Don’t count out the Las Vegas Raiders just yet. The Silver and Black are back in the win column for the exact reason everyone expected – their defense. In fact, the team’s defense that Raider Nation totally predicted would take over has been the catalyst for Sin City in back-to-back weeks. Again – this is definitely what we all saw coming.. right?
Las Vegas dropped a Week 4 contest against the Los Angeles Chargers in a game that likely goes their way if it wasn’t rookie Aidan O’Connell’s first NFL start. O’Connell, being thrown into the fire upon a Jimmy Garoppolo injury, was responsible for three turnovers that set Los Angeles up in excellent field position. On the other side of the ball, the defense held Justin Hebert to the lowest passing yardage total of his career in addition to his lowest completion percentage since the 2021 season.
And in Week 5, everything seemed to come together.
Jakobi Meyers posted seven catches for 75 yards and a touchdown. Josh Jacobs found the end zone on the ground for the second time this season with a season-high 69 rushing yards. Davante Adams didn’t get targeted too much, but his film was great when the ball came his way. And then there’s the defense, which held Jordan Love to a 53.3% completion percentage on 183 passing yards.
Oh yeah – and the unit totaled three interceptions against Love.
The Raiders haven’t scored more than 18 points in any contest this year, yet still have two wins thanks to a stout defense that played plenty well enough to earn the team a third victory against Los Angeles.
And the immediate future only looks brighter for the Silver and Black.
Don’t count out the Las Vegas Raiders just yet
Las Vegas’ defense stood strong against the high-powered Chargers’ offense, then doubled-down by shattering the Jordan Love hype on Monday Night Football. Week 6 is much easier for this unit with the Patriots coming to town.
New England’s offense heads into the new week with the seventh-least yards per game. More than that, the Patriots rank dead last in points per game with 11. This is a club that’s been outscored 72-3 in the last two weeks combined.
Sounds easy enough, right?
Week 7 will be a battle against the 1-4 Bears in Chicago. While New England has been outscored by 69 points from Week 4 onward, the Bears have scored 68 points in the same timeframe. That’s an average of 34 points per game – a would-be second-most in the NFL.
Don’t let those 34 points per game scare you too much, though. The two teams Chicago faced, being Washington and Denver, happen to be the clubs responsible for allowing the first and second-most points per contest this season. As it just so happens, the Bears themselves allow the third-most points on a weekly basis.
Everything seems perfectly set up for the Raiders to enter Week 8 with a 4-3 record. If that’s indeed what happens, Las Vegas will head to Detroit on a three-game winning streak to battle the Lions. Afterwards, they’ll head back to Sin City for Weeks 9 and 10 to welcome both the Giants and Jets.
Each of the next five contests on the Raiders’ schedule are plenty winnable; especially if the team heads to Detroit with momentum. Not only is a 6-4 record after 10 weeks reasonable, it should be Josh McDaniels’ worst case scenario.
*Top Photo: Chris Unger/Getty Images