Silver And Black Pride
Week 8 brings a much-needed bye for the Las Vegas Raiders, as the team sits at 2-5 and was completely embarrassed by the Kansas City Chiefs last Sunday. The Raiders need to regroup and reevaluate where their season is headed, especially since they’re consistently one of the lowest-rated teams in NFL Power Rankings across the league’s media.
28. Las Vegas Raiders
Last week: 26
The Raiders are getting worse as the season progresses. Forget the team’s Week 6 win against the Tennessee Titans, who already fired their head coach. Against legitimate competition in recent weeks, the Raiders lost to the Indianapolis Colts and Kansas City Chiefs by a combined score of 71-6. Sunday’s performance is particularly concerning since Las Vegas couldn’t even manage 100 offensive yards.
Granted, Brock Bowers and Jakobi Meyers weren’t available due to injury. Even so, the Raiders should be able to manage more than they did with quarterback Geno Smith, running back Ashton Jeanty, wide receiver Tre Tucker and tight end Michael Mayer still in the lineup. Instead, they managed next to nothing. — Brent Sobleski
Adding to this, four out of five Las Vegas losses have been by at least two possessions, and three out of five have been by 17 points or more. So, the Raiders are struggling just to be competitive. The Week 1 win over what has become a good New England Patriots team feels like ages ago.
29. Las Vegas Raiders
Last week: 27
The Raiders ran 30 plays on Sunday. Thirty. Plays. — Conor Orr
I considered not including Sports Illustrated’s power rankings this week since Orr’s analysis is so sparse. But, to be honest, those nine words sum up the Silver and Black’s performance weekend pretty well. Sunday’s contest will go down as one of the worst games in franchise history, and that’s saying a lot given the last 20-plus years.
29. Las Vegas Raiders
Last week: 28
You don’t just bury the game tape. You first burn it with fire, and then douse it with sulfuric acid. The Raiders ran 30 offensive plays and allowed 31 points. Defensively, they let the Chiefs do pretty much what they wanted, even if the score wasn’t outrageously bad. It could have been much worse. Whatever good vibes still wafted around the team Sunday morning were blown away pretty quickly. There was only so much to hope for the offense with Brock Bowers and Jakobi Meyers out, and with Geno Smith mired in a season-long slump, but the Raiders not leaning on Ashton Jeanty was so bizarre. He touched it only seven times — and just once in the game’s first 20 minutes. I don’t get any of it. Oh, and Maxx Crosby and Adam Butler got hurt. — Eric Edholm
One way to look at Jeanty’s workload is that...
