5 takeaways from Raiders’ loss to Cowboys in Week 15

Beating the Tennessee Titans back in Week 1 is the only reason the Raiders are still in the playoff race.

With a loss to the Cowboys at home, the Raiders are essentially out of the playoff race in the AFC, but not officially. How come? Well, even at a lousy 6-8, the Raiders have the head-to-head tiebreaker over the increasingly toothless Tennessee Titans, now falling to 8-6 on the year.

There was a way that the Raiders could have been eliminated from the AFC playoffs on Sunday, but the handsome Jimmy Garoppolo flexed his star power to set up a sweet Robbie Gould field goal to beat the sinking Titans in Santa Clara. Had the Titans won to improve to 9-5, it would ha been season over for the Silver and Black.

The two other things that needed to happen along with a Raiders’ Sunday night loss did happen n Sunday afternoon. The Baltimore Ravens got it done versus the still winless Cleveland Browns. Keep in mind that Baltimore has the head-to-head tiebreaker over Oakland. The Cincinnati Bengals lost their ninth game of the season to the Minnesota Vikings to officially knock them out of the playoffs. It’s happening. The end of the Marvin Lewis era is nigh.

This Raiders team is a long way from that group that handled what we thought was a good Titans team back in Nashville in Week 1. Giorgio Tavecchio had a brilliant debut that day, but his missed 39-yard field goal at the half on Sunday night was ultimately the difference in the Raiders’ most recent defeat. Thanks for losing, Titans!