The Raiders have been dealt a pretty ordinary hand this season, with one of the toughest schedules in terms of opponents faced as well as a diabolical travel schedule (and not to mention the distractions of appearing on ‘Hard Knocks’.
Here is our high level split:
Schedule rank: 30th easiest
Schedule – home rank: 17th ‘easiest’
Schedule – away rank: 31st easiest
Schedule – travel rank: 32nd easiest
It’s fair to say there are not too many redeeming factors in the Raider’s schedule this year.
One of the few is that they meet the Broncos, in Oakland, in the first week of the regular season, which by our projections is just one of three games they’ll be favorite in this season.
Thereafter they face the Chiefs, again in Oakland, where currently we project they’ll be close to a touchdown ‘dog in that game. However, it is the next five games that will define their season.
To put that in context, they face:
- Vikings (away) – 1,572 miles travel (one way)
- Colts (away) – 1,934 miles travel (one way) if they travel from Oakland
- Bears (home, but neutral, in London) – 3,948 miles
- Bye
- Packers (away) – 1,823 miles travel (one way)
- Texans (away) – 1,631 miles travel (one away)
So not only are they facing formidable opposition in this series of matches, but they are also traveling every week to do it. It is not beyond the realms that the Raiders are 0-8 or 1-7 at the end of this stretch.
They do get some respite in weeks 9-11. where they have a three-game home stretch playing the Lions, Chargers and Bengals, but aside from that, there isn’t a lot to look forward to.
We wish the Raiders fans well and sincerely hope their recruits work out for them, but looking at their schedule dispassionately, we think they will be up against it to exceed their current season win total of 6 to 6.5.
