Week 7: Raiders vs. Titans

ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) — The day-after-game news conferences are beginning to have a familiar feel around the Oakland Raiders.

Players and coaches alike lament a few plays that were the difference between winning and losing.

That was the case again Monday as the Raiders looked back at a game in which they committed 14 penalties and two turnovers, allowed five sacks and still were in position to win in the closing minutes.

Oakland (2-5) had a first down at the Tennessee 26 while trailing 13-9 with 2 minutes remaining. Instead of making the play to lead to the go-ahead score, the Raiders had a false start penalty on Barry Sims, a sack and two incompletions before Mike Williams dropped a pass right at the first-down marker on fourth-and-14 to end the game.

“We’d take that spot,” coach Lane Kiffin said Monday. “If you can play the whole game, get down to 2 minutes, have the ball at the 26-yard line, first-and-10, on the road in a place like Tennessee, we’d take that. But it doesn’t matter because we didn’t finish in that situation. So next time we need to finish.”

That’s been the rallying cry all year.

While the Raiders are much improved in Kiffin’s first year, they have the same record they did at this time a year ago under Art Shell. The big difference is that they feel like they should have at least a few more wins if only they could do a better job closing out games.

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