ALAMEDA – I’ve recovered from all the barbecue I ate in Kansas City, enjoyed a couple of days off in the company of my Xbox 360 and my Myspace page.
Trust me, loafing ain’t easy.
But it’s back to the grind today. We’ve already had the conference call with Denver coach Mike Shanahan, who shed no light on who might be the Broncos starting running back this weekend.
He offered a summation as to why the AFC West is so muddled this season: No one is playing well.
Shanahan compared it to the 1988 season when he coached the Raiders. The Los Angeles Raiders (the team of my childhood) were 7-8 going into the season-finale against Seattle.
If the Raiders had won, they would have won the division. They lost 43-37 and the Seahawks won the AFC West with a 9-7 mark.
So even at 3-8, the Raiders are still mathematically alive to win the division.
If things were to somehow come together to make their last game decide a playoff berth, Oakland would have to knock off Norv Turner and the Chargers to end the season.
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Lane Kiffin was at practice this morning, not on his way to interview for the Arkansas job.
Kiffin hasn’t spoken with the local media yet, but he’ll definitely be asked about rumors that he’s a leading candidate for the Razorbacks job.
It should be noted, a lot of these rumors are based on someone with wishful thinking floating names to the media and that Kiffin isn’t necessarily interested in Arkansas, but the other way around.
The only injured player not at practice was Jarrod Cooper, who is out for the season with a knee injury. Didn’t see Jeremy Newberry, but he routinely takes Wednesday off.
--Jason Jones
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