Another win! The Las Vegas Raiders are now 2-0 since Jon Gruden’s resignation and are now 5-2 heading into the bye week, which puts them atop the AFC West standings.
Derek Carr for MVP
It’s time to start giving Derek Carr some serious MVP consideration. He has played at an elite level for most of the season. Yesterday was no different. He was lights out. As well as the entire team has played, it’s becoming clear that Carr’s play is directly correlating with wins this year. It’s no secret that his two worst games resulted in losses. Now that ‘DC4‘ has the right pieces in place, this team will go as he does.
This is a playoff team
I am now fully convinced the Raiders will make the playoffs this year. Barring a catastrophic injury to Carr, there is no way this team collapses like they did the previous two years. This year’s team is different in a couple of ways. First, the defense is so much better than before. That keeps slow starts by the offense from spiraling into blowouts like last year. Also, this team has a ton of depth. The rotational guys on defense aren’t liabilities. There are a plethora of weapons on offense too. Yesterday, the Raiders were without their best offensive weapon in Darren Waller, and they still put up 33 points.
One possible concern…
The only thing we’ve seen in the past two weeks that worries me is the late points given up. In both games, the Raiders had blowouts going and let their opponents claw back into the game to an extent. To be fair, this could be chalked up as just junk time points. Nevertheless, it’s still worth keeping an eye on. The Raiders play the Kansas City Chiefs in a few weeks. Patrick Mahomes is not someone that you want to give any breathing room.
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*Top Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images