Las Vegas Raiders at Atlanta Falcons: 4 things we learned in Week 12

Las Vegas Raiders at Atlanta Falcons: 4 things we learned in Week 12

The Raiders are not ready to be a contender

This should come as a little surprise to those watching this team closely but on Sunday, we learned that the Raiders not ready to be a contender. They may have been drinking their own Kool-Aid after going toe to toe with the defending champs, but the Raiders proved that they are still a middle of the pack team.

A true contender does not let their focus slip to this degree and get beat up on by a team that is as flawed as the Atlanta Falcons. Atlanta was without perhaps the best receiver in the NFL and their starting running back but none of that mattered because the Raiders beat themselves just as much as the Falcons did.

A true contender may have lost this game but they would not have been embarrassed by an inferior team to this degree.

The talk around the Raiders was that after beating Kansas City in Week 5 and nearly beating them again in Week 11, they belonged among the elites of the NFL and could hang with the big boys. Instead, they got a nice big serving of humble pie courtesy of Matt Ryan and Raheem Morris and we will have to wait and see if the lesson sticks for the rest of the season.