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Oakland Raiders Continue Forging Path to Prime Playoff Seed with Win on MNF
- Updated: November 22, 2016
On two weeks’ rest in a quasi-home game against a mediocre-despite-its-record opponent, the Oakland Raiders did not play well Monday night in Mexico City.
Star wide receiver Amari Cooper had just two catches for 14 yards through three quarters. His fellow starting wideout, Michael Crabtree, produced five yards of offense on seven targets. Top back Latavius Murray had just 33 rushing yards on 12 carries. Raiders receivers dropped several Derek Carr passes, and Carr threw a rotten second-half interception.
And yet the Raiders won, 27-20.
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Believe it or not, that’s a good sign. Because in the past, a performance like this would have inevitably resulted in an Oakland loss. The Raiders hardly won at all between 2003 and 2015, and they almost never won when underperforming.
Against the Texans, they underperformed. A team that wins by lighting up the scoreboard—they had scored 30-plus points in each of their last three games, all wins—wasn’t crisp or efficient on offense. As a result, they trailed an equally inefficient Houston Texans team by seven points with 11 minutes remaining.
In that situation, the 2006 Raiders would have been packing up equipment on the sideline. The 2009 Raiders would have been warming up the buses. The 2012 Raiders would have been texting their wives reminders not to delete that week’s episode of Breaking Bad.
Those teams just didn’t have it. They didn’t possess the talent or the …
