with New England, and Arians reacted. “That’s how you live life,” Arians explained. “Do you sit and live in a closet and try to be safe, or do you go have some fun?”

The answer is written not on the wind but in the wins.

“I looked at the whole situation,” Brady said after signing with Tampa Bay. “There were a lot of reasons to come here.” Not the least of which was a two-year, $50 million contract.

Mahomes in July signed a 10-year $500 million contract, which, if it goes to completion and he stays healthy and interested, would make him a free agent at 35.  Presumably Brady will be retired by then, but one never knows.

What we do know, not surprisingly, is that both Mahomes and Brady seem as impressed with the style and results of each other as the performances would indicate.

“You’re crazy,” said Mahomes, “if you don’t look up to Tom Brady as a young athlete. He’s the type of greatness you strive to be. It’s going to be a great opportunity for me to get to play against Tom, an all-time great, the GOAT (greatest of all time), everything like that.”

Brady, a sixth-round pick in 2000, surely looks at Mahomes and pictures himself. The way it was, the way it is and maybe the way it will be.

Said Brady of Mahomes, “I think he’s got the ability to focus when the moments are the biggest. That’s probably the mark of any great athlete, coming through in the clutch. I think he’s off to a great start in his career doing that.”

The chance for Mahomes to continue comes in a Super Bowl against Brady. What a matchup. It’s always the quarterback.

Goodell on Brady (the greatest) and Kaepernick (unrecognized)

By Art Spander

He is the son of a politician, a U.S. Senator from New York. No surprise that Roger Goodell can maneuver so well through the tough times — and yes, the most important sporting league in America has them — and the difficult questions.

He is 61. NFL commissioner for some 14 years, paid enormously ($40 million annually) and, when needed, able to slip past the criticism and doubt like a great running back through would-be tacklers.

This is Goodell’s week, the annual week for the Super Bowl, “America’s Great Time Out,” it’s been labeled. And Goodell, as did his recent predecessors, the late Pete Rozelle and John Tagliabue, gets his glory and his grief, the latter when he addresses and responds to the media.

Rozelle, eagerly — hey, he helped create the Super Bowl back in 1966 — and Tagliabue, reluctantly, held their sessions on the Friday before the game. A couple years back, Goodell switched it to Thursday.

He was well prepared this Thursday. He’s always well prepared.

A one-time prep football star in suburban New York — Goodell’s career at Washington & Jefferson College was ruined by an injury — he pays attention both to game plans and possibilities.

Very little catches him off guard, whether it’s the understandably repetitive queries about the lack of African American coaches for a league in which 70 percent of the players are black; or the somewhat oddball query whether Tampa, host for this Sunday’s Super Bowl LV, will get the game in a “normal,” year, not haunted by the pandemic, when fans again will be permitted.   

"I don't know when normal will occur again," Goodell confided.

Nor, he could have added, does anyone else.

The new normal, if that’s the proper label, is to have as many media on Zoom calls as are in the room. Yes, journalists from some locations were there in flesh and blood. But so were journalists from as far away from Florida as Great Britain, via video conferencing.

Each constituency had its own requests, whether about Goodell’s relationship with Tom Brady, for whom the commissioner’s 2015 suspension for “Deflategate” was overruled, or what thoughts he had on Super Bowl LVI at the $5 billion SoFi Stadium in L.A., which opened last fall and where there hasn’t yet been a game with spectators.

“Tom Brady has shown himself to be probably the greatest player ever to play the game,” said Goodell about the 43-year-old quarterback who will start for Tampa Bay in his 10th Super Bowl game.

“His leadership, his ability to rise to the big occasion,” Goodell continued, “to make everybody around him rise ... and he’s one the great guys. I’ve known him for about 15 years. I think he’s going to continue to be a great player. I’m glad he’s going to play a few more years.”

Ben Volin of the Boston Globe — remember, for 20 years Brady was with New England — wanted to know whether Goodell punishing Brady back in 2015 was “the right thing to do.” That never was answered directly.

Goodell was more candid about Colin Kaepernick, who after leading the 49ers to Super Bowl XLVII in February 2013 was ostracized because a few years later he knelt during the National Anthem to protest racism.

