Are the Las Vegas Raiders better than their record shows?

What were you expecting Monday night? Was it a blowout? That’s what I was expecting. And I think it’s what most of Chiefs Kingdom was expecting. But any given Sunday (Monday?) in the NFL. The Las Vegas Raiders came to play. Derrek Carr really wanted his second win ever in Arrowhead.

When Carr hit Davante Adams on that 4th down play for a 58-yard touchdown, I knew immediately this wasn’t going to be easy. Suddenly it was 17-0 and I was getting pretty nervous. This wasn’t the Raiders I was used to, nor was it who I was expecting. Josh McDaniels had his boys ready to play, and it suddenly got me thinking: are the Raiders better than people think?

They are 1-4 (1-3 before Monday night). It’s hard to look at a 1-4 team and think “They aren’t that bad.”  Usually, 1-4 teams are bad. I mean the Carolina Panthers just fired their head coach after starting 1-4 and they are a bad team. But does the same apply to the Chiefs’ rivals?

After a close loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, are the 1-4 Las Vegas Raiders really that bad, or are they better than their record?

Because they are in the same division as the Chiefs, the Raiders play almost the exact same opponents, and even this early in the season they’ve played 2 of the same opponents as the Chiefs: the Cardinals and Chargers. They lost both. But (and it’s a big but), both games were within 7 points.

The Cardinals game was an embarrassing come-from-behind win. When the Raiders were quite a bit ahead in that game and looked to win it I remember thinking, “Man, the Chiefs’ blowout win over the Cards doesn’t look nearly as good if the Raiders are doing it too.”

The Chargers’ outcome wasn’t too surprising either. They are a great team, second-best in the division. They gave the Chiefs a run for their money, so the fact that the Raiders kept it within one score is pretty impressive.

Outside of their losses (the third was to Tennessee, which is still TBD on if they are good or not), the only win Vegas has is over the Bronco, which as we can see now isn’t nearly as impressive as everyone thought it would be before the season started.

Considering all of their losses have been within 7 points, and they were only a failed 2-point conversion away from beating the Chiefs, I think it’s safe to say that these Raiders aren’t nearly as bad as their record says they are. A few shakes the other way and this team could have 2 or 3 wins instead of 1. I don’t think anyone would argue that the 2-3 Broncos are better than Las Vegas.

That’s life in the NFL. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, and a mere 12 points are all that’s keeping the Raiders from first place in the division and being stuck in fourth. I won’t complain.