The Kick Is Up...And It's......

NOT EVEN REMOTELY CLOSE! I've seen some pretty ridiculous stuff in the NFL, but on Sunday I witnessed one of the most absurd things I've ever seen in a football game. As the first half of the Raiders/Chargers game was winding down, the Raiders had the ball on their own 41 yard-line. With seconds left on the clock, the Raiders call a timeout. Conventional wisdom tells us they'll heave up a prayer and hope for a touchdown. I mean, all they need is a 60 yard bomb and Jamarcus Russell can throw that from his knees. That's what they'll do, right? WRONG!!

Here comes kicker, Sebastian Janikowski. You cannot be serious! A 76 yard field goal attempt?? Lets back up for a second. The longest field goal in NFL history is 63 yards. Hell, most kickers have trouble kicking it more than 50 yards. But we're supposed to believe that Sebastian Janikowski is about to hit the mother of all field goals? I know he can boot the ball, but come on now...just look at the video and see how far that is...he's kicking the ball from their own 34 yard-line for crying out loud!! Needless to say, the ball didn't even make it to the end zone.

The only logical explanation for this is that head coach Lane Kiffin knew he was about to get fired anyway. I'm sure the conversation went a little something like this...

Offensive Coordinator: "What do you think? Hail Mary?"
Lane Kiffin: "That would make too much sense. We're gonna blow this field goal record out of the water. What are they gonna do? Fire me?"

Yes Lane, that's exactly what they're gonna do.