The fans are probably not ready to stop celebrating the Raiders’ big win over the Ravens in the opener. It hasn’t even been 48 hours since the insane overtime thriller.
Just this morning Maxx Crosby was named the AFC Defensive Player of the Week for his dominant pass rushing performance Monday Night. That’s great and all, but the Raiders are on a short week to face the Steelers and Crosby has already moved on.
“The rollercoaster ride Derek’s talks about, everybody talks about, not getting too high, not getting too low, so for me I already flushed the game,” Crosby said of Monday night’s win over the Ravens. “I’m already worried, I watched the Steelers first game against Buffalo yesterday, been locked in on that because it’s a week-by-week basis, and a week-by-week league. You never know how things are going to turn out, so you really have to stay locked in. There’s always going to be ups and downs, but you try to stay even keeled and just take it day-by-day and one day at a time. That’s really all you can do.”
Normal weeks in which teams play on Sunday offer the players at least a day to take a breath to think about the previous game and a couple days off before the next practice. Playing Monday Night means one less day, especially when the next week’s game is on the road, which means a travel day must be built in as well.
Crosby had a monster game and the Raiders pulled out a miraculous win in their first Las Vegas home game in front of fans. But the season continues quickly and Pittsburgh awaits. The celebration for Monday night’s win seems to have ended Monday night.