If the Raiders want home field throughout, Carolina is a must win game...
A wounded 4-6 Carolina team comes into Oakland to take on the 8-2 Raiders.
The moment the NFL schedule was announced, a good share of Raider Nation zeroed in on this Sunday, Nov. 27 game against the Carolina Panthers. The defending Super-Bowl runner-ups with a face-of-the-league QB in Cam Newton...on paper Carolina vs. Oakland looked like a defining game in the Raiders resurrection.
While some of the luster has fallen from this game with Carolina being 4-6 coming in, this is still a big, strong, physical football team (The kind that usually gives Oakland problems...Kansas City and a tuff Houston team on Monday night) and a team that comes in with their backs against the wall, desperate for a win to remain in the playoff hunt. While the Panthers are just 4-6 the are still just two games back of Atlanta in the division and winners of three of their last four. Add to that Carolina is at Seattle next week and this becomes a must win in every regard for the Panthers.
So, after the Monday night win over Houston, the 8-2 Oakland Raiders are getting some rave reviews from ESPN/NFL Network, and various other sports reporting outlets. If the playoffs were to have started today, Oakland would be the No. 1 seed and have home-field throughout.
After hosting Buffalo next week, the Raiders close with a tough four-game stretch, chalked full of dangerous and quality opponents.
Dec. 8 @ Chiefs on a prime-time Thursday game
Dec. 18 @ the San Diego Chargers...who knows with that one
Dec. 24 - Home vs. an Indy squad that will likely be fighting with Houston for a division title.
Jan. 1 @ Denver
Seeing Oakland on top of the division and even pondering that they could have home field throughout is like a breath of fresh air for what had been a long suffering Raider Nation. But, what's it gonna take to get home-field throughout?
13-3 - Probably
12-4 - Maybe
With New England looming out there at 8-2 ya gotta figure that 11-5 will win the division and earn a home playoff game, but it won't earn home-field throughout. You look ahead at that schedule and the sledding is about to get tough....and that makes today a must win for the Oakland Raiders.
Odds & Ends:
Karl Joseph starting to lay the lumber:
Man Karl Joseph can hit and he's starting to show up in the box score and the highlight reel pretty frequently. Joseph is second on the team with 53 tackles (Malcolm Smith leads with 59), and against Houston, Joseph could be seen, heard and felt as he regularly smacked the Houston offensive players.
Bakersfield still rolling in California high school football playoffs and is the Derek Carr family just salt-of-the-earth kinda folks?
After Amari Coopers TD reception, Derek Carr stayed on the field to high five every offensive lineman that contributed to the play.
Really enjoyed the pre-game for the Monday Night football game vs. Houston. In one of the segments, folks talked about the Bakersfield high school football team. Seems like Derek Carr's two brothers, one is a head coach, and father, all help coach that team.
Happy to report Bakersfield won again this week with a 44-34 win over Liberty!
Following the Amari Cooper TD reception that clinched the game for Oakland, Derek Carr stood out on the field, chest bumped left tackle, Donald Penn and then high-fived every single offensive lineman that had helped make the play possible.
Wow!