Urged by then-President Donald Trump, team owners refused to sign Kaepernick as a free agent. In 2016 Goodell actively advised teams to bring in Kaepernick, but none did.

“We wished we had listened to our players two years ago,” said Goodell, which was as contrite as someone in his position could be.

“I said very clearly back in June (2020) that he deserves recognition. We started working with the players’ union and Black Lives Matter. He and other players brought the issues to us. We are now working with them.”

Too late to save Kaepernick’s career, but in time to help others. Goodell is nothing if not attentive.

Andy Reid: No Geritol or yelling, just wins

By Art Spander

Of course they’re older — with one exception, Sean McVay. The reason these guys are coaches is they have gained experience, in football or life. As you’ve heard, age is only a number, an insignificant one when compared to another number, wins.

How the conversation reached the point is hard to say, but apparently in his Tuesday presser, Zoomed for players and media separated by pandemic protocol, Kansas City’s Andy Reid was asked his age, an implication that he didn’t know how to deal with a new generation.

Reid is a mere 62 — the other coach in Sunday’s Super Bowl LV, Tampa Bay’s Bruce Arians, is 65 — and he joked that he and his staff are “no Geritol crew.”

If the reference is dated — Geritol was a mineral supplement pulled off the market maybe 30 years ago when the FDA denied the claim it cured “tired blood” — Reid is not dated.

As his 25-year-old quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, pointed out, Reid is young enough.

Reid also is part of the renowned Bill Walsh coaching tree, men who as assistants were fortunate enough to have a connection with the individual who perfected the West Coast Offense and, in turn, helped the 49ers win five Super Bowls.

Each became an NFL head coach, and now four, George Seifert, Jon Gruden, Mike Holmgren and last year Reid had their own Super Bowl victories.

West Coast (capitals) and for Seifert, Holmgren and Reid, California guys, west coast, lower case.

Reid grew up in Los Angeles, not far from Griffith Park. There was a fine story by Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times the other day of Reid, your typical offensive lineman, and his pals from Marshall High cramming into a VW bug and hitting the town — but not until they made their hits in prep games.

Reid moved on to Brigham Young, where in 1988, after six years as Niners quarterback coach, Holmgren had become the Cougars’ offensive coordinator. When Holmgren took over as head coach of the Green Bay Packers, he brought in his group.

The tree bloomed once more. According to the Kansas City Chiefs’ web site, in 1992 the Packers, under Holmgren, had five future NFL head coaches on the staff: Reid, Gruden, Steve Mariucci, Dick Jauron and Ray Rhodes.

They were sharp and aggressive, and intent on reaching the sky.

Just as years earlier, in the 1960s, were Walsh, Dick Vermeil and Jim Mora Sr., on staff at Stanford. They would stay after practice drawing plays on what then was a blackboard, trying to outfox each other. ”Last man with the chalk wins,” was the observation.

Which sounds very much like what you’d hear about Holmgren’s Packers assistants. “It was an exciting group of young talented coaches,” Gruden told the Chiefs web site.

“I love football and had a lot to prove. Andy (Reid) also had a lot of love for the game and a lot to prove, too. It was all so exciting being in the NFL at a young age, being with Mike Holmgren and a having a chance to show we belonged.”

As Walsh, Vermeil and Mora did some 40 years earlier, Reid and his colleagues challenged each other with concepts and plays, “intrasquad” stuff you might call it, ideas that in time would become functional.

“In our staff meetings,” said Holmgren, “you could throw out ideas on a table and if it was a good idea I’d stick it in the game plan. What I didn’t realize is they kept track of that. They’d go back and give a hard time to each other about that.”

It was all in the learning, the experience, as was the Philadelphia defeat when Reid was the Eagles’ head coach in the 2005 Super Bowl. A hard time? That’s all they ever give losers in Philly.

But he went to the Chiefs in 2013, and the Chiefs got their first Super Bowl win in a half century. He has the goods. He’s always had the perspective.

“We all want to be treated a certain way. If not, I know how I like to be treated,” he said. “That’s (what) tells me what I need to do to get better at what I’m trying to get accomplished. You don’t necessarily have to yell and scream at me to get me to do something better. I kind of go about it that way, going to treat people the way I want to be treated.

