Oakland Raiders: Notes from Week 10 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers

The Oakland Raiders are no longer a disaster waiting to happen. They’ve won consistently and have now put themselves in a position to have continued success this year.

In the final prime time game in the history of “The Black Hole” before the move to Las Vegas, the Oakland Raiders took down a team they hadn’t beaten in two years.

They defeated the Los Angeles Chargers 26-24 on the back of a solid performance by Derek Carr and a hellacious effort from their defense on all fronts.

One area I was really surprised with was the Raiders’ pass rush. Led by two rookies in Clelin Ferrell and Maxx Crosby, the Raiders’ front line was one of the weakest in the league with quite some way to go before it developed into a solid unit.

But now we’re actually starting to see it come to fruition a bit ahead of schedule. They had two sacks a week ago against the Detroit Lions, three the week before that in Houston, and now FIVE in this game against Philip Rivers.

Not only did they get to Rivers five times officially, but they also forced three interceptions because of their relentless pressure up front (maybe could have even been more if penalties didn’t negate).

I was extremely impressed with the defensive performance out of the Raiders this week. Now, this team faces what seems to be one of the easiest remaining schedules in the NFL with only the Kansas Chiefs left on the schedule as the lone above-.500 team.

It’s not out of the realm of possibility this Raiders team can go on a run and wind up with 11 wins by the end of the year and a potential playoff spot, maybe even a division title if they can get some breaks from the Chiefs.

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Carr is playing at a high level, Josh Jacobs is one of the best all-around rookies in the league this year, and this team can play hard-nosed football in the trenches on both sides of the ball.

I’m amazed as to how they have turned things around from the Antonio Brown debacle in training camp.

I would’ve bet a lot of money and prized possessions on this Raiders team being an absolute trainwreck when the season first commenced, but they’ve made it work up to now and could very well reap the benefits of a favorable schedule.

Can they come through and make it work the rest of the season? I don’t know. I’m still very iffy on their defense and Karl Joseph has now landed on the IR.

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Joseph is now on the shelf, Lamarcus Joyner went down in this Chargers game and hasn’t been all that great of a signing this year anyway, and Gareon Conley is now in Houston.

So, in terms of secondary, I still think these guys have a lot of problems and question marks, though Erik Harris is emerging as their best defensive back with two picks in this game (could have been three if not for a penalty).

The pass rush gives me hope that their back-end struggles can be covered up a tad.

After what we’ve seen these past few weeks from Ferrell and Crosby, there’s certainly a high ceiling still to be reached for these two rookies and the Raiders pass rush can continue to improve and establish itself as a formidable unit in this league.

It definitely looks good on paper for the Oakland Raiders right now, but let’s see if they can handle their business and live up to those expectations.