I’m not trying to Doom and gloom us. I legit think this team is WAY better than before. This team actually has heart again, not something I’ve seen from the Raiders since…well without trying to be a broken record, 2016 and also 2021 (after Gruden). Looking at the remaining schedule this team honestly could go at the least 7-10, to 11-6 at the most.
I very much doubt we win out, I think the team is good but not THAT good. I want to take a guess and say we finish at 9-8. I think we lose to the Dolphins and Chiefs next, we surprise the Vikings and get back our win against the Chargers, lose to the Chiefs again, and then win out the remainder of the season. But really any of those games can go either way. The rest of the schedule is not a cake walk at all. We sadly easily could lose to the Chargers again. The Broncos may FINALLY beat us once again. I mean they beat the Chiefs for crying out loud.
Until we decisively beat the Chiefs I just can’t say we’ll split wins with them and definitely not beating them both times. The Chargers are the Chargers. Yeah they whooped us earlier this year but I think this newfound energy the team has will be the deciding factor. And the Broncos are the Broncos. I 99% think that’s another win, but as I said above they did beat the Chiefs so…anything is possible against division rivals.
But really this post isn’t so much about the Raiders as it is about the AFC in general. Sadly, the AFCN is just THAT division this year. I’ve looked at their remaining schedules and, well I know any given Sunday is said for a reason but like…they all have easy fucking schedules remaining AND they’re all on top of the AFC and have the Wild card spots as of now locked in. Even if we finish above .500, or have 10 wins, I sadly am not sure if that will be enough this season. Nevermind the fact that before McD’s firing I 100% figured this season was a wash. I’m HOPING beyond hope this team pulls off the miracle again and repeats 2021, but idk. A lot of factors need to go right for us to pull it off. We need to play better than the other teams, and we need to hope at LEAST one of the AFCN teams starts to fail opening up the last wildcard slot. And I haven’t even MENTIONED the Bills…or the Jags/Texans. The AFC is freaking stacked with talent this year and the Wild card race is so close and yet so far away.
All in all it will definitely be disappointing if we finish above .500 and miss the playoffs. Infuriating actually because then that will mean if we didn’t have McD as our HC starting this year maybe we had a better shot. If we didn’t start with JimmyG and instead had AOC starting all year maybe we had a shot. Or on the flip side maybe all this had to happen for us to get here. We can shit on McD all we want BUT without him we don’t have AP right now as our HC. If we finish out above .500 I have to think Mark doesn’t make the same mistake twice and we roll with AP and company next year.
I’ll be the first to admit I didn’t think much of AOC. A QB drafted in the 4th round? Usually doesn’t pan out. I figured even if JimmyG failed and we switched to him the season was a wash and we’d be in line for Caleb Williams and that’s what I was hoping for as the best scenario out of this season. Instead here I am thinking about the playoffs…after seeing the post comparing the QBs who have faced the Jets defense this year and seeing OUR boy at the top, above Mahomes, Hurts and Allen…yeah alright I was definitely wrong about AOC. Maybe he is the guy long term. And maybe, just maybe, next year if everything goes the way I hope it does, instead of hoping for a repeat of 2021 where we luck into the playoffs like i am for this season, we can finally have a repeat of 2016 and definitively and firmly make the playoffs, no questions asked.
Just Win Baby!
I’m not counting us out v Miami. Patrick Graham got me believing.
If we can keep Miami under 25, we can win
If we can somehow win one of the next two games we will have a shot down the stretch. Those AFCN teams will soon start to canibalize one another.
But I’m just enjoying the ride. Excited to see how we prep for a really tough matchup
They could only lose two more times max.
We likely got 2-3 wins left. I thought we could pull the Vikings because Cousins is out, but I dunno. 4 wins would be sick. 8-9 is unlikely to get a Wild Card spot. 9-8 is iffy.
There’s potential, but I don’t think it happens.
Our cake was schedule this year, when you don’t take the gimme wins you are giving like Bears, Packers, Patriots it’s really hard to make the playoffs
Not worried about playoffs imo. Just need to keep building what we have already in place. We have great players at key positions. Just need to fill a few critical spots I think. Of course I hope we win out, just trying to stay grounded atm lol
Potential yes. Will it happen? I hope but don’t think so.
This week’s game will be the first real test
A rested Miami is probably going to be very difficult to stop but if it ends up being a close game I’ll count that as a great building block
We’re probably not beating the Chiefs in the standings. They’re simply too good a team and have a fairly sizable lead on us in the standings where catching them is feasible.
So we probably need to win a wild card spot.
Current wild card race is Steelers and Browns at 6-3, and then a whole bunch of teams at 5-4/5-5 (Bill’s, Bengals, Texans, Colts, Raiders). Steelers are frauds who will fall apart at some point according to just about every metric you can look at, so I think it’s pretty wide open.
It’s in the realm of possibility which is all we can ask for. Gotta keep grinding 1 game at a time.
With AP we going to the playoffs
You keep bringing up the Broncos beating the Chiefs, but that was when Mahomes had the flu. We’re not getting the same Chiefs.
I think the overarching lesson is that rigid coaching styles don’t fit every team, and you can’t always mold teams to fit one style of play rather than mold the style of play to the team you have. There is now and always was a lot of talent on this Raiders team. It just wasn’t being unleashed effectively.
Depends on how these next 2 weeks go honestly. Were looking good but we gotta pass a little more and take some load off of Jacobs. Idk if aoc is the answer yet, but he’s manageable.
I guess I have a higher standard because I think this roster should absolutely, objectively competing for a Wild Card spot. That’s true now and it was true before JMD was fired. Just looking at rosters this is a team that is supposed to beat teams like the Bears and Giants, and be competitive with the Lions and Jets.
JMD grossly mismanaged a competitive roster and that’s why he was fired.
We have to win some that we aren’t expected to win. But the difference is now I expect us to have a surprise win or two where before we always had a surprise loss or two against shifty teams. So yeah I think we got a chance to make the playoffs.