“We’re here as teachers, and that’s what I do. That’s how I look at myself is a teacher — of, in my case, men. Whether it’s on the field or off the field, if I can give them any experience to become better players, husbands, fathers, that’s what I do.”

He’s done it beautifully — and successfully.

Chiefs take the Super Bowl the Niners should have won

By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

MIAMI — This is what the great ones do. They win a game that could have been lost, maybe should have been lost. The 49ers and their fans know all about it. They watched Joe Montana and Steve Young do it for them in the good old days.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2020, The Maven 

Raiders did what they could; Chiefs did what was needed

By Art Spander
For Maven Sports

OAKLAND — That was the real world, the NFL. That was the team that came within an overtime loss of reaching the Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs. That was the quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, who was the NFL offensive player of the year.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2019, The Maven 

Youth wasn’t served; Brady, Pats buck the trend

By Art Spander
For Maven Sports 

OAKLAND, Calif. — The trend had started. Torches were being passed, along with footballs and, down in the Australian Open, tennis players indiscriminate enough to rush the net.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2019, The Maven

Raiders did so much to lose and just enough to win

By Art Spander

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Raiders did so much to lose this one. Then they did just enough to win.

Those complaints about the NFL, that it’s dull, that the anthem protests have ruined the game, that the fans don’t care? Well, the head coach of the Raiders, Jack Del Rio, certainly cares. The sport enthralls him.

For the very reasons that were present Thursday night at the Coliseum, tension, passion, frustration and then, with 0:00 left on the clock, exhilaration.

“That’s why we love this game,” said Del Rio. “We talked about love, loving each other, loving the opportunity to compete, loving the challenges that are part of what we do. Love to be in the theater when you’re putting your neck out there for the whole world to watch.”

At least the part of the world that included the 55,090 in the stadium and the millions in front of television sets.

The winning play was the last play of a game that early in the fourth quarter seemed like Oakland’s last chance.

But headed for a fifth straight defeat, the Raiders turned things around and headed elatedly to the locker room with a 31-30 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.

Derek Carr, who had completed 28 passes for 415 yards, completed his 29^th for two more yards and a touchdown to Michael Crabtree just across the goal line, and then Georgio Taveccio kicked the extra point.

The Raiders somehow managed to get the victory, despite having allowed KC to go 99 yards in three plays for a touchdown — so much for field position. Despite being thwarted when, inexplicably and stupidly, hometown guy Marshawn Lynch left the bench, shoved an official and was ejected. Despite being burned by scoring pass plays of 64 and 63 yards.

The win was absolutely vital. “Yeah,” said Del Rio. “It’s been vital. It was vital last week. It was vital the week before. It’s vital to win in this league.”

Especially when the Raiders appeared destined to lose to a team they rarely beat.

The closing sequence was chaotic, offensive pass interference against Crabtree that nullified an apparent touchdown with three seconds to go, defensive holding with time expired, defensive holding again and finally the completion for the touchdown.

The purists tell us the only thing that matters in a sport is the score, but that would be like only watching the final act of “Hamlet” where they’re carrying him. Sure, getting the victory was paramount, but the way this one played out, with excellence and mistakes, with leads that couldn’t be held and passes that could be held, was so much a part of the tale.

The Raiders go in front, 14-10, their punter Marquette King kicks a ball that is downed on the Chiefs’ one and almost before anyone knew it, three plays, 1 minute 32 seconds to be exact, KC was ahead, 17-14.

Then there was Lynch, Beast Mode. He hadn’t done much, two carries for nine yards, when midway through the second quarter there was an unnecessary roughness call on KC that seemingly kept alive an Oakland drive. But Lynch, from the sideline, dashed onto the field and into an altercation. Next thing you saw, he was manhandling an official, the Raiders had first and 25 and he had a seat in the locker room.

“I was disappointed,” said Del Rio.”We were in good shape. Next thing I knew he was being tossed.”

It was the tossing by Carr, his second game after returning from a broken bone in his lower back, that meant more. He passed for three touchdowns including the game winner.

“We’re going to find a way,” said Del Rio of the Raiders' grit. “Our guys came in with a great mindset, and we were determined to leave here with a victory.”

They did. “It was huge,” said the said the coach.

