Oakland Raiders vs. New York Jets: Game Day Open Thread

The Oakland Raiders (3-3) play host to the New York Jets (4-2) this afternoon. For the first time in seemingly forever, the Raiders have something to play for. Nearing the halfway point of the season, the playoff picture, while still largely opaque, is somewhat starting to take shape. And today’s game carries a lot of potential playoff implications with it.

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The Jets and the Steelers are the two teams directly in front of Oakland for the wild card berths. And as luck would have it, the Jets and the Steelers are the next two up in the queue for Oakland. A win over the Jets would not only get them over .500, it would give their playoff hopes a significant boost. A win over both the Jets AND the Steelers would absolutely give it a jolt unlike anything seen in the East Bay in more than a decade.

But there are plenty of storylines outside of potential playoff positioning to look forward to in this game.

The Oakland Raiders passed on drafting stud defensive lineman Lenoard Williams – will Williams have a little extra juice in the tank? Is he out to prove they made a mistake by passing on him? Will the Raiders offensive line, as solid as it’s been thus far this season, be able to handle the pass rush led by Muhammad Wilkerson and Sheldon Richardson and protect Derek Carr?

How will rookie phenom Amari Cooper deal with the coverage of Darrelle Revis? Will Michael Crabtree be able to step up if Cooper can’t get off of Revis Island? Will Latavius Murray and Taiwan Jones be able to find any room to run against the Jets’ top ranked run defense? Will Chris Ivory find any room to run against the league’s second ranked run defense?

Will Ryan Fitzpatrick be able to take advantage of the league’s worst pass defense? Or will that pass defense step up and shut him down the same way they shut down Philip Rivers and the league’s top ranked passing offense last week? Will Derek Carr find room to throw the ball around the league’s fourth ranked passing defense?

On the injury front, he Raiders enter the game relatively healthy. The Raiders lost Neiron Ball, who has been a solid rotation player and has done a good job of shutting down the opposing tight ends, but have gotten defensive linemen Justin Ellis and Denico Autry back into the lineup. The Jets have quite a few players banged up and aren’t close to 100 percent. Perhaps the biggest blow for New York is the loss of center Nick Mangold for the game with a neck injury. That opens the door for the Raiders to get a real push up the pocket and get into Fitzpatrick’s face.

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The Raiders still lead in the series(19-12-1) have lost the last two games in the series and six of the last eight, and are looking to turn that trend around.

There is no shortage of storylines and points to talk about as these two teams who have a long history hook up to renew their rivalry.

This game is going to be a dogfight. The Jets and the Raiders match up fairly well. Both have outstanding strengths as well as a few weaknesses the other team will be looking to exploit.

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So what say you, Raider Nation? How is this game going to go down? What are some of the most intriguing storylines to you? What do you expect to see? How do you see this game shaking out?

This is your soapbox, so step on up and sound off. Let’s hear your thoughts about today’s Raiders v. Jets game. Sound off, Raider Nation!

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