NFL Week 16: Oakland Raiders Mustn’t Stay Depressed About Loss to Detroit Lions

It was a nauseating Oakland Raiders loss to the Detroit Lions last Sunday, turning my stomach a million times over. It was horrifyingly grotesque, making me want to look away from the full-steam-ahead train crash. It was utterly depressing, like watching the end of Old Yeller.

You knew it would happen. And it was abysmally saddening.

And yet the Raiders have to trot themselves back out there, one week later, come down from off the ledge, strap on their big-boy pants and play as if nothing happened.

Sure, it’d be understandable to see players, staff and fans trembling with self-loathing. Who could blame them after Oakland’s collapsing defeat in the last minute that sent tidal waves of anguish over the Raider Nation’s playoff hopes?

While football fans can hunker down into their basements and hibernate as a result of such depressive performances, football teams do not have that luxury of crawling away from their heartache. At least, not until the season is over.

And so the Raiders will look to do the impossible this week against the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium.

Yes, Oakland must muster up the fortitude to focus on the task at hand, and that’s winning the game.

The difficulty isn’t so much about defeating the Chiefs—though that’s tough-enough stuff by itself. It's more about putting behind the dispiriting and crippling three-game stretch in the team’s recent memory.

Prior to the heart-wrenching defeat to the Lions, the Raiders suffered embarrassing lashings by the Green Bay Packers and the Miami Dolphins by a combined score of 80-30. The three-game bruising streak knocked Oakland from atop the AFC West and into a near-desperate panic as they attempt to somehow manage a playoff berth.



Sprawled out on the canvas with a faint pulse, the Raiders need to come-to rather quickly, or else, for all intents...

About the Author