And incredibly exciting.

Are Warriors bigger than 49ers, Raiders?

By Art Spander

OAKLAND — This always was NFL territory. The 49ers were an original, created in 1946, the first major league team in the Bay Area, home grown, home owned.

The Raiders also began here, in 1960, and they put Oakland on the map and in the minds of a sporting public back east that previously didn’t know Jack London from Jack Spratt. If you lived in Oakland, or San Leandro, you no longer had to explain, “Near San Francisco.”

The Niners reinforced their standing as the region’s team of choice with five Super Bowl wins. The Raiders became as notorious as they were successful, and suddenly black became the color of choice.

So popular was football you’d see kids throwing and catching one in the parking lots before baseball games of the Giants and Athletics.

Has there been a shift in preference? When asked to rank the teams in order of importance, the decision was Niners first, Giants next, Raiders third, Warriors fourth, Athletics fifth and solely because hockey, as exciting as it might be, didn’t have the weather or conditions required, the Sharks sixth.

But now I wonder. Yes, the Niners finally won a road game Sunday, beating the Bears in Chicago, 26-20, thus keeping the Faithful faithful. And here in Oakland, after a morning rain, the Raiders drew 55,010 fans to O.co Coliseum, where, unfortunately, the team showed with a 34-20 loss to Kansas City that it’s not as good as hoped. 

Indeed, football is big. But bigger than the Warriors, the sports story of the late fall in Northern Cal — or maybe everywhere? With their remarkable season-opening win streak, now up to an NBA record 22, after they beat the Brooklyn Nets, 114-98, Sunday? With their wonderful talent named Steph Curry who, with apologies to Tom Brady or Cam Newton, may be the single most exciting athlete in the land, and unquestionably is the most exciting around here?

Yes, I was at O.Co Coliseum for the Raiders. I also watched the Niners, and I contended that despite the problems with Jed York, with Colin Kaepernick, with the departure of Jim Harbaugh, they still are worthy of the main headline. It was a losing debate. “You’re wrong,” said the Chronicle’s Ann Killion. “The Warriors are the team.”

Raider Nation still is very much with us. The Black Hole remains (although after Sunday‘s loss it’s as blue as the color of the Warriors’ road uniforms). Niner fans cling to the memories of Montana, Young, Rice and Lott, believing the past is prelude to the future. TV ratings for both 49ers and Raiders are solid. And yet...

The football teams are mediocre at best. The win over Chicago put the Niners at 4-8. The loss to the Chiefs — “The game got away from us,” said Oakland coach Jack Del Rio — left the Raiders at 5-7. Neither is going to the playoffs.

But, ah, the Warriors, perfection, 22-0. Never been done before. Ever. Historic. Fantastic. The defending NBA champions very well could win a second straight championship. The team of Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, Milpitas and Marin. The Warriors resonate. But how much?

Basketball, like baseball and hockey, suffers from a multiplicity of games. Right now, certainly, each Warriors game has a place of its own, as anxious fans wonder if the next one will be the one they finally, inevitably lose. This is rare. This is wonderful. This is keeping us attentive.

This is transforming one of 82 into one of a kind, similar to what happens in the NFL. Each game has a special significance. The Raiders came into Sunday at 5-6, the Chiefs 6-5. A Raider victory would have changed the season for each team. We buy into that “Any given Sunday” idea because, yes, any given Sunday, or Monday or Thursday, does have an effect on a team, on a season.

So you heard Del Rio, after the Raiders squandered their lead by allowing KC three touchdowns on a combination of Derek Carr interceptions and long returns, say, “Tough way to finish. Promising afternoon. It just got away from us.”

He meant the game. We could also interpret it to mean the season. “The last four drives,” sighed Del Rio, “were three turnovers and a missed field goal.”

Those descriptions also apply in basketball. The missed field goals and turnovers by the Warriors didn’t hurt them. For the opening five weeks and 22 games of the 2015-16 season, nothing has hurt them.

They have become the darlings of pro basketball, the darlings of the Bay Area. But are they bigger than the 49ers or Raiders? Easier to say how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

Raiders weren’t going to let Chiefs out of the deep end

By Art Spander

OAKLAND — That “O’’ in Oakland? No longer does it equal the Raiders’ win total for the year. The streak is over. The streak ended here, at the O.co Coliseum — maybe they should change it to the 1.co Coliseum — on a Thursday night of rain and success.

