Oakland Raiders: The good, bad, and ugly from week five loss to Chargers

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CARSON, CA – OCTOBER 07: Philip Rivers #17 of the Los Angeles Chargers talks with head coach Jon Gruden of the Oakland Raiders after a game at StubHub Center on October 7, 2018 in Carson, California. The Los Angeles Chargers defeated the Oakland Raiders 26-10. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /

Ugly: Lost Yet Another Division Game

The quickest way to the playoffs is by winning one’s division. We all know this. Understand this. But, as Raiders fans, haven’t experienced it since Gruden’s last tenure with the team, sometime during the Paleolithic Era.

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Winning division games is vital to having any sort of success in this league. And yet, it’s not something the Raiders have been very good at in a long, long time.

Let’s just take a small sample size, as a for instance. Let’s just look at this team against the division during the Derek Carr era – the overall picture since Gruden’s last run with the team would assuredly look a lot worse, but for the sake of argument, let’s just look at this five-year window.

From 2014-2017, the Carr-led Raiders have gone an abysmal 9-14. Though the sample size is obviously, a lot larger than against other divisions, the numbers Carr puts up against the AFC West are horrific, compared to his numbers against other divisions.

And 2018 hasn’t gotten off to any better of a start, as the Raiders have dropped the first two, of the six division games on their schedule, dropping his overall record against the AFC West to 9-16.

Now, you can argue – as some have – that Carr has put up decent numbers against the division this season. And that’s not wrong. It’s also a bit misleading. Against the Broncos and Chargers this season (so far) Carr is completing 85 percent of his passes (53/65), for 556 yards, and has a QB rating of 106.2. Best numbers of his career against the division.

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However… he has also thrown just two touchdowns, and an interception, and has led his team to a whopping 29 points over those two games. Carr is putting up some numbers, but he’s not leading his team to scores, and he’s certainly not leading to wins. Which is a problem. A big, fat, hairy problem.

Until Carr can unlock whatever block he has against the AFC West, the Raiders are going to be hard pressed to have any sort of long term success

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