As you would expect, the Raiders saw their odds of making the playoffs fall drastically after their Week 8 loss to the Saints. Going into the week, they had a 27 percent chance of making the tournament, according to FiveThirtyEight.
But after their fifth loss of the season, those odds have fallen all the way down to 13 percent. There are only four teams in the AFC with lower odds of making the playoffs than the Raiders and that includes the Texans, Jaguars, Steelers and Colts.
The good news for the Raiders is that they will play the Jaguars and Colts in back-to-back games. Those are certainly winnable games and they will play the Steelers on Christmas Eve. So while they aren’t in a good situation right now, the schedule does open up for them over the next two months.
However, the Raiders have to start playing better and it starts with protecting Derek Carr. Until then, any talk about making the playoffs is entirely premature.
