ALAMEDA - You have to wonder when Lane Kiffin doesn't think about football.
I thought offseason workouts were about learning the offense. Not for Kiffin.
Rather than use organized team activities to put in the offense with no flexibility, Kiffin is going at it as if it's the regular season.
Hence the play Kiffin called today, where quarterback Josh McCown ran a naked bootleg, fooling the entire defense for a big gain.
"It was something that we saw in the defense that we thought would be there from yesterday's practice," Kiffin said. "So we put it in just like we would in a game. So we try to create situations like that on offense, defense."
It's all about what seems to be Kiffin's favorite word: competition.
There's no vanilla defense for the Raiders to attack in practices. The linebackers blitz, safeties are near the line of scrimmage and corners press the wide receivers to simulate games as best they can without pads.
The defense knows the offense is trying to learn a new system, so it makes life as difficult as possible.
Or, as defensive coordinator Rob Ryan once said, make the offense cry.
"At times they (the defense) game-plan us, how to attack us on offense, just because we want our guys to be put in competitive positions of game-like situations," Kiffin said.
- Jason Jones
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