Skip to main content

The Raiders' Open Road

This Sunday the Raiders travel to Minnesota and face the Vikings. This game will feature two of the top five rushing teams in the league. While the Vikings run All Day (Adrian Peterson), their passing game is anemic. While defending the run is the Vikings' strength, stopping the pass is their weakness. The Raiders' offense leads the NFL with 56 plays over 20 yards and 11 plays over 40 yards, but the Raiders' defense have given up more 20+ yard runs than any team.

Regardless of the numbers, the Raiders will take advantage of Vikings rookie quarterback Christian Ponder. Even though Minnesota has a stout defensive line, their offense remains unbalanced and largely ineffective. This will allow the Raiders to wear down the Vikings' defensive line and make big plays. For good reason, the Raiders are favored to win this game, and barring another systemic defensive catastrophe, they will.

Taking a look at the other AFC West teams, we see Denver upsetting the Jets, San Diego traveling to Chicago, and Kansas City going to New England. Even though Denver won, San Diego and Kansas City are underdogs by at least three points. This weekend, the Raiders are expected to win, and their remaining divisional foes are expected to lose. If all goes as expected, at the conclusion of this week's games the Raiders will have a one-game lead over Denver and a two-game lead over the other divisional teams. After this weekend, the Raiders will have six games left, the last two of which are divisional games.

With a victory this Sunday, the Raiders will gain momentum to make a serious run during the home stretch of the season. With games against Green Bay, Chicago, and Detroit looming, the Raiders have a chance to stake their claim in being an elite NFL team.

This weekend, the Raiders will take an important step in being a premier football team. They will become a team who controls their destiny and will take a serious step toward making the playoffs for the first time since 2002. So, Raider Nation: the Raiders are in the driver’s seat and the road is open. Cheers!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Oakland Raiders Swing for the Fences in 2016 NFL Draft

[embed align="center"]http://gty.im/153039819[/embed] These aren't your daddy's Oakland Raiders or even your younger self's Raiders. If anything, these are your newborn's Raiders or your puppy's Raiders. These are the Raiders we've never seen before. Indicative of the freshness of the franchise was their 2016 NFL Draft. No longer slave to a high draft pick and desperate needs, the theme of the draft for the Raiders was upside. It's as if general manager Reggie McKenzie got so used to hitting his draft picks out of the park that he started swinging for the fences. We'll have to wait a couple of years before we know if he struck out or if he'll continue his Ruthian ways. First, McKenzie boldly went with a safety at No. 14 overall. Kyle Joseph is coming off a torn ACL and fills a major need, but safety isn't a premium position. Only a handful of safeties have been drafted in the first 14 picks in the last 15 years and include names like Ea

2012 NFL Strength of Schedule

  Disclaimer Some strength of schedule models calculate strength of schedule based on the opponents the team has faced to date.  My model calculates strength of schedule based on all the opponents on a team's schedule.  The reason for this is because it reduces weekly fluctuations. For example, when a team plays their Week 17 game, in the traditional model their strength of schedule would change by 31 games...their Week 17 opponent's 16 games plus the additional game played by each of their prior 15 opponents.  In my model, when a team plays their Week 17 game their strength of schedule will only change by 15 games...one additional game for each of the opponents on their schedule.

The Raiders aren't who we thought they were....they're better

The Oakland Raiders are tired of being the team that will be good in a year or two. The team expects to win now and it is winning now. We thought the Raiders needed more talent. We thought that being in the playoff hunt was a year away for this team, but we were wrong. This isn't the team we thought they were, they're better. On Sunday, they moved to 3-3 on Sunday with a 37-29 win over the San Diego Chargers that wasn't close until the final minute. It was also the Raiders second road win of the season. The last time the Raiders had two road wins by their sixth game was 2011. Before that, a five-year streak from 1998-2002. The Raiders went 8-8 in 1998, 1999 and 2011 and narrowly missed the playoffs each year.  They made the playoffs in 2000, 2001 and 2002. They didn't have a losing record in any of those seasons because teams that can win on the road are usually pretty good. As the season matures, there is more and more evidence that some of the "best-case scenario