Raiders aim to bolster playoff odds against Jets


Reuters | Oakland | Updated: 21-11-2019 07:21 IST | Created: 21-11-2019 07:18 IST
Raiders aim to bolster playoff odds against Jets
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Two teams playing their best football of the season will put winning streaks on the line Sunday when the Oakland Raiders visit the New York Jets. In a historic rivalry in which little or nothing has been at stake in their last 10 meetings, the Raiders (6-4) have a chance to move into a tie for first place in the AFC West with the idle Kansas City Chiefs (7-4) with a fourth straight win.

Standing in the way are the Jets (3-7), who have won two in a row and have six wins in 10 games against the Raiders since they met in the 2003 playoffs. Ten regular-season meetings in 16 years is rare for teams not in the same division, but it's commonplace for the two former American Football League powers, who will be seeing each other for a remarkable 47th time in the last 60 years.

For the 11th straight time, the game features at least one team with a losing record. Such also was the case in December 2006, when the Jets earned an AFC wild-card berth with a 23-3 home win over a Raider team that finished 2-14. That's the last time -- until this week -- that a Raiders-Jets game had late-season significance.

It's Oakland's improbable run at a playoff spot after a rugged early travel schedule that allows this meeting to impact the playoff race. The Raiders have reached the postseason only once since 2002 -- a year in which they beat the Jets in an AFC wild-card game en route to the Super Bowl. But they enter Week 12 this season not only in the thick of the division but tied for the fifth-best record in the entire AFC.

Oakland's three-game winning streak has come at home against teams all unlikely to make the playoffs -- Detroit, the Los Angeles Chargers and Cincinnati -- and five of their six remaining opponents have records of .500 or worse. Such is the reward when the first half of your season has included a 49-day span between home games, a stretch that included a trip to London to face Chicago as well as matchups with Minnesota, Indianapolis, Green Bay and Houston.

Raiders coach Jon Gruden borrowed from former Oakland boss Al Davis when, for the second week in a row, he warned that his club's focus must be on this week, not December or January. "There's an old saying around here: ‘Just win, baby,'" Gruden reminded reporters. "We've fought our hearts out to put ourselves in a 6-4 position. That doesn't mean anything. We've got a lot of respect for the Jets and a lot of work to do."

The game features a matchup of quarterbacks Derek Carr and Sam Darnold, each of whom has silenced doubters of late. Carr has just one interception in his last four games, a stretch in which he's thrown 120 passes. He complemented one TD pass with a TD run in last week's 17-10 win over Cincinnati.

Darnold, meanwhile, came up big in last Sunday's 34-17 victory at Washington, throwing for season-best four touchdowns with just one interception. He has nine touchdowns (including one rushing) in his last four games, with just two interceptions in his last three. Like the Raiders, the Jets have hit a soft patch in the schedule. Coming off games against Jacksonville, Miami, the Giants and Washington, the Jets get Cincinnati and Miami after the Raiders.

Darnold noted after the Washington game that the New York offense is gaining momentum and has a chance to pick up even more steam. "As an offense as a whole, it's just another stepping stone in the right direction," he told reporters. "So that's how we're going to look at it."

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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