The Las Vegas Raiders’ playoff hopes are hanging on by a thread heading into Week 16. They will have their work cut out for them as they are heading on the road to face the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.
While not many people are giving them any chance of winning and keeping their playoff hopes alive, that is not the feeling inside the Raiders locker room. This is a confident bunch who has found their groove with Antonio Pierce as the interim head coach.
Pierce took over in Week 9 when ownership cleaned house, firing Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Zeigler. Star pass rusher Maxx Crosby is one of the players who like what he has seen over the last few weeks and got brutally honest during a recent episode of his podcast, “The Rush With Maxx Crosby” about the team’s chances of making a run.
NFL News & Rumors: Antonio Pierce, Maxx Crosby, Las Vegas Raiders Updates
“Realistically, we’ve been 3-3 since [Antonio Pierce] got here,” Crosby said. “Even though we lost, that 3-0 loss, probably the least amount of offense I’ve ever been a part of in a football game, it was just straight defense back and forth, back and forth. We lost, but that’s a playoff team over there, regardless of what they have going on at quarterback. They’re competitive regardless. They have great coaches, great players, and we lost by a little bit. But this week, it’s about responding, and we did that. So, for us, we’re 3-3, we’ve won half of them, we’ve lost half of them. We have to find ways to continue to move forward with that momentum.
“We know what we’re capable of if we play our best ball. It just comes down to focus and everyone being locked in and dialed in on the details because, in December, it’s the smallest margin of error that matters. Who’s going to play their best? The top players on the team have to be playing great football, and I feel like we’re doing that right now.
“We know what we’re capable of if we play our best ball. It just comes down to focus and everyone being locked in and dialed in on the details because, in December, it’s the smallest margin of error that matters. Who’s going to play their best? The top players on the team have to be playing great football, and I feel like we’re doing that right now.” (H/T Raiders Today on Fan Nation)
The Raiders will need a lot of help if they are to make a run at the postseason as they are currently in 12th place, two games behind the No. 7-seeded Indianapolis Colts. However, the most important part of making a run is handling their own business, as Las Vegas needs to win their last three games at the very least.
NFL News & Rumors: Antonio Pierce, Maxx Crosby, Las Vegas Raiders Updates
That starts on Monday afternoon against the Chiefs. After that, the Raiders will head on the road for what could be a massive game against the Colts in Indianapolis before finishing up at home against the Denver Broncos is another potentially giant matchup.
The Colts and Broncos are two of the teams ahead of the Raiders currently in the AFC standings. If they can pull off the upset over Kansas City on Christmas Day, things could get really interesting in Sin City over the final two weeks of the season.
At the very least, you can count on Crosby being out there doing everything he can to help his Raiders get a victory. In Week 12, Las Vegas jumped out to a 14-0 lead over Kansas City but they squandered that lead before halftime, as the Chiefs scored 21 unanswered points.
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