Oakland Raiders at Kansas City Chiefs: 5 takeaways from Week 17

3. Turnover woes

The Raiders began the game with turnovers on four consecutive possessions. That cannot happen. Good teams do not make that many mistakes. Guess it’s a good thing that the Raiders weren’t a good team this year.

On the year the Raiders had a -7 turnover differential. That means that the Raiders committed seven more turnovers than they forced. Again, that is not the mark of a good team. Carr cleaned up his interceptions up until Week 17 where he threw two. Prior to that, Carr had a streak of 333 passes without being picked off.

Fumbles plagued the Raiders, especially against the Chiefs with five against them in their two games. Martin and Carr both lost a fumble in Week 17, with all three running backs losing a fumble the last time the team’s squared off.

Obviously the Raiders need to clean that up moving forward. Being in the second year of Gruden’s scheme should help, but they simply need to be more careful with the ball. Carr needs to cut down on the mistakes and the running backs need to hold on to the ball. Turnovers will always happen, but they can surely be limited more than they were this season.