Raiders Still Have Outside Shot At Playoffs
OAKLAND (AP) - The Oakland Raiders usually spend this time of year saying their goodbyes, planning for the offseason and playing for a job next season.
So even though their playoff hopes might be slim, just having them at this time of year is a welcome change for a team that has endured seven consecutive losing seasons.
"It's a lot more fun," coach Tom Cable said Monday. "Football is football. I love football. I love coaching. That part of it is never an issue for me. It's just more exciting. You get up and come to work and you're excited about getting into a new plan."
This is new ground for the Raiders, who had lost at least 11 games for an NFL-worst seven seasons before turning things around a bit this season.
For players like Pro Bowl cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha, who was a rookie in 2003 when the streak of losing began, this kind of season is long overdue.
"The whole atmosphere is different," Asomugha said. "In December the weather is pretty gloomy and that makes our mood gloomy—we're not winning and all that stuff. We're offsetting the weather now. Everybody's happy.
Everybody's excited and we have something to play for. It's great for us. It's great for the mood of the team."
Oakland (7-7) remained in contention by beating Denver 39-23 on Sunday. But in order to win the AFC West and make the playoffs for the first time since 2002, the Raiders will need plenty of help.
First, they need first-place Kansas City (9-5) to lose at home Sunday to Tennessee and have second-place San Diego (8-6) lose one of its final two road games at a pair of three-win teams:
Cincinnati and Denver.
None of that will matter if the Raiders can't beat Indianapolis at home this week and then win the season finale at Kansas City.
"Just win these last two and let everything else take care of itself," fullback Marcel Reece said. "We have to take care of our business and not worry about San Diego, not worry about Kansas City. Just worry about Indianapolis and then worry about Kansas City the last week of the season."
If the Raiders do win their final two games but fail to get the help they need, they would become the first team since the NFL went to divisions in 1967 to win all their division games but fail to make the playoffs.
After going 8-34 in the division the past seven years, Cable put an emphasis in training camp on beating the AFC West rivals.
"Doesn't mean anything if we are at home, watching Kansas City in the playoffs," defensive tackle Tommy Kelly said. "It's something nice to say, but at the end of the day it doesn't mean anything. You don't even get a T-shirt."
If the Raiders do fall short, they will likely point to some missed opportunities out of the division that cost them the spot.
Sebastian Janikowski missed a 32-yard field goal at the end of a 24-23 loss at Arizona back in week 3. Then Oakland lost to then-winless San Francisco 17-9 in a game filled with missed opportunities.
There were also home losses to Houston and Miami and then the 38-31 loss at Jacksonville on Dec. 12 when Oakland blew a 10-point lead and then allowed the winning score late in the fourth quarter just after tying the game up.
"You sit around and think, 'God what if we'd done that or that,"' Cable said. "But you can't. At some point you have to stop and say, 'This is reality, this is where we're at and this is what we control.' Let's worry about what we control. That other stuff hopefully will work out for us."
Cable has delivered that message to his team and the players are heeding it, knowing there's too much at stake this week to waste time looking at missed opportunities.
"The moment you take to look back another team's going to pass you." linebacker Quentin Groves said. "You can't look back, you can only look forward, and figure out what do I have to do on this play, at this time to beat this guy in front of me and that's the way we take it."
Notes: Punter Shane Lechler is nursing a strained hamstring that briefly sidelined him Sunday and is questionable, which could force the Raiders to sign a replacement as insurance if Lechler can't go this week. ... DT Richard Seymour is also questionable with a hamstring injury. ... RT Langston Walker left Sunday's game with a concussion and needs to go through the protocol to determine whether he can play this week.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