Go ahead and say it, the drought has ended, for Nor Cal, for the Raiders.

It was inevitable. The football, that is, not the downpour, although the forecasters said that too was coming. The way Raiders interim coach Tony Sparano said a win was coming.

Teams don’t go through a 16-game NFL schedule without a victory. Sure, the 2008 Detroit Lions did, but since the 1976 Tampa Bay Bucs, an expansion doomed to failure by the system, the Lions were the only team.

Somehow, the Raiders were going to win one.

And they did against the Kansas City Chiefs, who had won their previous five games in a row and were tied for the AFC West lead.

They did by sweeping ahead 14-0 early in the second quarter. By letting that lead go and then, on a 9-yard touchdown pass from rookie quarterback Derek Carr to James Jones in the closing minutes, going back in front and winning 24-20.

“We’d been getting close,” said Sparano, who was coaching his seventh game since replacing Dennis Allen. “We’d been getting better in practice. I saw a different look in this team.”

And now there’s a different look with their record. One win may not seem like much, but to the contrary it’s huge when you’ve lost 10 out of 10 for the season and cobble that to the six straight defeats that concluded last year.

Not since Nov. 17, 2013, 368 days if you’re counting, had Oakland come out ahead.

“Those losses had been hard,” said Carr. He took over as starter from the veteran Matt Schaub before the first game. So since last year at Fresno State, he was always on the losing side. Until Thursday.

There was unabated joy in the Raider locker room. Such yelling and shouting. It was as if they had won the Super Bowl, not merely a scheduled game. “All that frustration that we’ve gone through when something goes wrong at the end,” said linebacker Sio Moore.

Moore and rookie Khalil Mack, also winless as a pro, did a bit of unprofessional celebrating — in the Chiefs' backfield — slapping hands after sacking quarterback Alex Smith on the K.C. 48 with 28 seconds. But before a penalty could be called for delay of game, Oakland wisely signaled time out. One more play, an incomplete pass, and the Raiders owned the ball. And the win.

“I was so caught up in the moment, man,” said Moore, who’s in his second year. “That was an error I’ve got to clean because in another situation — in all seriousness — that can make the difference. I do apologize for putting the guys in that situation. I can’t let emotions get the best of me.”

For 10 weeks, teams have been getting the best of the Raiders, although the way Oakland played defense in losing 13-6 to the Chargers last Sunday was verification that they were improved — if without results. Until Thursday night.

“I don’t know how to explain the feeling,” Moore said about finally winning a game. “It’s a good feeling to see through the culmination of weeks all the work that we’ve been putting in.

“We decided when we came in at halftime (with a 14-3 lead) that we weren’t going to let them get out of deep end of the pool, and we were going to finish it out.”

The Chiefs made it to the shallow end, but then the Raiders swamped them again.

Oakland scored first on an impressive eight-play drive, Latavius Murray bulling the final 11 yards. Then Murray dashed 90 yards two and a half minutes into the second quarter, and Oakland had its first 14-0 lead since the Twelth of Never.

“They blocked us,” said Chiefs coach Andy Reid, “(he) hit the hole, and we just weren’t able to catch him.

From two touchdowns back, Kansas City did catch the Raiders, however, and the guess was it would yet another Oakland defeat. Not at all.

“We learned a little something today,” said Sparano. “Learned something about ourselves. Today they just refused to give up the rope. My hat is off to the people in that locker room. Greatest feeling in the world is to see them smile. Helluva bunch of guys. They don’t stop playing. We don’t always do it right, but they play hard.

“Today the offense took the football down the field and did it in the old-fashioned Raider way. They ran it. They ran it. And we made a big play. It was a heck of a thing to watch, and if you didn’t learn anything from it, I apologize to you.”

No apologies needed this time. Only kudos.

Niners' Harbaugh takes on critics and doubters

By Art Spander

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Jim Harbaugh was having his way a few minutes after his team had its way. There’s no direct line from A to Z with Harbaugh, whose very existence seems designed to keep everybody off balance.

