The Oakland Raiders are firmly in the running for a playoff position, but they aren’t merely a Wild Card contender, they can win the AFC West outright.
Even though it has been less than a week, it feels like forever since the Oakland Raiders defeated the Los Angeles Chargers on Thursday Night Football. That prime time win over a division rival moves the Raiders to 5-4 and moves their division record to 2-1, with three more to play. After feeling like the season was a wash two weeks ago after the loss to the Houston Texans, the Raiders find themselves with newfound life and aspirations of a playoff berth, and even better, a division championship.
Most of the ‘experts’ at the start of the decision said that the Raiders wouldn’t even sniff the five win mark. A majority of those same experts predicted the Raiders to finish fourth in the division and be in contention for a top five draft pick.
Yet despite the lack of faith pundits had in the team, the Silver and Black keep winning and find themselves already with five wins and on the road to quite a few more. The AFC West is suddenly wide open and the Raiders are the team trending in the right direction. Are the stars really aligning for the Raiders to make a run and come out on top of the division?
Let’s take a look at three reasons why the Raiders have all the reason in the world to believe they can win the AFC West.