Oakland Raiders: 5 positive takeaways from three-game slide
By John Buhler
The Oakland Raiders have dropped three games in a row after starting the year out 2-0. Here are five positive takeaways from the Raiders’ three-game slide.
Losing streaks are never good. Unfortunately, the Oakland Raiders find themselves in a bit of a rough patch in their season. After beginning the year out at 2-0, the Silver and Black have dropped their last three in a row to fall below .500 at 2-3.
This puts Oakland three games back of the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs (5-0) in the AFC West race. That makes the Thursday night game in a few weeks a must-win. If not, then it probably means Oakland isn’t going to win the AFC West this year.
That being said, it hasn’t been all horrible for the Raiders the last few weeks. We have seen some solid things out of many players and hopefully they can translate to a couple of victories in the next several games.
2-3 isn’t the end of the world, but the Raiders do need to get back in the win column very soon. Here are the five positive takeaways we can extract from the Raiders’ current three-game losing streak.
The AFC wild card picture is totally in flux
Being 2-3 can’t feel the least bit good. However, the second tier in the AFC is very much in flux. Like who’s good? We Kansas City looks like a playoff team. The Denver Broncos might be seen as the second-best team in the AFC at 3-1. We still need to see them play a fifth game to get a better feel for how the Raiders’ rival looks so far.
From there, here are some of the other best teams in the AFC entering Week 6. The New England Patriots are 3-2, tied with the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets in the AFC East. Baltimore and the Pittsburgh Steelers are 3-2 in the AFC North. The Jacksonville Jaguars are in first place in the AFC South at 3-2 with big wins over both Baltimore and Pittsburgh.
The point here is that there are wild card spots to be had. It’s early, but it looks like the AFC West will be getting one of those two wild card spots, possibly both. The AFC North looks down, the AFC South is cannibalizing itself and can we trust the Bills or Jets to keep it together the rest of the way to join New England in the AFC playoffs?
In essence, there is only one elite team in the AFC at this time. Unfortunately, that would be the Raiders’ biggest rival in the Chiefs. However, there is too much unknown the rest of the way to not think that the Raiders won’t bounce back and reach the playoffs in back-to-back seasons. Time is on the Raiders’ side.