With Jim you buckle your seat belt, button your lip and go for a ride that is never unexciting. Or unenlightening.

Harbaugh’s San Francisco 49ers were 22-17 winners over Kansas City on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium, and the story could even stop right there, since coaches invariably say the only thing that matters is the final score.

If the coach isn’t Jim Harbaugh.

A couple weeks back, former defensive star Deion Sanders, now employed by the NFL Network, said publicly there are people on the Niners, in uniform, in executive positions, unhappy with Harbaugh. To which the immediate response is, “So?’’

Except every time Colin Kaepernick throws an interception or Frank Gore fails on third-and-one, the issue is tossed out there again. The idea is to get attention, right? And what gets more attention than another tale about the non-conformist leader of arguably the most popular team in Northern Cal?

Even if we’re told there’s no basis for the reports.

“All this noise, I don’t understand the whole thing,” said kicker Phil Dawson. “It’s certainly not consistent with the noise you hear outside the locker room. There is zero problem in the locker room. We believe in our coach and love playing for him.”

Dawson is in his second year as the Niners’ placekicker after a long career in Cleveland. Against the Chiefs on Sunday, he made field goals of, in ascending but not chronological order, 27, 30, 31, 52 and 55 yards, 15 points of the team’s 22.

Harbaugh, who sees his athletes as semi-mythical, pointed out that Dawson and others who contributed to the victory — Kaepernick, Gore, defensive back Eric Reid — should be so satisfied with their performance they can look at themselves in the mirror and say, "I’m a football player.’"

Of course they’re football players, or they wouldn’t be in the NFL, but Dawson, his nearly bald head shaved clean, isn’t certain he needs such self-congratulatory methods.

“At 39 years old,” Dawson said, “I don’t enjoy looking in the mirror very much. I’ll pretend to be a football player without looking in the mirror.”

The Harbaugh advice, of course, is figurative. He’s big on machismo, on individual success evolving into team success. Beat the guy across the line, and the team beats the opponent. Grrr.

The Niners are 3-2 now, and while expectations may have been for better, against the Chiefs they played effective defense and competent offense. And they’re still without two of the NFL’s best defenders, NaVorro Bowman, recovering from that knee injury, and Aldon Smith, on a nine-week suspension. If and when those two return, San Francisco might be pretty good.

Harbaugh knows what he has and what he doesn’t have. What Harbaugh himself has is an overwhelming desire to prove his capabilities. Just when you think you know the man, he’ll get you. Or his team will.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Niners, trailing 17-16, had the ball four-and-one on their own 29. They lined up to punt, naturally, but, sneaky devils, called a running play up the middle. The first down eventually led to Dawson’s fourth field goal and a 19-16 lead.

“Yeah,” said Harbaugh, tempering a boast. “Thought it was an important call, important play in the game. Strong important win for our team. Thought it was a great team win.”

It was a grind-out, we’re-stronger-physically-and-mentally kind of win that Harbaugh relishes, the sort of victory that registers not only on the scoreboard but the opponents’ psyches.

Harbaugh certainly was questioned again about the Deion Sanders contention that will live as long as the season does.

“The team doesn’t have to respond,” said Harbaugh in his own response. “The team has to do their job and play football. It’s my job to love them — those players, those coaches, everybody in our organization.

“It’s their job to love each other. They don’t need to respond in any other way than their job. The football team has done good. And the better you do, the more you do, then people try to trip you up. Whether you’re getting praised, whether you’re getting criticized or whether you’re having silence, all three have their obstacles. But also all three, any of the three, can add to the competitiveness, the determination. And our football is very determined and very competitive.”

Exactly like the head coach.

Do Raiders depend on McGloin or Pryor?

By Art Spander

OAKLAND, Calif. — The reference was to education. The Raiders, the head coach, the quarterback, kept using the word “learning,” as if this season, going from bad to worse to “Please don’t use the word dreadful,” is something for which they’ll get a grade from the friendly prof down the hall.

While the Raiders are being schooled, so are the rest of us, learning first that the team probably needs a quarterback, that Matt McGloin doesn’t appear to be the man of future or the present and Terrelle Pryor doesn’t seem to be much of anything — at least in the eyes of those in charge.

