The end of the last two Raiders’ games smacked of college basketball, where coaches dominate, rather than the players. Coaches trade deliberate fouls for possessions and call so many time outs the last two minutes seems like they occasionally can take two hours.

But get used to it.

There appears no chance the NFL will change the rule that permitted first Mike Shanahan and then Lane Kiffin to call last-split-second time outs that forced the Raiders and then the Browns to make a second attempt at game winning field goals.

Both, of course, failed.

And, frankly, while I find this coaching domination somewhat distasteful, I don’t think there is much the league can – or should – do about it.

“We did discuss the potential for coaches calling time outs before kicks as has been done, but didn’t see the effect much different from the (middle linebacker) calling it right before the kick as was the case before the rule change,” Rich McKay, the co-chairman of the league’s competition committee, wrote in an e-mail response to a question.

As McKay, president of the Atlanta Falcons, pointed out, teams have been attempting to “ice” the opposing kicker for years and years (but rarely with success). But the situation under the current time out rule, which actually was adopted in 2004, seems different. Before the change, the time out call was more obvious on the field and the kicker usually didn’t have to do his job twice. There just might be something about making a kick and having to make it over that unnerves the kickers.

Yet it’s just as possible that he could miss the first kick and make the second one, given another chance by the opponent’s time out call. Defending the rule in an e-mail, NFL vice president Greg Aiello says, “It’s a risky decision (to call the time out).”

True enough. And now that this has happened two weeks in a row, kickers might get an additional case of nerves just thinking about the possibility might be a last-second time out as they try the kick. Perhaps this will make coaches more aggressive on offense in these situations and more likely to try to win with a touchdown than settling for the field goal. I would like to see that.

RAIDERS AT MIAMI

With Josh McCown nursing injuries to many of his body parts, Daunte Culpepper is expected to start at quarterback against the team for which he was supposed to be the savior a year ago – but was not.

There is much noise about how Culpepper felt he was wronged by the Dolphins and that he was hurt and never fully healthy last year. The latter is true, the first is a matter of opinion, but at any rate, the coach who was involved, Nick Saban, is long gone.

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The NFL standings continue to look weird three weeks into the season, but for those who have been around the 49ers, what’s happening in Green Bay and San Diego may be weirdest.

I know Norv Turner had a bad record as a head coach in his two previous stops, but taking over the San Diego Chargers was expected to improve his reputation because the Chargers were so good. After all, look at the job Turner has done and did do with the 49ers last year as offensive coordinator. He knows his stuff.

And Mike McCarthy, coordinator of one of the least effective offenses in recent years with the 49ers in 2005, was not supposed to succeed in Green Bay, a team thought to be in drastic need of an overhaul, including at quarterback.

So?

Turner and the Chargers are 1-2, matching last year’s total of defeats for the entire schedule. They were 14-2 a year ago.

McCarthy and the Packers are 3-0 and two games ahead of the mighty Chicago Bears in the NFC North.

McCarthy has done much better with a soon-to-be 38-year-old Brett Favre than Turner has done with reigning MVP LaDainian Tomlinson. I don’t know how long either of these trends can continue but considering the relative difficulty of the opposition the Packers and Chargers face in the NFC and AFC, respectively, right now you’d think McCarthy is in much better position.

Favre has six touchdown passes, two interceptions and a 93.5 passer rating which, if he maintains it, would be his highest rating since 2001. Tomlinson, meanwhile, is averaging only 2.3 yards a carry, barely half his average for six previous seasons.

MISSING PIECES

The 49ers are without linebacker Manny Lawson the rest of the year and without tight end Vernon Davis for a couple of weeks. That’s significant, since they were both first-round draft choices a year ago when the 49ers were coming off back-to-back seasons of 2-14 and 4-12.

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Leave it to the 49ers to leave us feeling better about them after a defeat than after their two victories – although if they have lost Vernon Davis for an extended period, they won’t feel very good about it.

San Francisco couldn’t run against the Steelers, but hardly anyone ever does that, anyway. But Alex Smith did a nice job of avoiding sacks, he finally got Davis into the offense and, even though the 49ers lost by 21 points, they were not embarrassed and they gave their fans some reason for hope.

In fact, despite the score, this was probably the 49ers’ best game of the year. They played better in losing to the Steelers than they did in beating the Cardinals and Rams.

