Overly depressing stat shows just how miserable the Raiders are in 2024

It feels a bit weird to pick on the Las Vegas Raiders' misery in 2024 in particular. After all, losing has become a way of life for the franchise, no matter which new city they decide to relocate to. But a specific statistical find is worth pointing out as the Kansas City Chiefs prepare to face their AFC West rivals in Week 8.

The Chiefs are scheduled to visit the Raiders for their first of two games on the regular season schedule this year—the first one being a road trip for the Chiefs to Allegiant Stadium. The teams have already taken their rightful places in the divisional standings (first and worst, obviously) before ever playing each other, but the Raiders are losing with historical significance.

We'll let Josh Dubow speak for himself as he uncovered an intriguing stat in the week leading up to the game.

Yeah, that's 3 defensive takeaways through 7 games. That's also 16 turnovers through 7 games on offense. That sort of ratio is rather miserable, since it's hard for any team to win any game if they lose the turnover battle.

Think of this year's Chiefs team as the antithesis of that. It's been shocking to so many that they are undefeated at this point for this very reason. Fans intuitively know that turnovers will sink almost any ship, but the Chiefs keep winning despite the team shooting cannonballs into their own hull multiple times each game.

While the Chiefs have far better numbers than the Raiders, it's not as if they're among the league leadlers either. The Chiefs have turned the ball over 10 times on offense (Patrick Mahomes has 8 interceptions on his own), while the defense only has 7 takeaways—yes, a suffocating defense led by Steve Spagnuolo isn't depending on single plays to reverse the course of the game.

Side note: Think about how weird it is that Trent McDuffie has become known as one of the best corners in the league but has yet to record a single interception. But that's for another time.

Back to the Raiders. Dubow points out three other teams who have put up similar numbers in the entire Super Bowl era (yeah that's 1970, follks). Let's look at how things turned out for each.

2018 San Francisco 49ers

This is what happens when your QB1 is injured and you ride out a full season (or close to it) with Nick Mullens and C.J. Beathard as your starting quarterbacks. Despite an incredibly gifted coaching staff (Kyle Shanahan, Demeco Ryans, Matt LaFleur, Bobby Slowik, Mike McDaniel, and more), these Niners went 4-12 before gaining greater access to talent in ensuing seasons.

2019 Miami Dolphins

Brian Flores couldn't have been too happy watching an inept defense coupled with an equally inept offense for a full year in the AFC East. The 5-11 record was actually better than their expected win total of 3.9. Surprisingly, Flores' defensive tutelage didn't make any real difference for a defense where Taco Charlton's five sacks led the team.

2020 Dallas Cowboys

The Cowboys finished with the best record here at 6-10, so if the Raiders want to look to any team as a potential window for hope, it's this one. A Dak Prescott injury halted this team's progress or maybe it was the loss of Jason Garrett that proved too great to overcome. Either way, somehow this team failed to do more despite the presence of so many playmakers on both sides of the ball.