There was a point in time during yesterday’s Raiders Chargers game where it looked like the Oakland Raiders were a 12-4 team, not a 4-12 team.  Then, as reliable as the sun rising, the Raiders flipped the switch and went into “Raider mode.”  Instead of throwing up a hail mary pass to end the half, Head Coach Lane Kiffin called for the field goal team to go onto the field and for Sebastian Janikowski to attempt a 76 yard field goal.  76 yards! The NFL record is 63 and that was kicked in the thin air of Denver with wind assistance.  This was 76 yards into the wind in the dead air of Oakland.

It was at this point that I realized that Lane Kiffin simply doesn’t give a shit about his job anymore.  JaMarcus Russell has arguably the strongest arm in football, throwing an off balance pass 70 yards earlier in the game.  There was no question that Russell could get it to the endzone, it was a matter of Kiffin letting him try it.  Screw it.  Why not try and kick the longest field goal in NFL history with the fattest kicker in NFL history.  Of course Janikowski shorted it, barely getting it inside the five yard line.  Not that it would have mattered even if it had the distance; Janikowski pulled the shit out of it to the left.

Update: Thanks to Deadspin who located a video of the play.  Enjoy it before it promptly gets removed by the NFL Youtube Nazis