Kawakami: Raiders got it right — they were wronged By Tim Kawakami
Mercury News Staff Columnist SAN DIEGO – Brace yourself. I know this is weird for you to read, because it’s staggeringly weird for me to type: The Raiders got robbed Sunday in their 21-14 loss to the Chargers, got robbed in as remarkable and ridiculous a manner as any un-indicted co-conspirator could’ve imagined.
They played well against a very good San Diego squad, they were ahead, and they got robbed, plain and tall. Robbed in clear daylight. Robbed, and they’re not allowed to press charges. Robbed, and they’re still not really sure how it happened and what rules determined it, if any.
Everybody who saw Chargers receiver Vincent Jackson’s fourth-quarter celebratory fool’s flip — he assumed he was down, but he wasn’t — knows it was a fumble, had to be a fumble, definitely should’ve been ruled a fummm-ble!
The Raiders’ Fabian Washington recovered. They were going to win this game, they were really going to win. But . . .
After at least two announced reversals, referee Mike Carey finally ruled that Jackson‘s apparent fumble was actually an illegal forward pass (while 8 yards downfield!) and therefore it was a penalty but not a fumble. San Diego retained possession, first down.
A little while later, LaDainian Tomlinson threw a 19-yard option touchdown pass to Antonio Gates, tying the score 14-14, revving the home crowd and signaling the Raiders’ inevitable fall to 2-9.
That’s when I feared Raiders chief executive Amy Trask’s head might have exploded while she verbally jousted with NFL observer Jerry Seaman in the press box about 20 feet from me. Turns out it was only the cannon blast the Chargers use to celebrate scores. But you never know. “A forward pass? That was bull,” defensive back Jarrod Cooper said later. “I mean, they changed the call, what, four times? That means somebody didn’t know what they were talking about, just flat out. “I don’t think anybody that’s ever watched a football game has any idea how they could call that a pass.” Ka-blam! The Raiders losing to the Chargers does not affect the playoff picture, of course. They always lose to the Chargers. And it does not mean that the NFL officials are conspiring against them. But this decision was wrong in the same general, logical way that the Tuck Rule game in January 2002 was wrong. It was wrong because Jackson was flipping the ball away, not passing it, and any interpretation other than a fumble is egregiously foolish.
“They went `first down San Diego,’ then our ball, then San Diego ball, then eh, eh, eh, who’s ball is it?” quarterback Aaron Brooks said. “Did they want to go back to the coin toss?” It was wrong because the Raiders were ahead, had played better, had walled off Tomlinson within reason, had dominated Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers and had taken advantage of an idiotic, game-losing move by Jackson.
It was wrong, and this time the Raiders were, for once, both righteous and indignant.
“We did learn something today,” Warren Sapp bellowed in the locker room. “That’s the first time you’ve ever heard of that, isn’t it? Somebody gets up, throws the ball down and that’s not a live ball? I’ve been in the league 12 years, that’s the first time for me.
“I remember Plaxico Burress spiking the ball” against Jacksonville in 2000, ruled a fumble. “I don’t remember any rule change. Come on. Come on, man!”
The ruling, and the loss, seemed to hit Coach Art Shell squarely in the solar plexus, and he has a big solar plexus. He is, after all, both a true Raider and a longtime NFL office executive.
In his news conference, Shell barely seemed to have a voice, though he made sure to record his frustrations. “I heard about three or four different stories during the course of that,” Shell said of Carey’s to-and-fro-ing on the Jackson play. “Nobody touched him. And he spiked the ball. I thought it should be our ball.” Do you think you win the game if you get that fumble? “I believe we would have,” Shell said quietly. “Yes.”
He was right. Sunday, for the second consecutive week, the Raiders had life and energy (and a future?), but also ended up with a loss. It’s true, the Chargers (9-2) played this one a little fast and loose, until turning it over to Tomlinson in the fourth quarter. But the Raiders played well enough to beat one of the AFC’s best teams, until they were robbed. So yes, there is a team that’s more confused and confusing than the Raiders, and unfortunately for them, that team was officiating the game Sunday.
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