There is absolutely no practical way to explain what happened at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, much less with the Raiders this season, as they were essentially eliminated from the playoffs in losing to Dallas 20-17.
Ed Graney
Ed Graney is a sports columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, covering a variety of topics and the Las Vegas sports scene.
egraney@reviewjournal.com … @edgraney on Twitter. 702-383-4618
There’s no right or wrong to this, only campaigning for what you believe is in the best interest of your specific high school program.
Tony Sanchez concluded his third season as coach Saturday, when the Rebels lost to a historically bad UNR side 23-16 and with it a chance to become bowl eligible and reclaim ownership of the Fremont Cannon.
The Raiders returned to Oakland Coliseum for the first time in five weeks and won a game they absolutely needed, 21-14 over the Denver Broncos.
The third year under coach Tony Sanchez is now in the books as a 5-7 record with no bowl game, no return of the Fremont Cannon and enough legitimate questions about his staff that demand to be answered.
Hughes might have one college football game remaining, or he might get two, but as much as he wants the latter to be his final act, he already pulled off a leading role.
BYU is now 9-0 against UNLV in Las Vegas after its 31-21 victory, which might explain why so much late money was bet on the Cougars on Friday.
There’s every chance Rogers will continue to see time at quarterback Friday against Brigham Young and beyond as this season winds to a close, but it’s never a bad thing for someone so young and talented to be reminded of football’s cruel realities.
How the Raiders arrived at a 27-24 victory against similarly imperfect Miami before 65,139 at Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday night would take at least several chapters of your average L. Ron Hubbard tome to digest.
Mojo was a popular word used by the Raiders as they prepared in Sarasota for Sunday night’s game against the Dolphins, remaining back east to perhaps discover that missing magic charm to rescue a drowning season.
The two-game road trip that began with a forgettable 34-14 loss to the Bills on Sunday before 69,599 at New Era Field was supposed to tell us if Raiders are good or bad, legitimate or fraudulent, pretender or contender.
This is the place folks like to say is a drinking town with a sports problem, where purposefully setting your friends on fire isn’t as much criminal act as communal endorsement of a longstanding love affair with all things Buffalo Bills.
It’s either coaching or players or both for the Rebels, and yet perhaps all of the defensive nonsense has over time created a sort of systematic culture that breeds an expectation of failure.
It was an AFC West battle the Raiders had to absolutely win.
Thursday night isn’t as much an AFC showdown between the first-place Chiefs and a last-place Raiders team hoping to discover some sort of divisional relevance as it is unmitigated survival mode from the hosts.