A crushing defeat to the Jaguars last week left the Raiders clinging to the slimmest of playoff chances. And even discussing playoffs coming off a four-game losing streak seemed kind of ridiculous. Today alone, five different games had to go a certain way for the Raiders not to be eliminated. And crazy as that scenario seemed, ALL FIVE HAPPENED.
The first four were all early Sunday games. The Ravens beat the Browns, Jets beat the Steelers, Saints beat the Titans and Colts beat the Panthers. With the stars aligned, all the Raiders had to do was hold up their end and beat the Chargers. They did that, coming out with a 24-17 victory in Los Angeles.
Now sitting at 7-8, the best the Raiders can do is to finish at .500, but with the way the playoff picture has looked, that could still be good enough.
“To say that we’re still playing week 17 for something, that’s unbelievable,” said Derek Carr. . . “Really what our team has been able to accomplish. No one thought we could do that, let’s be honest. No one thought we’d play week 17 for the playoffs, let’s just keep it real.”
What’s most unbelievable to Carr and his head coach about this is the road the Raiders took to get here. Including a considerable amount of injuries. The Raiders were without their starting left guard, right tackle, and running back for this week. Not to mention earlier season losses of their starting middle linebacker and both starting safeties.
The injuries continued in this game with the team losing starting cornerback Trayvon Mullen to a neck injury. So a further hobbled Raiders team will head into week 17 against the Broncos.
Just like this week, it will take a crazy series of game results falling their way in order to get into the postseason too.
The Ravens must beat the Steelers, Texans must beat the Titans, Colts must beat the Jaguars, and, of course, the Raiders must win in Denver. If any one of those things does not happen, the Raiders are out. But if, like this week, they all happen, “unbelievable” won’t begin to cover how the Raiders managed to find their way into the postseason.
