Oakland Raiders notebook: Blocked field goals by Richard Seymour rescue Raiders

Richard Seymour had a big hand in the Raiders' 16-13 overtime win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday, but not in his usual manner.
The Raiders' six-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle blocked a 49-yard field-goal attempt by Ryan Succop as regulation play expired and also spiked a 49-yard attempt as the first half expired at Arrowhead Stadium to highlight a big day by the Raiders' special teams.
Had Succop made the second attempt, the Chiefs would have won the game and faced the Denver Broncos in the regular-season finale with a chance to win the AFC West on tiebreakers, while at the same time eliminating the Raiders.
"The coaches saw something, and they put the block in this week," Seymour said. "I was just able to get a hand on the ball. It was a push -- I had a linebacker pushing me, and I give both my linebackers credit. We had four guys pushing on two."
Seymour said the Raiders used the same scheme, which had Aaron Curry and Quentin Groves providing the push -- on both attempts.
Chiefs coach Romeo Crennel called it a "double-push technique" and said, "They were coming over our left side, and our guys were trying to stay low so they wouldn't get pushed. Seymour is a long, tall guy, and he used his length to get up and block the kicks."
Succop, whose first field goal from 23 yards was his 22nd in succession, wasn't sure what happened.
"I'll have to take a look at the tape," Succop said. "I
can't speak for all the other guys. I just know that their guy obviously made a heck of a play."
Raiders place-kicker Sebastian Janikowski kicked three field goals in four attempts and is 25 for 29 at Arrowhead Stadium for his career. After quarterback Carson Palmer's 53-yard pass to Darrius Heyward-Bey in overtime, holder Shane Lechler wanted to kick the ball right away.
"I was wondering why we snapped it on third down," Lechler said. "We should have knocked it through on first down. When that guy lines up in this stadium, it's like he's going to make everything he hits."
The Raiders were chagrined to have perhaps their most flawlessly executed trick play of the season -- on a fake field goal -- go for naught on a delay-of-game penalty. The play went for a 36-yard touchdown on a shovel pass from holder Lechler to tight end Brandon Myers, who came from left to right and raced around the corner to score.
The ball, however, was snapped a fraction of a second after the play clock hit zero.
"It was exactly as we drew it up," Myers said. "I had (Richard) Gordon on the edge. It was perfect. It's good it didn't come back to bite us in the end."
Return specialist Bryan McCann took the opening kickoff 91 yards to the Chiefs' 14-yard line to set up Janikowski's first field goal from 28 yards. It was the second-longest Raiders kickoff return this season, behind Jacoby Ford's 101-yard return against Cleveland on Oct. 16.
Lechler had a 76-yard punt into the end zone from the Raiders' 24-yard line, the third-longest punt of his career. His two longest -- 80 and 76 yards -- were also this season. It was the 11th punt of 70 or more yards in his career.
Free safety Matt Giordano intercepted a Kyle Orton pass in the end zone, returning it 62 yards, and cornerback Stanford Routt had a second-half interception. They are tied for the team lead with four interceptions each.
The Raiders had 15 penalties for the third time this season, giving them 155 penalties for 1,294 yards this season. With four penalties for 11 yards against San Diego, Oakland would break the existing NFL records for penalties (158) and penalty yards (1,304) set by the 1998 Kansas City Chiefs.
Routt had four penalties, with three defensive-holding calls and a pass interference.

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