Klint Kubiak’s call to stay aggressive against the Chiefs has already sparked debate, but one former Raiders star says he’s firmly in favor of that kind of decision-making. Lincoln Kennedy likes the approach - and he says his view is shaped by a regret that still lingers from the Tuck Rule game.
Kubiak took heat for choosing to take a field goal off the board and go for it on fourth down on Sunday. Afterward, he said he didn’t regret the decision itself, only the fact that the Raiders didn’t convert.
The reaction around it has been split, with fans, analysts and even advanced analytics offering no clean answer. Kubiak trusted his instinct, and Kennedy thinks that’s the kind of boldness Raiders fans should expect.
“I don’t mind the aggressive nature because I appreciate when a coach shows faith and confidence in his team. That goes back all these years, when you’re at midfield and you’re going for it on fourth and one. I appreciate it,” Kennedy said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show.
Kennedy tied that mindset directly to January 19, 2002, when he says one of his biggest career regrets came in New England. With 2:24 left and the Raiders leading 13-10, they couldn’t convert a third-and-one run from their own 44-yard line. Jon Gruden chose to punt instead of pushing for the first down, and Troy Brown brought Shane Lechler’s punt back 37 yards to the Raiders’ 46.
What happened next is the part everybody remembers. What Kennedy is focused on is the chance the Raiders never took.
“I don’t mind the aggressive nature because I appreciate when a coach shows faith and confidence in his team. That goes back all these years, when you’re at midfield and you’re going for it on fourth and one. I appreciate it,” Kennedy said on the Locked on Raiders Squad Show.
“One of my biggest regrets through my career was the Tuck Rule game. I wish Jon Gruden had given us that opportunity on fourth and goal back in New England rather than giving a ball back because we never touched it again.
And that was the Tuck Rule game. But we messed up the play.
We didn’t execute the play before. Frank Middleton happened to go the wrong way, ended up getting tackled.
We knew what we did wrong. Let’s run 14 blasts again.
Never saw the ball again. The rest is history.”
Nearly a quarter-century later, the Tuck Rule game still hangs over the franchise. In the 24 seasons since then, only the Cleveland Browns have lost more games than the Raiders. During that stretch, the team has gone through 13 head coaches, not including interim coaches.
There’s hope Kubiak can help change that direction. Sunday’s loss to the Chiefs didn’t produce a win, but it did leave the Raiders with something they haven’t had enough of in recent years: belief.
Kubiak said this week there are no “moral victories”, and that’s true. Still, the performance against Kansas City felt like a real step for a team trying to build something different in Las Vegas.
The schedule won’t make it easy. The Raiders head to New England on Sunday to face the defending AFC Champion Patriots, then return home for matchups with the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams. If they can grab a couple of wins in that stretch, the noise around this team would get a lot quieter.
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