OAKLAND, Calif. | Todd Haley answered the question before it was asked.</p><p>&ldquo;Was that a well-coached game?&rdquo; Kansas City&rsquo;s first-time head coach said after the Chiefs&rsquo; 16-10 victory over the Raiders. &ldquo;No. No, but we&rsquo;ve got to do things &mdash; we&rsquo;ve got to think outside the box a little bit as we find our way through.&rdquo;</p><p>Had Raiders first-round disaster Darrius Heyward-Bey held on to Oakland&rsquo;s final pass and the Raiders completed their final drive, Haley&rsquo;s credible tenure as an NFL head coach would&rsquo;ve ended nine games into his first season.</p><p>Heyward-Bey saved Haley&rsquo;s job and what little credibility he has left. By inexplicably bobbling and then batting the ball into the hands of Chiefs safety Mike Brown at the KC 10, Heyward-Bey breathed new life into Haley&rsquo;s head-coaching career.</p><p>Your guess is as good as any what Haley will do with this second chance. In the aftermath of his second victory, he acknowledged that his football instincts push him to gamble. On Sunday, with the Raiders doing everything they possibly could to secure their seventh loss, Haley tried to out-dumb Al Davis&rsquo; men in black.</p><p>Late in the third quarter, facing fourth and 1 at the Oakland 14 and leading 13-10, Haley turned down a field-goal attempt, a short-yardage run and had Matt Cassel bootleg right for a pass attempt. The Raiders broke up the pass and stayed within a Sebastian Janikowski field goal of a tie game. Worse, when the Chiefs did tack on an additional field goal in the fourth quarter, the Chiefs led by six rather than an insurmountable number such as nine.</p><p>&ldquo;I have to be smart,&rdquo; Haley admitted. &ldquo;You can&rsquo;t let the circumstances get to you too much.&rdquo;</p><p>The circumstances are: 1. Haley and Scott Pioli are getting a very difficult lesson in just how hard it is to win in the NFL; 2. Kansas City&rsquo;s personnel is below average; 3. After running his mouth and carrying himself like his coaching would magically produce five or six victories, Haley is embarrassed.</p><p>Rather than humble himself, Haley is trying to win football games from the sideline. This is why I&rsquo;ve been harping on &ldquo;ego&rdquo; all season. An out-of-control ego makes coaches and executives do dumb stuff.</p><p>They start &ldquo;thinking outside the box&rdquo; and convince themselves they can turn three points into seven with a special play on fourth and 1. They forget that against the Raiders, JaMarcus Russell and Tom Cable, three points might as well be seven.</p><p>You don&rsquo;t have to do anything special to beat the Raiders. Every possession that ends in a punt puts you closer to victory. You show up and accept the gifts the Raiders are willing to give.</p><p>The Raiders erased positive plays with penalties all day. They dropped the few good passes Russell threw. Cable put the poor-throwing Russell in shotgun and had him throw the ball on third and 1 just before halftime. The Raiders sacrificed field position by failing to catch a routine punt.</p><p>On Sunday, like most every other NFL Sunday, the Raiders were the dumbest team in football. So why did they have a chance to win it in the final minute?</p><p>Well, it&rsquo;s an indication of how bad the Chiefs are and how poor the offensive decision-making was. Haley said his biggest regret was trying a failed 52-yard field goal.</p><p>That &ldquo;was a dumber&rdquo; decision than going on fourth and 1, Haley said. Hmm. What about the third-down play-calling? The Chiefs converted one of 15 third downs! Haley tried a Cassel draw on one third-down play. And Haley seemed reluctant to run Jamaal Charles in third-and-short situations.</p><p>When Haley acknowledged his gambling nature, he added that it was important for his assistant coaches to &ldquo;check him&rdquo; when he&rsquo;s &ldquo;acting a fool.&rdquo; Haley specifically mentioned assistant head coach Maurice Carthon.</p><p>Good luck with that job, Mo. Chan Gailey got fired, and receivers coach Dedric Ward got demoted for trying to &ldquo;check&rdquo; Haley.</p><p>Checking Haley is the responsibility of general manger Scott Pioli, the one person in the organization whose ego is more out of control than Haley&rsquo;s. </p><p>The mind-set of the organization is that the GM and head coach are going to win football games. That&rsquo;s just not the case in the NFL. Good coaches put players in position to win games.</p><p>Haley avoided a major disaster Sunday. Had the Chiefs lost, it would&rsquo;ve been hard to argue he deserves a second season.