Oakland Raiders Coach Lane Kiffin Fired By Al Davis? In last week’s game 2 against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oakland Raiders went into a tough Arrowhead Stadium and put on a show. The defense was clicking on all cylinders, and rookie RB Darren McFadden was a one-man show. As NFL betting odds underdogs, the Silver and Black shut down the Chiefs, executed their offensive scheme, and moved to 1-1 with an impressive 23-8 (road) victory in KC. So why after a great bounce-back, promising win, is head coach Lane Kiffin’s job still on the line?

In Week 3, the Oakland Raiders are once again (+9½) NFL betting odds underdogs on the road against the Buffalo Bills (-9½) at BodogLife.com.       

After a disastrous NFL Week 1 Monday Night Football (14-41) loss to the Denver Broncos, Oakland Raiders (1-1) head coach Lane Kiffin placed much of the blame on his defensive coordinator Rob Ryan.

In Week 2, on the road against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Raiders defense responded in a huge way by sacking the Chiefs QB a total of 5 times, and allowing just 55 rushing yards by the home team. The OVER/UNDER in this NFL Week 3 game between the Raiders at Bills has been set at 37 points . 

In that game, the Raiders offense also stepped up, even after starting HB Justin Fargas went down with a groin injury. Rookie RB Darren McFadden put on an absolute show, and showcased why all the hoopla surrounded him in his college days at Arkansas. In just his second NFL game, McFadden rushed for an NFL Week 2-high 164 yards (in 21 carries), including his first career (rushing) touchdown.

But not everything is looking as good in Oakland for Lane Kiffin. Ever since before the end of last season, Al Davis has been threatening to fire the youngest head coach in the history of the NFL. On Monday, Kiffin went through his usual routine of watching game film, and meeting with the media. There, he addressed the issue everyone's talking about: “There are certain things I can control, there’s certain things I can’t… this happens to be the next one. He has a decision to make. It does me no good to worry about it right now.”

Kiffin stated that he had not spoken to Davis recently, but the two are expected to meet early this week. “Don’t make a big deal out of it. That’s very normal,” he added. “We don’t sit next to each other on the plane. Al’s not around as much as he used to be. He’s around the office or he’s at practice. He wasn’t there all last week, so I didn’t see him.”

Last January, Kiffin and Davis were involved in a disagreement over a new defensive coordinator. After Davis overruled Kiffin and kept DC Rob Ryan, the dispute led to Davis sending Kiffin a letter of resignation to sign. Kiffin, who had has been publicly critical of personnel, understands the situation could have been handled differently, but it might be too late: “I don’t think it helps. But like I said, I can’t do anything about it… so all I can do is try to get our coaching staff to stay together in this type of situation, our players to stay together, and they did it last week. Our players did a great job in not allowing it to be a distraction for them."

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