If you looked at the schedule at the beginning of the season or even last week, when San Francisco was 2-0, the Pittsburgh trip was one that you had to pencil in as a probable defeat. In fact, going into the year, a 1-4 start looked possible but now the 49ers are 2-1 and the home games coming up against Seattle and Baltimore don’t look nearly as imposing as once they did.

At the start of the season, I didn’t think the 49ers would be a serious contender even in the NFC West, but now I am re-thinking that. Their defense clearly is improved and the offense, if they remain more aggressive than they did in the first two games, and game-plan more like they did against Pittsburgh, figures to be serviceable.

What Sunday mostly showed the 49ers is how wide the gap is between the AFC and the NFC. The Steelers are not yet proven they are back among the AFC’s elite teams, although they are moving in that direction. But the game never really was in any jeopardy for them.

And yes, I know Seattle and Green Bay beat Cincinnati and San Diego of the AFC. But, trust me, the AFC still is much stronger overall.

STRANGE HAPPENINGS

On Sunday, Baltimore blew a 17-point lead and allowed Arizona to tie the game before the Ravens won at the end. A week earlier, the Ravens nearly blew a 17-point lead and allowed the Jets to tie the game, but Justin McCareins dropped two touchdown passes in the closing minutes to allow Baltimore to escape.

Meanwhile, the Raiders defense collapsed at the end against Detroit, couldn’t hold a late lead against Denver, and lost a 16-point lead against Cleveland and won only because Lane Kiffin stole an idea from Mike Shanahan to help prevent a game-losing field goal at the end.

Last season, the Ravens and Raiders ranked first and third in the NFL in total defense. They were both supposed to be good on defense again this year. They haven’t really shown it yet.

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Let’s see if I got this straight. After players like Michael Irvin and Nate Newton got into legal problems, after the “White House” party house, after the league cracked down on its rogue element, the Cowboys couldn’t even wait for Tank Johnson to finish his suspension before they signed him to a contract.

In the end, it seems, talent always wins out over character, no matter how much teams say character counts.

It’s hard to find 300-pound nose tackles with strength and quickness, and in the weak NFC, where the race for the Super Bowl is wide open, Jerry Jones wouldn’t let a little thing like guilty pleas to gun charges (twice) or a probation violation get in the way. Not after his presumptive starter, Jason Ferguson, was lost for the season with an injury.

The Bears tired of Johnson’s act. They said they were “embarrassed,” and so they cut him loose.

No doubt Jones, whose team has not won a playoff game since 1996, senses an opportunity this season. The NFC East is down, the entire NFC, in fact, is down, and the fans in Dallas won’t give a hoot about Johnson’s rap sheet if he helps the Cowboys win. In fact, in Texas they might regard arrests on gun charges as a good thing.

So here’s the question, why is Roger Goodell so concerned about all these things which the legal system is supposed to sort out? Because sports are not, regardless of what fans may think, a necessary part of life. If enough bad things happen, people could begin to tune out. Don’t think it couldn’t happen. Remember how high the NBA was at one time, riding the crest of the Michael Jordan-Magic Johnson-Larry Bird wave. The popularity of the NBA waned. I’m not saying it will happen any time soon in pro football, which is more ingrained than any other sport, but it could.

Too many Tank Johnsons, too many Pacman Joneses, too many spygate incidents, too much of what real sport is not supposed to be about . . . well, nowhere is it said that the world can’t exist without a hyper-popular NFL. And that’s what Goodell is trying to preserve, and players like Johnson – and Jones, by signing Johnson long before he even finished his suspension – threaten.

BROWNS AT RAIDERS

Okay. Neither team really is going anywhere this year but I was, if not impressed, at least pleased, at some of Lane Kiffin’s post-game comments after the Raiders lost at Denver last Sunday. He said the point was to win the game, not just to play hard or try to play well.

The Raiders have a long way to go to play well. And regardless of what they do in the short term, the equation changes once JaMarcus Russell becomes the quarterback, whether it’s in week 10 this year or week 1 a year from now.

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Two weeks into the season, up is down and down is up.

Among the 10 teams with 2-0 records are five that failed to have a winning record last season: the 49ers, Washington, Green Bay, Detroit and Houston.

