MVN - Most Valuable Network

Season Finale Vs. Raiders Is Still Important

There are those out there who say Sunday’s game is of minimal importance.  Especially with the fact that JaMarcus Russell will start his first game after a decidedly mediocre or worse performance last week and the likelihood that Pittsburgh will rest quarterback Ben Rothelisberger.

Don’t listen to them.  Any football team can pull off an upset.  The Chargers want this game.  If the Chargers win on Sunday, they are the number three seed.  The key importance of that is the ability to avoid Jacksonville and New England as long as possible. Instead, the Bolts would end up facing either Cleveland or Tennessee (pending this weeks outcomes) and then be looking at a possible matchup with the Colts. The number four seed gets to play an intense and punishing Jaguar team that manhandled the Chargers in the trenches earlier this year.  The reward for surviving the Jags is a date in New England.

While I am not eager to face the Titans again, and I certainly am not going to underestimate the Browns, I am far less frightened by either of them or the Colts.  Playing Jacksonville and the Pats in back to back weeks is the equivalent of the World Cup’s Group of Death.

And of course, there is the other factor to consider; it’s THE RAIDERS! There have been times when a Bolt fan would consider a 2-14 season successful as long as the two wins were against Oakland.  The decline of the once fearsome Silver N’ Black has blunted this a bit, but it is still absolute gospel that the Legions of the Lightning Bolt despise the white-jumpsuit-wearing fuhrer and his emissaries of evil.  If you’re a Bolt fan, you want to sink the Raiders.

The current players, with a couple of exceptions like L.T. and David Binn, probably hate the Broncos more.  With reason.  The cut-block tactics of the Broncos and plays like the shameful injuring of Jamal Williams a few years ago have created the culture of dislike, and John Lynch’s helmet throwing display and the verbal warfare between Jay Cutler and Philip Rivers only adds to it.

But to the fans, the Raiders will always be the team we love to hate.  Sure, we hate L.A. Raider fans more than Oakland fans.  Yeah, the Holy Roller was decades ago.  But we still remember.  We still hate that the Raiders won their last title on the legs of Lincoln High’s Marcus Allen.  We still remember all the nastiness of the sixties, seventies and early eighties.  We remember the betrayal of Steve Ortman.  We forget that Al Davis started with the Chargers under Sid Gilman… or maybe we hate him more because of it.

Finally, there is this to consider.  If the Bolts win their bracket and Pittsburgh or the Jags pull off an upset of Belichek and his boys, the AFC Championship game would be in San Diego.  And I think the only way that happens is if we have a game against the Colts.  I don’t think Pittsburgh, Cleveland or the Titans can beat Indianapolis.  We can.  So even if we beat the Pats in New England, the championship game would be in Indy.

But if we are the number three seed, we have a chance to play two home games in San Diego and the only road game in a dome.  Not a great chance, but it is possible.

So, let’s go to Oakland, get L.T. the rushing title and beat JaMarcus to a bloody stain on Shawne Merriman’s jersey.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 28th, 2007 at 11:49 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.