Oakland Raiders v Houston Texans Wild Card Playoff Game Open Thread
By Kevin Saito
The Oakland Raiders open up the 2016 NFL Playoffs by taking on the Houston Texans in the Wild Card Round – come talk about the game and all things Raiders here!
Perhaps the Oakland Raiders needed to sacrifice a goat, light a candle, or something. It seems that for the last couple of weeks, they’ve been hit with little more than bad news after more bad news. And as they get set to take the field for their first playoff game in fourteen years, they do so missing some very key pieces.
The Raiders have got to be sitting around wondering what they did to get themselves so overdrawn at the Karma Bank. Most fans certainly are.
Obviously, Derek Carr is out for the game. But losing Pro Bowl tackle Donald Penn is a pretty significant blow for this team as well. And as if that weren’t enough, word came down that defensive end Mario Edwards Jr. Is “questionable” with an illness. He’s active and hasn’t been scratched, but we’ll have to see what he has in the tank.
Adversity, adversity, adversity. The Raiders have faced so much of it this season, you think they’d come to expect it. And get used to it. But as we saw in last week’s dreadful season finale, you can never really get used to it. And you can’t let it tear you down – you have to come back even stronger and battle if you want to get to where you want to go.
And where the Raiders want to go is into the next round of the playoffs. Most “experts” and even a good many fans have already written it off – “oh well, I’m happy to see them get to 12-4. It was a good season.”
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Yeah, it was a good season, but this season isn’t over yet. There’s still work to be done.
And that work starts in Houston. Most people believe that without Carr and Penn, the Raiders are done. But the Raiders still have plenty of weapons at their disposal. They still have plenty of ways they can beat the Texans.
Connor Cook is a rookie, yes. But with veteran leaders like Michael Crabtree, Rodney Hudson, Kelechi Osemele, Reggie Nelson, Sean Smith, and David Amerson, among others, on the field, the Raiders still have plenty in the tank.
Couple that with young playmakers like Amari Cooper, Jalen Richard, and DeAndre Washington, and Oakland still has plenty to lean on for this game – and possibly beyond.
It’s far from an ideal situation. Going into a playoff game with a rookie making his first career NFL start is hardly a recipe that’s going to give you a lot of confidence. But it is what it is. The Raiders have a great blend of veteran leadership and young playmakers.
They have the tools to get it done. The only question is, can they put all of the pieces of the puzzle together in time to get it done against these Texans. It’s the best matchup they could have hoped for heading into a Wild Card game.
Now, it’s on them to put it together, to make something happen, and to defy the odds. Nobody is picking them to beat Houston today, so they can afford to come out loose, make plays, and just let it fly. After all, what’s the worst that can happen? They have nothing to lose but everything to gain at this point, so they may as well come out and shock the football world.