Among the 10 teams with 0-2 records are four that were in the playoffs last year, including New Orleans, the NFC runnerup. The others are Philadelphia and both New York teams, the Giants and Jets.

What makes turnarounds possible? The common thread is defense.

Yes, Detroit has improved its offense in Mike Martz’s second year as coordinator, and Houston has a new quarterback, Matt Schaub.

But defense still is the key. Except for the Lions, the other four all rank among the NFL’s top 12 teams in one or both of the two important defensive categories – fewest yards allowed or fewest points allowed. The Lions’ highest ranking is 17th, but they lead the league in interceptions (6) and takeaways (8).

Now go back to last year. The Packers, who finished 8-8, ranked 12th in total defense, based on yards allowed. None of the other four teams ranked higher than 24th. And none of the five teams ranked better than 25th in points allowed.

Repeat after me. Defense wins. Still does. Always has. Always will.

And the four playoff teams that are sliding? The New Orleans offense, No. 1 in the league last year, is sputtering, and the defense has not been improved. In fact, the defense appears even worse than a year ago. Not good. The Giants got old at a lot of spots. The Jets had a Chad Pennington injury and a tough opening schedule (Patriots, Ravens). And the Eagles are finding out that Donovan McNabb may not be all the way back from his injuries.

For what it’s worth, Kansas City was the only team that started 0-2 last year and reached the playoffs. It’s a hard road to make up ground after that start.

CAN HISTORY REPEAT?

Most people would point to the 45-14 rout of Dallas at Candlestick as the coming out party for the 1981 49ers. But the really big victory that established San Francisco as a real team came three weeks later, a 17-14 victory over Pittsburgh at Three Rivers Stadium.

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We learned on Sunday that these are really, really good times for Cal and Jeff Tedford.

Even Kyle Boller looked terrific.

Now, I’m not trying to be a wise guy here. But Tedford and his program and his history of first-round drafted quarterbacks have been questioned repeatedly because these quarterbacks have been less than overwhelming once they got into the NFL.

But maybe things are looking up.

Boller, the former first-round pick by Baltimore, was forced into the starting lineup against the New York Jets because Steve McNair, the regular starter, has a groin injury. To complicate matters, Boller had to play without the great security blanket, left tackle Jonathan Ogden, who has a severe toe injury.

It was no problem. Boller, whose last start occurred in 2005, showed poise he didn’t show earlier in his career. He showed touch he didn’t show earlier in his career. He got the ball out of his hands. His ball-handling was deft. He completed 23 of 35 passes for 185 yards and two touchdowns. He neither threw an interception nor took a sack, and it wasn’t his fault the Ravens needed a last-minute end zone interception by Ray Lewis to preserve a 20-13 victory.

Think of it. Boller got the Ravens a 20-3 lead, and the defense nearly blew it. Who ever would have imagined that?

“He orchestrated the game plan very, very well, with a great deal of poise,” said Brian Billick, the Ravens’ coach. “They are an extreme defense. Either they’re very, very passive or they bring the house. So there’s a lot of extremes, and you have to be on top of your game, recognize what’s going on, and handle it. He did a nice job.”

Billick said McNair probably could have played, but he chose to take a conservative approach to avoid aggravating the injury. Boller didn’t find out for sure until Saturday that he would be the starter. One big difference between the way Boller played in this game and the way he played in the past was his calmness. Billick said Boller’s problem in the past often had been that he was “hyper.”

Perhaps that contract extension he got earlier this month, when many thought the Ravens would pursue ex-Jacksonville QB Byron Leftwich, helped Boller’s confidence and his poise. Whatever the reason, tight end Todd Heap said, “He obviously showed some maturity. He showed he’d been in the offense awhile, not only the throws he made, but the passes he threw away.”

AL, YOU SHOULD HAVE PAID IT

For nearly two decades, Mike Shanahan has been getting payback for that $250,000 Al Davis stiffed him when Davis fired Shanahan as coach of the Raiders. But none of Shanahan’s victories could have been any sweeter than the one on Sunday.

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We still don’t have every little detail of exactly how they did it or exactly what they did, but we can say this much now about Bill Belichick, the Patriots, Roger Goodell and the spygate issue.

Belichick and the Patriots got off easy.

Goodell, the law-and-order commissioner, blew this one.

