The Las Vegas Raiders should be 3-9 right now but let another prime opportunity slip through their fingers. At this point, everybody knows about the botched snap that caused the Raiders to lose their Week 13 matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs.
However, people are still talking about it due to the sequence's controversial nature. Many fans have claimed that the NFL is rigging games in favor of the Chiefs. While that would be very difficult to pull off, it's hard to deny that Kansas City keeps winning in unconventional ways.
During the play that lost the Raiders the game, the referees appeared to blow the play dead before the Chiefs recovered the football. Based on replay, it looked too close to know for sure but head coach Antonio Pierce's comments are going to add some fuel to the conspiracy theorists.
"We heard a whistle on our sideline," Pierce said during his Saturday press conference.
Pierce also revealed that the Raiders are sending the play to the NFL for review. That's not likely to change anything. Look, it's hard to imagine the NFL is intentionally rigging games for the Chiefs but they do seem to get a lot of favorable calls.
It also doesn't help that the Raiders have been complaining about unfair officiating throughout their entire existence. Regardless, this loss only helps the team. They now stay in the mix for the No. 1 pick so fans shouldn't be too mad.
That said, Pierce should be livid. A win in this spot may have been enough to secure his job next season but now he's on shakier ground than ever. Even if the NFL admits it made a mistake, the Raiders and Pierce are still going to have a loss on their records. It just gets tougher and tougher to be a Raiders fan.