I awoke early enough to catch the CBS Sunday Morning show. Mo Rocca’s segment on Santa Claus opened my eyes. I had forgotten that it will be the summer in the southern hemisphere. How does he deal with the differences in climate, and how does he get everything done in one night? There was an amusing segment on awkward family photos. I went over to the coffee shop and had orange juice. I couldn’t understand the pattern of hits on my blog. I saw the 20 most underrated John Lennon songs according to NME. One was “Going Down on Love.” I’m not sure their interpretation of the title was correct.
The rain was coming down steadily, so I was in no hurry to get to the Coliseum. I hung around watching the CBS pregame show and eating tacos and salad. I wore layers and a plastic poncho and set out for the BART station. I saw some students with their luggage making their way to the airport to get away for their winter break. A couple near me on the train talked about going to a rainy Cal football game earlier this year. They were so soaked by halftime that they left and watched the rest of the game at home.
There was a break in the rain when I got to the stadium. One of the security women told me that she liked my boots and asked me where I bought them. It was DB Shoes in Emeryville. Shortly after I got to my seat, rain came pouring down again, and what made things especially unpleasant was that the wind was blowing rain straight into my face. The raindrops looked like they were taking a path that looked like an upside down candy cane right into my face.
Just before the game started, a group of Marines was sworn into the Corps, and the Raider cheerleaders tried to do a dance routine to “Jingle Bells,” but the music cut out in the middle of it, prompting the crowd to start booing. The cheerleaders are always introduced to the crowd with Van Halen’s “Pretty Woman” blaring over the PA system. It always seems presumptuous to me. They aren’t that great looking, although they’re better than the Warriors cheerleaders. I couldn’t blame people for not showing up on this soggy afternoon. The third deck was pretty empty. Only two other people were sitting in my row. In front of me, one of the few Broncos fans sat with his blue and orange jacket, taking all sorts of abuse from the Raiders fans, who referred to him as “Pony Boy,” which could have been a reference to “The Outsiders.”
The weather mostly let up during the game. I thought about some of the words to John Fogerty’s “Centerfield,” which mention that the sun came out today. Well, that didn’t quite happen, but luckily it wasn’t all black clouds. We did get a peek of the sun before it was all over.
The Raiders won the coin toss and deferred. They stopped the Broncos, and on the play after the punt, they called a reverse to Jacoby Ford, who found a clear field on the right side all the way for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead at the 13:14 mark in the quarter. The Raiders would have another one-play touchdown drive of less than 15 seconds later in the game, so the fans were treated to a good share of excitement in this game.
Two interceptions and a fumble led to 17 Denver points in the first half. Amazingly, Denver tied the game at 7-7 with 9:41 left in the first quarter on a quarterback run for 40 yards and a touchdown on a third-and-24 play. The fans in the stadium were disgusted. The Raiders got an impressive play out of Darren McFadden that set up a touchdown to tie the game at 14-14. He would have 119 rushing yards in the game, pushing his season total above 1,000. The Raiders had 201 yards rushing in the first half. They had to struggle to tie the game at 17-17 with a Sebastian Janikowski field goal just before halftime.
During halftime, they announced that the Raider cheerleader of the year was a girl named Natalie. They gave her a lei, because she would be making a trip to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. It looked like she was crying, like a beauty contest winner.
The third quarter was a quarter of field goals, because it ended at 23-20, with the Raiders ahead. It looked like Janikowski was in a groove. He was hitting from the 45-50 yard range pretty well. The Raiders had another of those one-play scoring drives at the beginning of the fourth quarter when Jason Campbell threw to Marcel Reece on that right side. There was only one Bronco with a chance to tackle him, and he whiffed, and so with 14:32 left in the game, the score was 30-20, and it felt like the game was over. The sun peeked out of the clouds, and that first glimpse of sun felt like a good omen for the home team. Denver cut the lead to 30-23, but a Shane Lechler punt put them on their own 5-yard line, and two rushing plays both lost yardage, with the second play ending with a tackle by Quentin Groves for a safety. That deflated the Broncos and killed any realistic chance for them to win. The Raiders set up a bit later for a field goal, but decided that a 12-point lead wouldn’t be meaningful, so they brought Campbell back out for fourth down, and eventually they scored a touchdown for the last points of the game. The last two minutes were just kneel-down plays, and after the second one, I got up out of my seat and left with one minute left. The final score was 39-23. I thought back on those Raiders-Broncos games at the Los Angeles Coliseum back in 1986 and 1987, when the Broncos were on their way to two straight Super Bowls. I think the 1986 game was a sellout, with a massive crowd, and the 1987 game was the home debut of Bo Jackson.
There were a lot of people selling T-shirts on the BART bridge as I made my way home. I saw only two people in the crowd dressed as Santa Claus. I got on the train home at 4:50, and after I got home, I turned on the TV for the game between the Patriots and Packers. I saw the highlights of the Giants’ collapse against the Eagles. I was rather surprised that the Jets pulled one out against the Steelers. On the CBS News, Russ Mitchell showed a feature on the Connecticut women’s basketball team, about to set a record for consecutive wins. You can’t tell me that a women’s record is as meaningful as a men’s record in this case.
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