Now, I’m not saying the Patriots won any of their Super Bowls because of Belichick’s cheating, but you have to assume he thought it did him some good or he wouldn’t have done it. And my guess is there are 31 other teams in the NFL who would trade a draft choice and $750,000 to win the Super Bowl.

So the point is this: Goodell’s penalty was not severe enough to deter someone else from cheating. It’s that simple. He has set the bar too low. Players get suspended routinely for four weeks or more for issues that have nothing to do with competition in the NFL. Yet the competition is the lifeblood of the game and when someone, particularly someone in a position of authority like Belichick, violates that competitive trust, the penalties should be very, very severe.

In this case, by not suspending Belichick, Goodell sent the wrong message. The money is relatively insignificant. What does Belichick earn? Five million a year, let’s say. So the 500 grand is piddling to him, a slap on the wrist. Yeah, the draft choice might be a big deal, but it’s not enough.

And what’s really puzzling about this is that the spying was all so unnecessary. I don’t think the Patriots needed to cheat.

The strength of the New England dynasty was its defense. Yes, perhaps the Patriots got an edge on offense by stealing the opposition defensive signals; we’ll never know for sure. But even so, they didn’t cheat in a smart way, and that showed a level of arrogance by Belichick. He probably thought he’d never get caught.

They could have done their espionage in a manner that was less likely to attract attention than having a visible guy on the sidelines with a camera. It would be easy for someone with a long-range lens to zero in from many hundreds of yards away. The Patriots could have done their spying, in other words, much more surreptiously.

Which, I guess, makes Bill Belichick both arrogant and foolish, as well as a cheater. But he got off easy, and I’d consider this the first significant mis-step of the Goodell regime.

49ERS AT RAMS

Here’s an intriguing statistic: In 13 of the last 16 years, the 49ers-Rams division series was a sweep by one team or the other. Don’t know why that is, but it’s a fact.

Since Mike Nolan became the coach, the 49ers are 3-1 against the Rams. And the 49ers are in a great spot here on both sides of the ball.

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Is football getting more brutal or is television just showing more of it?

We may have just endured the most painful opening weekend in memory.

All of it pales, of course, compared to the tragedy in Buffalo, so it’s important to keep this all in perspective. Nonetheless, the opening weekend was a stark reminder, in case we needed reminding, that pro football is a game of attrition.

It is hardly a coincidence that the Super Bowl often is decided as much by good health as by good play. There was a great example last year, because Chicago sorely missed run-stopping defensive tackle Tommie Harris, but Indianapolis regained its sparkplug, safety Bob Sanders, for the playoffs.

Reverse that, give the Bears a healthy Harris and keep the Colts without Sanders, and Chicago might win the Super Bowl even with Rex Grossman as its quarterback. Well, maybe that’s over the top, but you get the point.

At the time Harris was injured in December, the Bears were allowing 105.8 rushing yards a game. Without him, they gave up 191 in the Super Bowl. Meanwhile, without Sanders, Indy gave up 212.3 rushing yards a game in the final four regular-season games. In four playoff games, with Sanders, the Colts permitted 82.8 rushing yards per game.

Yes, that’s why certain players get labeled as difference-makers.

The 49ers and Raiders both came through their openers in pretty good shape, although Oakland lost center Jeremy Newberry early against Detroit. Given Newberry’s recent injury history, perhaps it’s not shocking he’s hurt again, although this time it’s a hamstring rather than a knee.

More about the 49ers in a minute.

First, let’s take a look at how the landscape around the league was changed by injuries already:

Chicago, the best team in the NFC, lost the emotional leader of its defense, safety Mike Brown, and defensive tackle Dusty Dvoracek, both for the season, both with torn ACLs. The Bears still figure to win their division but they may need more offense in the playoffs.

Dallas, arguably the best team in the NFC East, lost nose tackle Jason Ferguson for the year. Based on the opening-weekend games, however, the Cowboys still figure as the best team in the NFC East.

St. Louis lost left tackle Orlando Pace, one of the league’s elite linemen, for the year with a shoulder injury. The Rams will be forced to juggle their offensive line, and that’s not a good sign for a team that leans so heavily on its offense.

Baltimore, one of the favorites in the AFC, ended its opening game with a defeat and with quarterback Steve McNair, linebacker Ray Lewis and offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden all injured to various degrees. The Ravens were a trendy Super Bowl pick by many but they didn’t look like it.

