Life in the NFL
Losing ‘sucks’ for Lelie,
despite career highsLOSING to the Raiders? It sucks. Losing sucks.
I doubt the bye week took anything away from our concentration or preparedness. We just didn't play like we should have played. We were fully prepared, and losing is something that happened. We didn't perform, made mistakes, got down and it's hard to come back against a good team.
A lot of the catches I was making (career-high eight grabs for 65 yards) came at the end of the game when Oakland was in its prevent defense and playing way off of us. It was in garbage time and it wasn't like it meant anything.
Earlier in the game, I had a couple of third-down conversions and my number was getting called a lot.
On one of my two runs, I got body slammed, but it looked a lot worse than it was. The defender came out of nowhere.
Going up against Jerry Rice was fun, after watching him when I was growing up and wanting to be like him. I was actually playing on the other side from him and watching him make catches. It makes me begin to realize that I'm actually playing in the NFL.
And what a performance Rich Gannon had. Throwing 21 completions in a row is hard to do on a video game. He's a good quarterback and good quarterbacks step up in big games.
As far as I can tell, Jason Elam isn't getting down because he was replaced by Micah Knorr for kickoff duties. He's out there when Micah's out there kicking in practice, giving him tips. I don't think he has any harsh feelings. Field goals are Jason's strength and as long as he's making field goals we'll be all right.
The crowd was right behind us even though we were losing badly. Most of the people were still there for the final seconds, and that's a great thing. They stuck by us.
The Raiders game was a little more physical than our other games. It was a real physical game and I'm the sorest I've been after a game this season.
They were gunning for us, and everybody's gunning for us because (Raiders game aside) we're playing like one of the best teams in the NFL.
I often get asked if I notice a difference playing in high altitude. I noticed it when I first got here, but the only time I notice it now is when I go back to sea level and all of a sudden I have extra wind and can last longer with more endurance.
So when we play at sea level, having trained up here helps us a little bit. Against Kansas City we kept coming back and won in overtime because of the extra wind we had.
You can tell other teams notice the difference when they get here.
During our bye week, I went to the Hawaii-San Jose State football game. I talked to all the guys and the coaches, and a lot of people in the stands came up to shake my hand. That was nice.
I also went to the beach and hung out with my friends. And on Halloween and the night after, I went out and had some fun with my friends.
On Sunday, I laid out on the beach in Waikiki and I must have slept from noon to 4 p.m. in the shade under one of those umbrellas at Duke's. Coming from the cold, it was really nice. That ocean breeze is so relaxing.
Some day I'll come back to Hawaii because of that kind of stuff, the people, the weather, everything.
I also went to see Nate Jackson in the hospital. He's not looking too great, but he's a tough guy. He's going to hang in there.