MEXICO CITY _ The Raiders wanted to contend with the NFL's elite this year. Some even thought they could.
Sunday's embarrassment showed just how far off they really are.
Despite the absurd reality that Oakland can still make the playoffs or even win the AFC West because of how bad the conference is this year, it's more than evident the 2017 Raiders are light years away from being a serious contender.
The defending Super Bowl champions looked like the defending Super Bowl champions. A team hoping to build off a breakout 2016 turned in yet another dud.
The game was over by halftime, the Raiders failing to score against the NFL's worst defense in the first half while the Patriots scored 17 points. The game ended 33-8, and Oakland never stood a chance. Could we see the Raiders in the postseason in less than two months? Sure. But the team that showed up Sunday looked nothing like a playoff team.
After the game, Jack Del Rio was asked how he keeps his team from letting its season spiral out of control, already with two more losses than all of last season.
"I don't give credence to those kinds of questions," he said, before weaving around the question for a couple more seconds.
One person the Raiders couldn't maneuver around even slightly was Tom Brady.
The best quarterback of all time didn't take long to show exactly why he's pegged by many as such. Brady completed all nine of his passes on New England's opening drive, which ended with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Dion Lewis. The Raiders' offense showed flashes of competence, but never in bunches. Meanwhile, Brady faced six third downs and passed for first downs on five. The fifth conversion went to Danny Amendola in the back of the end zone to give New England a 14-0 lead.
The turning point came with under a minute left in the first half, when Seth Roberts lost a fumble inside the Patriots' five-yard line. (In hindsight, maybe the turning point was the Patriots showing up to the game) Brady and Co. marched down the field, and Stephen Gostkowski hit a 62-yard field goal with plenty of room to spare as time expired.
"That was a major turn of events," Del Rio said. "That was a 10-point swing right there, a tough one to swallow."
It probably wouldn't have mattered anyway, since Brandin Cooks hauled in a 64-yard touchdown before the Raiders could even blink in the second half. Not much else in the game mattered after that.
The conclusions were already drawn. Oakland is bad. The Patriots are good. The two teams are nowhere close to each other.
"I stood in that huddle, down 30, with my guys. Everyone hurt, everyone mad," Raiders' quarterback Derek Carr said. "Nothing changes for us. We are who we are. We're not gonna turn on each other. We're not gonna turn on anything about what we do."
Is it possible for the Raiders to climb back to .500 with the Broncos and Giants up next? Of course. Is it possible for an 8-8 team to make the playoffs in the AFC? Maybe so.
But right now, the Raiders are eons away from being a team that should even sniff the playoffs.
They had a chance to re-write their season's narrative on Sunday. Instead, they did the exact opposite.
