RAIDERS PROVE THEY CAN MAKE PLAYOFFS
Despite crushing loss to Chiefs, Vegas shows it has a chance with enough defensive stops
The Raiders have six games to prove what is possible but far from a sure thing.
A 35-31 loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs aside, the Raiders had a playoff-type look Sunday night. They’ve played eight quarters against a team that’s lost exactly one game in more than a calendar year — to the Raiders — and were 28 seconds away from making it two.
The driving forces are coach Jon Gruden and quarterback Derek Carr, but their presence doesn’t guarantee anything beyond the Raiders at 6- 4 being a watchable team the rest of the way.
Five things we’ve learned about the Raiders Sunday night:
1. THE GAP HAS BEEN CLOSED >> The offseason mission was to match up better with the Chiefs. With a 40-32 win and a 35-31 loss, consider the gap closed. Probably more than most thought possible.
The Chiefs are used to taking everybody’s best shot as the defending champion. The rematch with the Raiders would allow them to reassert their dominance. Surely coming off a bye and having lost at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City’s players had to be thinking they were going to be much sharper, much better and leave no doubt.
Instead, the Chiefs barely escaped. The Raiders had the Chiefs on their heels defensively. They went toe-to-toe as a peer rather than an also-ran.
The Chiefs, at 9-1 and with a three-game lead in the AFC West, will win the division again. But a team they had little regard for has made huge strides in terms of head-tohead competition.
2. THEY COULD LOSE TO ANYONE Six games left against Atlanta, the New York Jets, Indianapolis, the Chargers, Miami and Denver. The Falcons, Jets and Broncos are on the road.
OK, so losing to the 0-10 Jets seems unlikely.
But with the way the Raiders play defense, you could see them going 3-3 and finishing 9-7, which is far from a sure thing. Or maybe 2- 4, which would mean 8-8.
You don’t think Matt Ryan could go off? Or Philip Rivers? Justin Herbert? They’re not Patrick Mahomes, but they’re pretty good. Miami is 6- 4 and much improved. And the Broncos, wiped out by the Raiders in Week 10, just beat the Dolphins.
That’s how dire it is defensively. A team with an offense that appears playoff worthy could fall short because the defense simply can’t hold up its end. And if the offense has a bad day, good luck.
3. TALK IS BACKGROUND NOISE >> Football has six days to fill in a media sense before each game, so some of the stuff that emerges during that time is dubious.
Like the Chiefs being incensed about the Raiders’ “victory lap,” for example. Or the massive overreaction on social media when Raiders defensive coordinator Paul Guenther talked up how good the Chiefs were on offense and how difficult it would be to defend them even with everyone at practice. You know, the truth.
Neither had anything to do with the outcome. If the Raiders make a few more plays on offense, as good as they were, they win. If they make a play or two defensively on the last drive, they win. During those tense moments, I have doubts any Raiders were singing “Wheels on the Bus” or wiping away a tear because Guenther doesn’t think they’re any good.
That’s not saying such things shouldn’t be written about during the week to kill the time. It’s not like baseball, where there’s a game every day. But things are usually decided on the field.
4. CARR . . . ANY QUESTION? >> Isn’t it pretty obvious by now Carr was the best option the Raiders had going into the season?
I’m not a coach, but he seems locked in and in complete command of the offense and with the respect of his teammates.
“His confidence is on another level, man,” Raiders tight end Darren Waller said.
If week-to-week in-season stories can stretch a storyline to the limit, it’s not nearly as much as happens during the off-season. Gruden wanting a new quarterback was a big topic. Has been since he got here.
Gruden was watching Carr closely when he arrived. But Carr went all-in, without reservation, from the first moment. Carr is under contract through 2022, and the way he’s going, he could complete the five-year deal.
Looks like all that
“time in the system” talk as well as surrounding Carr with a better supporting cast was legit.
5. HENRY RUGGS HAS SIX GAMES TO JOIN THE PARTY >> The fact that No. 12 overall draft pick Henry
Ruggs III has little in the way of stats isn’t a huge concern, or that he was minimally involved in terms of production against the Chiefs. The offense couldn’t have played much better.
But just because the Raiders have done well with Ruggs as a decoy and clear-out guy doesn’t mean he can’t be more involved. And not just because CeeDee Lamb made an impossible catch for Dallas and Justin Jefferson is killing it for Minnesota as Class of 2020 wide receivers.
Carr outwardly supports everyone. But real trust is something only he
knows and is not sharing in a candid manner. Right now he completely trusts Waller, Hunter Renfrow and Nelson Agholor, even with some recent drops.
As we’ve seen with Michael Crabtree and Amari Cooper, Carr can be fine with targeting receivers right up until the point where he’s not sure and then things change. Gruden should be looking for ways to involve Ruggs as well.
Together, Carr and Gruden can fix this, which is only fitting since they’re the two people most responsible for the Raiders’ overall success through six games.