Teams that find themselves out of the playoffs in the AFC
Both the Indianapolis Colts and Oakland Raiders find themselves even further behind in the AFC playoff hunt following losses on Sunday. The two clubs are coming off their third consecutive losses after looking hot through the middle portion of the regular season. It’s become clear that Indianapolis and Oakland will have to go back to the drawing board and will likely have to wait until 2020 for a playoff berth.
Oakland has lost some key players to injury this season, including rookie wide receiver Hunter Renfrow. The story of Week 14 will be around the absence of rookie running back Josh Jacobs and right tackle Trent Brown who were inactive against the Tennessee Titans. Tennessee forced the Raiders to play through the passing game, and the lack of playmaking talent for quarterback Derek Carr was evident. Carr completed 25 of 34 passes for 263 yards and 2 touchdowns, but it wasn’t even close to enough as the Raiders lose 42-21 at home. With only one game left to play in Oakland before the franchise moves to Las Vegas, it wasn’t the game fans were hoping for by any means.
The Colts have struggled to put games together with an alarming number of injuries at playmaker positions. Even quarterback Jacoby Brissett has not been the same coming back from a knee injury earlier in the season. Indianapolis finds themselves losing a third straight game to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and fifth loss of their last six games. Even in a game where Bucs quarterback Jameis Winston sustained a small fracture in his hand during the first play of the game, the Colts were unable to come away with a much-needed win.
It was a rollercoaster of a game for Winston, as it typically is, who threw for a career-high 456 passing yards and 4 touchdowns but he also tossed 3 interceptions. Despite a small fracture in his hand on the first pass of the game that ended up intercepted, Winston was able to come back and put on a show. He leads the league in turnovers by a mile with 28 giveaways on the season. The game marked the second time Winston has surpassed 400 passing yards, the ninth that he has eclipsed 300 yards in 2019. Tampa Bay continues their winning streak to three with the victory over the Colts.
Indianapolis and Oakland find themselves in tough positions with their quarterbacks going into the offseason. Brissett took over as the starter following the retirement of Andrew Luck in the preseason. It’s hard to justify the thought that he is the best option for the Colts in the longterm future after two seasons of evaluation. Not all of the blame should land on Brissett, however.
Once again, wide receiver T.Y. Hilton was inactive, and Brissett was asked to win a game in which Marcus Johnson and Zach Pascal were the leading receivers. Tight end Eric Ebron is done for the season following a surgery that sent him to Injured Reserve. Running back Marlon Mack returned after missing two games with a broken hand but was not a factor in a shootout against the Bucs.
The Raiders will be moving to Las Vegas next season, and they’ll look to build upon its fan base. That might be hard to do if the team is putting up billboards of Derek Carr to attract fans to the stadium. While Carr is a solid starting quarterback, he leaves much to be desired and is not the flashy playmaker that will draw in supporters. He was also not a quarterback that head coach Jon Gruden hand-selected. Oakland will be a team to watch over the offseason as they figure out what to do at quarterback in the future, but Carr will likely be there to start in 2020.