Oakland Raiders Get Harsh Reality of Road To Super Bowl

The Oakland Raiders robbed themselves of home-field advantage, dropping a huge game at Arrowhead stadium against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Let me just start by saying that the sky is not falling. The day of reckoning has not come and gone, leaving the Raiders’ playoff hopes floating with no life preserver in its tumultuous wake.

Thursday night’s highly anticipated AFC West showdown with the Chiefs flat-out, point-blank, gave this young Raiders team a preview of what this unfamiliar road to the Super Bowl will look like.

However, let’s put obvious facts out there. The road to the Super Bowl, as it now stands, will undoubtedly force the Raiders to play in the same inclement weather as we saw last night. The difference? They will more than likely do so with healthy players, such as Kelechi Osemele, Mario Edwards Jr., and Karl Joseph. Key players in Stacy McGee, Shilique Calhoun and Darius Latham will also look to get healthy. So Oakland can still add FIVE starters. Including Aldon Smith who, as reported by Ian Rapoport today, sat down with Roger Goodell to discuss his future reinstatement.

Let’s also state some tough-love facts, and say that Carr was simply off on Thursday night. Pinky? Weather? Spotty history? Great defensive play? Any and all of it stunted Carr into throwing for 117 yards with no touchdowns on 41 pass attempts.

41 passing plays for any quarterback usually means that opportunities were there to be had, and on too many occasions there were, but this offense was never in a groove to take full advantage of those given opportunities. In many ways, the Raiders offense lost this game just as much as the Chiefs defense won it for them.

In an otherwise vice-a-verse statistical outcome, Oakland forced three KC turnovers, putting them in ideal scoring situations, but managed only 14 yards of offense and 3 points to show for it. This will not win you games on the road in January. Period.

And nothing exemplified the Raiders passing attack like the 4th quarter misfire on a would-be-touchdown-pass to Amari Cooper, that lofted, sat and waned its way down back to earth, leaving Cooper and the rest of the world slack-jawed with no words to explain what had just happened.

Note: I also will not give merit to the “SpiderCam conspiracy” until proven otherwise.

It is always easy to look back and say “they should have called this” or “he should have gone there” or “why didn’t they…” once you go back to the tape. But 41 pass attempts when Murray was simply feasting on the middle of that defense? Suspect play calling. A sideline loft to Roberts with Walford open for an easy first down? Suspect decision-making. Back to back passing plays on 3 & 4? They should have…well, you get the idea. All of it an amalgamation of a bad offensive outing. Simple as that.

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