* The Raiders are facing the roughest Thursday-night turn-around anybody has faced yet this season, having to fly two time zones East on just a few days rest and play in weather much colder than they’ve practiced in.
The Thursday games are always tough on the road team–you basically get a half- to a full-day’s less rest than the home team, and any second of rest is precious on a short week.
The Raiders, as a West Coast flying East (and losing hours just on the time change, plus the flight and preparation) have it about as bad as it gets on these things.
Home teams are currently 9-5 in Thursday games (not counting Week 1, when rest is not an issue), and one of those road wins was by Dallas two weeks ago after Dallas also played the previous Thursday (and therefore had a full week of rest).
More to the point: Every other team on the post-Week 1 Thursday schedule this season (including the three Thanksgiving games) had or will have a one-time-zone or no-time-zone trip.
(Carolina had a two-time-zone trip to Denver on the Week 1 Thursday, but again I’m not counting that week because there are no games before that one so rest is not an issue. Plus, the Carolina trip was West, which means they gained two hours.)
Except the Raiders.
Who have a two-time-zone trip. Heading East. Where they lose time.
Those are rare, and they are brutal. Remember when Jim Harbaugh (justifiably) went nuts because the 49ers had to travel three time zones for the Thanksgiving game in Baltimore? Of course they lost handily.
Thursday night games when both teams played the previous Sunday–as the Raiders and Chiefs both did–are very, very, very tilted to the home team.
And forcing a West Coast team to travel two time-zones to do it is as about as tilted as it gets.
* Overall, the Raiders’ 2016 schedule is a tough one, including the earlier Chiefs game, when KC had a bye before going to the Coliseum; the Raiders did not and got whomped and they were not entirely thrilled by schedule disparity.
Also, five of the Raiders’ first eight games were in the East, which puts a lot of tread on a team that can’t be ignored or wiped away.
Then they had the “home” game in Mexico City, which just added more miles–though I realize that was voluntary (as will next season’s “home” game in Mexico vs. New England, not yet official but headed that way)….
And now this tricky Thursday night road game to start three of their last four regular-season games on the road vs. division rivals.
* It is going to be cold on Thursday–not only in relation to Bay Area weather, just plain COLD, in the teens, and when the sun goes down, it will feel colder than that, I’m sure.
Hey, it’ll be cold for both teams, and I presume the Raiders will have the proper weather gear and hardiness to get through this.
But passing games in particular can get taken down by frigid cold–it’s just not easy to get a good grip on the ball and feel good about where the receivers are going to be when it’s icy–and we know that the Raiders have been at their best when Carr is flinging it without worry.
Can the Raiders win this by running the ball behind that OL and stopping the KC run? Yes, they certainly are capable. But it won’t be easy if they can’t count on Carr to come up with two last-quarter TDs, and they might not in this one.
It’s one more thing that will be different–and potentially troublesome–about this game for the Raiders.
* KC coach Andy Reid has had a recent mastery over the Raiders since he took the Chiefs–he’s 6-1 vs. the Raiders in three-plus seasons as Chiefs coach.
And Reid has specifically been tough on Del Rio–in his Raiders coaching career, Del Rio is 0-3 vs. Reid’s Chiefs and JDR isn’t all too pleased to hear about that.
On Sunday, asked about the Chiefs recent success, Del Rio was quick to point out that he did just fine vs. Reid and the Chiefs when he was Denver’s defensive coordinator.
But that doesn’t quite have the significance (in this game and this season) of what Reid has done to the Raiders vs. Del Rio and vs. the Raiders overall.
You can bet Del Rio has been thinking about this one ever since that Chiefs victory at the Coliseum, on Oct. 16, you could hear it right after the game when he described KC’s offense as “gimmicky,” and you know Del Rio does not want to go 0-4 vs. Reid.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2016/12/07/everything-is-going-against-the-raiders-in-kansas-city-tomorrow-which-of-course-is-when-theyre-at-their-best/