Here are some residual tidbits from Lane Kiffin’s Monday press conference. As we keep telling you, week after week after week, this could be his last, so pay attention!

First of all, the coach didn’t make any excuses for veteran safety Gibril Wilson, who was ejected from the Buffalo game in the fourth quarter for giving Josh Reed an open-handed slap to the facemask after a Bills touchdown: “From what I saw on the film, Gibril deserved to be thrown out. He clearly punched the guy. I don’t know what happened before that, because you can’t see it on the film. I’d love to protect him in this situation but there’s no reason for that. No matter what’s happened before, there’s no reason for that and it hurt us. It hurt us with field position and it hurt us by not having him in there. We’re playing (Tyvon) Branch, a rookie, instead of a guy who’s one of the highest-paid guys and one of the leaders of our defense.”

The Raiders’ only turnover of the game came in the second quarter, when Bills defensive end Chris Kelsay slapped the ball out of JaMarcus Russell’s hand on a pass play. It looked as though Russell should have sensed Kelsay approaching and unloaded the ball.

I asked Kiffin and he more or less agreed: “That’s the dead zone right there. When he goes to pull up, we call it the dead zone. Once you start to move you gotta keep moving. He starts to go to his left and he turns to throw, and that’s when it happens. He’s got to stay on the move there, because the guys are too fast. It was a safe three-step route – and the guy wasn’t open when he wanted him to be right away, so he started to go and try to make a bigger play out of it instead of throwing it away. I just continue to preach. There’s a lot of good things that happen when you throw the ball away, and that’s a big difference right there. Let the best punter in the league go on the field on fourth down and punt it away and let our coverage units play instead of giving them the ball on the 20.”

To spice up his most recent recitation of “I don’t worry about what I can’t control,” Kiffin added a handy film reference. Speaking of the constant media rumors, he said: “Does it help? No. I’m not going to sit up here and lie and say it helps and that it brings our team together and we’re going to bond together like the movie Major League — like somebody told me — or something. It doesn’t help. But I can’t control it, so all I can do is keep our team together.”

And in case you were searching for a way to express your disgust over that fourth-quarter meltdown and eventual 24-23 loss, try Kiffin’s take: “I would be shocked and surprised if there weren’t any players or coaches that didn’t have a very sick feeling last night. If they slept well last night, then they are not our type of guys, because we let that one get away.”

It should be noted that Kiffin followed up that line by ticking off all the things that currently give him optimism. There were plenty, including a reduction in penalties, a positive turnover differential and solid quarterback play in the fourth quarter. He sounded like a man who wanted to stick around for a while. For whatever that’s worth.