Even in a loss to the Chiefs two weeks ago, the Raiders were 6-4 on the season and feeling pretty good about how their team was playing. Then they went into Atlanta to face the 3-7 Falcons and looked like keystone cops, losing 43-6.
“This is one of those where you want to watch it, correct it, and then burn the film because you’re like ‘that’s not who we are.’ But it is,” said Derek Carr. after the loss to the Falcons. “We put it on film it is what it is, and there’s one of two ways that we can handle it. We can just say ‘aw, crap’ and just keep giving into it or we can grit our teeth like I think our team will, and get ready. Because we have a team that kicked the crap out of us last year coming up next, you know? They beat the dog out of us last time, so we better get our minds right before we get on that plane for that game.”
The similarities between this Falcons loss and the Raiders’ loss to the Jets last season is downright eerie. Last season the Raiders were 6-4 riding a three-game win streak heading to New York to face the 3-7 Jets.
In that game, Derek Carr threw for just 127 yards and an interception while Sam Darnold threw for 315 yards and two touchdowns and the Jets beat the Raiders 34-3.
That game would start a four-game losing streak for the Raiders, who would overall lose five of their final six to miss the playoffs.
As it happens, the Raiders head back to New York to face the Jets this week. And they have a nice little blueprint on how to completely disrupt the Raiders offense courtesy of Raheem Morris and the Falcons.
Most of the Raiders’ players remember that loss to the Jets and the feeling of watching the season slip away afterward. They insist this team is far more resilient this time.
“I don’t think there’s a fear because we control it,” said Hunter Renfrow. “I think we have a lot of really good guys on our team, a lot of football character guys. I know it’s cliche, we talk about it a lot, but we control our destiny. And we really do. It would be one thing if I was scared because I didn’t know the type of people we had in the room, whether they were going to fold whenever it gets tough, but I really feel like we have a really good group of guys. And it does feel different this year, it really does. We’ll keep saying that and we just got to finish better than we did last year.”
For the Jets’ part, they are a worse team this year than they were last year. For instance, both the team’s leading rusher from that game (Le’Veon Bell) and leading receiver (Robbie Anderson) are gone. As is the leading tackler (James Burgess) and top defender (Jamal Adams).
None of that really matters though. Even an 0-11 team can turn over the right cards and pull out a win. You’ll recall the Raiders were 0-10 in 2014 before beating a 7-3 Chiefs team coming off a five-game win streak.
The Raiders had come within a score of a win two of the previous two weeks. Which is exactly what the Jets have done. They scored 27 points against the Patriots, losing by just three points. Then they scored four touchdowns on the Chargers to lose by six points. So, clearly, they’re finding some things that work of late.
Remember; last season the 3-7 Jets beat the 6-4 Raiders. The Jets finished strong and the Raiders fizzled out. They had an identical 7-9 record at the end. That’s how quickly things can go in the wrong direction. They can’t afford to take this one for granted.
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