SAN DIEGO - First it was the Tuck Rule. Now Raiders fans can add the Spike Rule to the list of objectionable NFL codes.
If the tuck helped keep them out of the AFC title game in 2001, the spike wasn't nearly as profound. All it did was provide critical mass in the Raiders' 21-14 loss at Qualcomm Stadium, their fourth consecutive and their third in three weeks to AFC West opponents. Oakland fell to 2-9, while the dangerously living Chargers surged to 9-2.
But the sheer loopiness of the spike call is certain to make it indelible in the minds of Raiders fans, and the minds of the players and coaches involved.
Oakland was up 14-7 with 11:53 left when San Diego's Philip Rivers converted a fourth-and-2 play with a 13-yard pass in the middle of the field to Vincent Jackson. Jackson celebrated by getting up and demonstratively spinning the football onto the turf. Just one problem: No one had touched him. Cornerback Fabian Washington pounced on the ball, and the Raiders figured they had just been handed an early Christmas present.
Then a little chaos ensued. Officials gave the ball to the Chargers . .. then the Raiders ... then the Chargers again.
Referee Mike Carey's crew ruled Jackson's gesture a pass rather than a fumble. You can't throw two forward passes on one play, of course, so Jackson was penalized 5 yards. "When he intentionally threw the ball, spinning it, it's a pass," Carey explained after the game. "If it lands forward of him, it's a forward pass. If it lands behind him, it's a backwards pass."
Carey originally mis-spotted the ball and, thinking that the 5 yards wiped out the first down, gave the ball to the Raiders on downs. When Carey used the correct spot, Jackson's 5-yard penalty wasn't enough to overturn the first down.
None of which satisfied the furious, mystified Raiders.
"That was definitely a tough call," cornerback Fabian Washington said. "Because the momentum had swung our way. And it was like they didn't even know what to do - gave us the ball, gave them the ball, gave us the ball back, then gave them the ball. It's like they don't even know the rule."
"I'm sure next year there will be a rule," safety Jarrod Cooper said.
Coach Art Shell said his team has little recourse to seek redress, though defensive tackle Warren Sapp said he expects to get a letter of apology from the NFL.
"I've had plenty of those letters," he noted. "I get those letters all the time. I got one of those letters from a championship game, one step before the Super Bowl: 'Oh, it wasn't a catch. Our bad.' . .. But it doesn't make it any better."
Several Raiders compared the play to a similar one in Plaxico Burress' rookie season in Pittsburgh. Burress caught a pass for a first down against Jacksonville, and when he spiked to punctuate the catch, it was ruled a fumble that the Jaguars recovered.
"The refs seem to want to rewrite the rulebook when it comes to the Raiders," safety Stuart Schweigert said.
The Raiders still led 14-7 at that point, but the air seemed to leave their sails immediately. Five plays after the disputed call (including a pass interference penalty on Washington that allowed San Diego to convert a third-and-8 play), sensational running back LaDainian Tomlinson took a pitch right from Rivers, pulled up and lobbed a perfect pass to tight end Antonio Gates for a 19-yard touchdown.
Washington admitted he was supposed to stay back in the Raiders' Cover 3 scheme, but bit on the run fake by Tomlinson. "It was like I was running up to make a play, and as soon as I see his arm, I just put my head down," Washington said.
After forcing the Raiders into three-and-out, the Chargers went back on the attack. On their first play, Tomlinson started left and cut back to the right side of the field, which was virtually untended. He sped 44 yards before Washington ran him out at the Oakland 23. It took the Chargers five more plays before Tomlinson raced through a big hole, galloped out of Schweigert's ankle tackle and raced to the left flag for the winning touchdown - his 24th of the season.
Chargers cornerback Drayton Florence effectively ended the game when he intercepted Brooks' fourth-down pass on the first play after the two-minute warning.
Before the crucial fourth quarter, the Raiders had outgained the Chargers 241-150 and had 15 first downs to San Diego's nine. Brooks had a passer rating of 93.6 through three quarters, while Rivers' was 35.9. But it was all Chargers over the final 15 minutes.
ReShard Lee scored the Raiders' first touchdown on a second-effort, 1-yard plunge early in the second quarter, and Oakland probably should have led at halftime. But Sebastian Janikowski missed a 36-yard field goal, his first misfire of the season from shorter than 50 yards. And Antonio Cromartie's 91-yard kickoff return set up Tomlinson's 4-yard touchdown run, just 47 seconds after Lee's.
The Raiders went ahead, 14-7, on John Madsen's 2-yard reception from Brooks in the third quarter. Then their hopes for an upset got spiked.
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