Johnny Manziel, you say? Only if the Raiders can do more in the 2014 draft then they were able to do against the Kansas City Chiefs.

It was a brutal Sunday at O.co Coliseum, chilly, mortifying, at least for the majority of the 49,571 fans. Kansas City, as effective as the Raiders were inept, beat Oakland, 56-31, the Raiders allowing the most points in the history of a franchise that came into existence in 1960.

McGloin threw four interceptions and lost a fumble. Pryor, who was inserted now and then for no good reason or maybe for a very good reason, threw one interception. And there was another lost fumble on a kickoff by Taiwan Jones, making it seven turnovers for the Raiders.

Maybe they were lucky they only gave up 56 points.

“You can’t play a good team like that and turn the ball over seven times,” said Raiders coach Dennis Allen, now 4-10 in this second season of his regime. Yes you can. The implication was if you do that you’ll get buried. And the Raiders were buried.

The defense wasn’t much either. Kansas City, on a long kickoff return and a 49-yard screen pass, scored the first of its eight touchdowns just 22 seconds into the game. Running back Jamaal Charles tied a Chiefs record with five touchdowns. And he didn’t play a considerable part of the fourth quarter.

McGloin, the undrafted free agent, played most of the game. He completed half of his 36 pass attempts for 297 yards and two touchdowns. But those four picks, one returned for a touchdown, made one wonder if he has the right stuff to be a starter in the NFL.

“There are always difficult situations,” said Allen, a defensive specialist defending his two rookie quarterbacks. “But hopefully those guys can learn from those mistakes. It’s tough when you’re going through the learning process, because as the losses mount up it gets frustrating.”

The real question is whether Oakland dares depend on either McGloin, who began the season a fourth-string QB, or Pryor, the surprise starter in Game 1 but later injured, beyond this year. Do the Raiders rely either on a quarterback ignored in the draft or another who is more of a runner than a passer for the coming seasons?

Or do they start over, perhaps with one of the top college players who seemingly will be available?

Nobody in the organization will comment until the end of this season, but Allen, explaining the Pryor-for-McGloin-for-Pryor shift and juggle said, “Obviously we’ve got two guys that we want to be able to utilize, and we’ve got to find ways to get explosive plays.

“And we were able to get explosive plays today. We got a lot of balls down the field. We had a lot of explosive passes, as well as explosive penalties. We just weren’t consistent enough, and we can’t turn the ball over like we did. We have to do a better job on our red zone defense of making them have to kick field goals.”

But they were unable. They are unable. This team, glued together from bits and scraps, tormented by the salary cap, has shredded and shriveled in recent weeks.

The defense is worn and battered. The supposedly best offensive player, running back Darren McFadden, always is injured. McGloin is a notch down from the elite level. Pryor is unpolished.

“We had some good drives,” was McGloin’s analysis. “We had some poor drives. I’ll learn from it. We’ll learn from it. I’ll get better from it, and I know the rest of the guys will get better from it.”

Will he? Will they? This was the fifth game McGloin has started. It was anything but encouraging. He’s learning, but so are the opponents about McGloin. They step in front of his receivers. They chase him out of the pocket.

“I’m at a loss for words,” McGloin said of the turnovers. “It’s disappointing. But at the same time we were still in the game. It was 35-31 at one point with all the turnovers.

“There’s always passes you kind of wish you could pull back, but that’s part of the game. They did make some good plays, but some of those throws were poor decisions.”

McGloin, denying reality, insisted he isn’t auditioning for next year, when in effect, even while trying to win now, he and the other Raiders, young and older, are playing for their future.

“We’re going to learn from the poor decisions, the mistakes,” said McGloin. “As long as we know what they are, I can go away saying that the more experience I get, I’ll learn from it.”

If, indeed, it will make any difference to him or the Raiders.

RealClearSports: Palmer Gets 'a Little Piece of the Action'

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Carson Palmer called the week surrealistic, an appropriate word when one begins by getting on a plane in one city and ends by throwing three interceptions in another.

Maybe Palmer indeed will prove the quarterback savior the Oakland Raiders thought was so desperately needed they sent off a couple of first-round draft picks to wedge him loose from the Cincinnati Bengals and the inactivity he had imposed on himself.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011