KANSAS CITY, Mo. — If Lane Kiffin does get fired by the Oakland Raiders, he might want to apply for employment in Kansas City.
Amid escalating reports that Kiffin was in trouble with owner Al Davis and could be dismissed at almost any time, the Raiders rushed for 300 yards Sunday and handed their harried young coach a 23-8 victory over the mistake-prone Chiefs. Kiffin has only five wins in 18 games with the Silver & Black, but two have been at Kansas City’s expense.
“I don’t worry about things I can’t control. That’s not my decision whether I’ll be here,” the 33-year-old Kiffin said. “I’m going to prepare my staff for the game next week.”
Rookie Darren McFadden rushed for 164 yards to help give the Raiders a happy ending to a tumultuous week that started with a 41-14 blowout loss to the Broncos last Monday night. There had also been a public spat between Lane and defensive coordinator Rob Ryan and Kiffin’s comment that Davis “doesn’t keep people very long.”
“Lane’s going to be Lane, Rob’s going to be Rob and Al’s going to be Al at the end of the day,” Oakland cornerback DeAngelo Hall said. “We don’t have any control over what happens up there. We just come out and try to play ball.”
The young defense of the Chiefs gave up the third-highest total in the history of the franchise. Michael Bush, with 90 yards rushing, personally beat the 55 yards the Chiefs had as a team.
For the third time in three years under Herm Edwards, the Chiefs are 0-2, and they have lost 11 regular-season games in a row.
“They came out and knocked us off the ball and ran the ball down our throat,” Edwards said. “We got embarrassed at home.”
In using three quarterbacks, the Chiefs had only 65 net yards at halftime.
After Tyler Thigpen’s 2-yard touchdown pass to Tony Gonzalez and 2-point conversion made it 16-8 with 4:04 left, the Chiefs recovered Bush’s fumble. But Kirk Morrison intercepted Thigpen’s pass and with 51 seconds left, Bush scored on a 32-yard run to put out of reach one of the worst games the Chiefs have played at home in years.