Both New York teams, the Giants and the Jets, are expected to be without their regular quarterbacks, Eli Manning (knee) and Chad Pennington (ankle), for their second-week games, and, in Manning’s case, he may be gone a month. The Giants also lost running back Brandon Jacobs for a month and defensive end Osi Umenyiora for two months, both with knee injuries. Neither the Giants nor the Jets figured as strong contenders, and this does nothing to help their case.

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Okay, who was that fellow wearing Randy Moss’ uniform on Sunday? Certainly he wasn’t the guy who spent the last two years in Oakland not working up a sweat.

And how sad it is, really, that we are left to feel good about the Raiders because they managed merely to be competitive at home against the Detroit Lions. Reality is that this constitutes progress for a team that is now 15-51 in its last 66 games.

Perhaps more than other sports, opening day in the NFL tends to be full of surprises because exhibition games are such a crock, just glorified scrimmages for which the fans pay regular-season prices.

So, Moss’ 183-yard performance for the Patriots, his highest-yardage game since 1999, heads the unexpected list. He showed signs of life that he rarely hinted at during his two years with the Raiders and that were not evident in August, either.

But let’s face it, Oakland still is better off without him because Moss would not have done for the Raiders what he did for the Patriots. He made that clear the last two years. And maybe it had something to do with the New England quarterback, that fellow named Brady. He wanted more help on offense, and the Patriots gave it to him; 18 of his 22 completions went to players not on the New England roster last year.

Meanwhile, the Raiders at least showed a pulse, too, and even with all the good feelings (except for the failure to sign their first draft pick) of the off-season, no one really knew what to expect in Kid Kiffin’s first game. After all, there were some good feelings after Art Shell came home a year and a half ago, and that one didn’t work out so good, did it?

Further, it has been a long time since a 17-0 deficit didn’t spell “quit” for the Raiders, and that comeback on Sunday is the most encouraging sign the team has given its fans in a long time, even if it was not sufficient to win the game.

And, for a change, the Raiders actually looked like a professional football team. I’m not talking about the 21 second-half points, the offense that moved the ball, or the coaching staff that seemed to have a plan. I’m talking about the general feeling you got watching them play. That feeling was noticeably absent last year so, to some degree, the positive vibes generated in this loss were a commentary on what happened a year ago.

Of course, we shouldn’t get all carried away. The Raiders didn’t win and the opponent was, after all, Detroit. The Lions have been even worse than Oakland the last several years.

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Much has been made this week over the way Raiders coach Lane Kiffin handled the naming of his starting quarterback for the season opener, that he refused to announce it publicly.

The implication is that Kid Kiffin was playing juvenile games and that it was a sign he might not be as ready as we thought to be an NFL coach.

Well, he may have been playing a silly game and he might not be ready for the NFL, but perhaps there is a more benign explanation to it all.

Maybe, just maybe, Kiffin didn’t want to answer questions about why he chose Josh McCown to start over Daunte Culpepper. At least, perhaps he did not want to answer them in public; for sure, he had to answer them in private.

It’s quite likely, you see, that Al Davis would have preferred Culpepper as the quarterback and that by choosing McCown, Kiffin was taking another step to declare independence from the boss. Now, that’s probably not the reason Kiffin picked McCown – I’m sure he picked him because he thought McCown gave the Raiders the best chance to win – but throwing off another of Al’s controlling strings surely can’t hurt.

Why do I think Al preferred Culpepper? Well, for one thing, he’s paying him $3.2 million this year, and a rebuilding team doesn’t pay a guy that much to sit on the bench. For another, remember what Davis said the day Culpepper signed? He compared the signing with acquiring Jim Plunkett, another quarterback thought to be at the end of his career, who instead led the Raiders to their last two Super Bowl victories.

Look, Kiffin did not become an NFL coach at 31 by being stupid. Arrogant, perhaps. But, putting aside the silly gamesmanship for a moment, at least give him some credit for trying to do this his way. Because that’s the only way he has a chance to succeed.

Do I agree with the way he refused to name his starter? Of course not. All he managed to do was create an unnecessary issue, and I subscribe to the John Madden theory: Coaching presents enough problems without deliberately creating more. But at least after Sunday we can all start to argue about Kiffin’s results rather than his methods.

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