The Las Vegas Raiders franchise has been to the playoffs only twice since the 2002 NFL season, a long run of futility that has seen many head coach changes, general managers, and roster shakeups. Their last run to the playoffs came in 2021, when they all got behind their interim head coach, Rich Bisaccia, and won four games down the stretch of the regular season.
Now, two years later, the Raiders are trying to ride the momentum of another interim head coach in Antonio Pierce, who has the team playing an inspiring brand of football down the stretch. The defense has been elite, the running game solid, and overall, the Silver and Black look like one of the more complete teams in the NFL right now.
Going into their Week 16 matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs, the Raiders were given a 1% chance to make the playoffs in the AFC down the stretch. However, after their 20-14 victory on the road, the Raiders saw their odds just to 14% according to the New York Times to make it as a Wild Card, a monster jump in terms of percentage.
Of course, Las Vegas is also still technically alive in the AFC West divisional race, though they will need to win out, and the Chiefs will have to lose out for that to happen.
Raiders peaking down the stretch for Pierce
Since coming out of the bye week, the Raiders defense has been elite, holding Minnesota to three points, the Chargers to three meaningless touchdowns, and then the Chiefs to only 14. That is an incredible effort put forth by that side of the ball, but outside of a 63-point outburst by the Raiders in Week 15, the offense has been stagnant.
Las Vegas was shutout in their loss to Minnesota after the bye week, and on Monday against Kansas City, 14 of their 20 points were supplied by the defense.
Still, the Raiders have two great opportunities ahead of them to secure a playoff spot, as they take on the Indianapolis Colts in Week 17, and that is a team ahead of them in the Wild Card race. After that, a very beatable Denver team wraps up their regular season at home, so as long as the Raiders get some help, and can take care of business themselves, they could actually pull off the miracle for the second time in the last three seasons.