Oakland Raiders difficult schedule a result of their delay to find a home?
The Oakland Raiders did not know where their home field would be until the middle of March, and it could be the reason for the long stretch away from home.
What better way to satisfy football fans before the draft than by releasing the 2019 NFL regular season schedule. Well in the case of the Oakland Raiders it isn’t really that satisfying.
Just taking one look at their schedule shows that they received the short end of the stick. As a matter of fact, the Raiders didn’t even get the short end of the stick they got the bare end of it. Some in Raider nation may feel that this is typical of the NFL. That the NFL is accustomed to dealing the Oakland Raiders a poor hand.
While there is some credence to that in different aspects, the Raiders had this schedule coming to them.
Their delay in finalizing a place for their home games made it easy for the NFL to hand them this outlandish schedule. It took the Raiders until mid-March to actually make significant progress towards playing a final season in Oakland.
That is absolutely embarrassing on the part of owner Mark Davis and president Mark Badain. Before finalizing a lease with Oakland, they were rumored to be headed to Oracle Park the home of the baseball team San Francisco Giants in early February. Once that was shutdown, the Raiders were stuck between returning to Oakland with their tail between their legs or play at Levi’s stadium in Santa Clara.
The NFL imposed a deadline for the Oakland Raiders to have resolved their stadium issues. Commissioner Roger Goodell wanted the Raiders to have finalized a home by late January or February.
Clearly, the team pushed the envelope and held over the scheduling process well over a month from that deadline and are now paying for it. The Raiders will essentially play five consecutive games on the road with one of them as their “home” game in London against the Chicago Bears.
The Silver and Black will also have seven 10am PST game start times, which is unheard of. West coast teams, especially the Raiders, do not have a good track record on 10am start times for games.
The #Raiders play the Chiefs in Oakland on Sept. 15 and don't return to the Coliseum until Nov. 3 against the Lions. At Vikings, at Colts, at London against Bears, at Packers, at Texans. Holy ...
— Vic Tafur (@VicTafur) April 18, 2019
For the final home game in Oakland the Raiders will host the Jacksonville Jaguars which is absurd. Closing the chapter in Oakland against the Jaguars doesn’t hold anything special. The finale should’ve been against a division opponent. Once again, it’s just another thing the Raiders are paying for. To round out the schedule, they will be on the road for four of the last six games of the season.
Next. Raiders 2019 schedule release: Games and times. dark
To say the 2019 season will be tough is an understatement. This team will be tested straight from the get go. How they handle their first six games will determine the rest of their season.