It would be easy to excuse the Oakland Raiders for excessive celebration late in Thursday night's 24-20 victory against the Kansas City Chiefs. After all, it was their first victory in more than a calendar year.
The sight of linebackers Khalil Mack and Sio Moore celebrating a sack 15 yards into the Chiefs' backfield as the clock ran and Kansas City prepared to snap the ball was pretty unusual for a professional football game.
The sack came on third down with the Raiders trying to seal the victory.
Maybe Mack and Moore thought the sack came on fourth down. Maybe they thought the Chiefs called a timeout, even though they had none left. Maybe they were so overwhelmed by the moment they forgot what to do next. Either way, the two were having a good time celebrating well behind quarterback Alex Smith as he called for the snap.
The situation wouldn't have been so funny afterward if it weren't for veteran defensive end Justin Tuck's quick thinking. The Raiders had timeouts left. Instead of taking a penalty for the two Raiders being offsides -- it would have taken them a while to sack Smith even coming from the wrong side of the line of scrimmage -- Tuck took a timeout.
The Raiders (1-10) came up with a stop on fourth down following the timeout to finish off the victory.
Bitten by Bulldogs
West Mesquite (Texas) High School quarterback Chason Virgil is no longer committed to Mississippi State, and his coach isn't happy about it.
Virgil said Mississippi State requested that he grayshirt, which means he was asked to enroll as a freshman in the second semester of his freshman year. He's scheduled to graduate early from high school in December.
Now he's looking for another school.
"It's out of the blue," Virgil told BulldogBlitz.com "Head Coach [Jeff] Neill just pulled me into his office and told me that they contacted them and told them about it. It kind of made me mad.
"I just really hated the fact they waited until close to December to let me know that, knowing I was graduating early. I just look at that like it was really bad business they were doing. It was basically like they were trying to pull their scholarship, just in a slicker way."
Neill voiced his frustrations about Mississippi State's request on Twitter.
"Miss St. pulls scholarship from our QB Chason Virgil w/16 days til graduation. Classless move by "coach" Dan Mullen," Neill tweeted.
"Chason Virgil -35 tds/6int passing -8td rushing. One of the best young people I've ever coached -only flaw was trusting "coach" Mullen," he added in another tweet.
Rivals ranks Virgil as a three-star recruit. He said he hopes to choose a school that will allow him to enroll in January. He has scholarship offers from Arizona State, Auburn, Missouri, Texas and others.
"Looking at it and the way they handled everything, it kind of hurts a little bit," Virgil said. "I'll definitely learn from it, but it's something I will probably hold against them for awhile."
QUIZ
Before defeating Kansas City on Thursday night, who was the last team the Oakland Raiders defeated and when?
ANSWER
The Houston Texans on Nov. 17, 2013.
Sports on 11/22/2014