Just “When” Baby?

Laddie Morse

It’s not that I want the Las Vegas Raider to beat the Kansas City Chiefs, ever. Never have I wanted that. However, there was a time when the Raiders and the Chiefs were pigskin enemies and… each organization was a winner. Yes, they have long been… frenemies! However, the Raiders have only had 2 winning seasons in the past twenty years, since 2002, and that kind of stomps all over the idea that there’s a real rivalry existing between these two teams, in today’s game.

What else happened in 2002? That was the last time the Raiders won the AFC West. That’s twenty years ago for those keeping track. The Chiefs won it the next year followed by the Chargers then the Broncos. After that, the Chargers won it from 2006 to 2009. Two of those championships had Marty Schottenheimer at the Head Coaching position in San Diego and then Norv Turner took over securing the AFC West crowns from 2007 to 2009. The Chiefs won it once during that time, in 2010 and thene the Broncos took over from 2011 to 2015 and every since then – from 2016 until now, 2021 — it’s been all Chiefs.

What you may be wondering is: does a rivalry still exist between the Raiders and the Chiefs, especially if the Raiders aren’t winning?

K.C. has won the West 6 times in a row now and with the Chargers two games behind this season – even though they are only one game behind in the loss column they are actually two game back because the Chiefs have beat them in head-to-head competition – it’s looking more and more like K.C. is destined to win their 7th AFC West crown in a row.

Even though the Raiders have had two winning season in the past 20 years, they haven’t had a winning record two seasons in a row in that time span. In 2016 they won more games than the lost with a 12-and-4 record, then last season they had a 10-and-7 record and that’s it for winning seasons over the past two decades.

This lack of winning has me asking, “Just When Baby?” because their founder Al Davis was famous for saying, “Just Win Baby!” Now, with a 2-and-5 record after 7 games in the 2022 season, it doesn’t look like the preseason projections for them are going to be anywhere close to what they were, which was 9-and-8 (by Raiders Wire, a USA Today website). They’d have to go 7-and-3 the rest of the way to reach the lofty heights of those numbers (and that’s just one game above .500).

Ryan Tracy of RGR Football said on their show called Chiefs Breakdown:

“The Raiders fell apart completely today [Sunday],

I mean, it was terrible.” to which Daniel Harms

replied, “Yeah, it was bad.”

Here’ what Ryan and Daniel were referring too:

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When you can’t even score one point, with a running game that has Josh Jacobs in it… it leaves one asking the question: “Just when baby?” Jacobs has 676 yards rushing this season which ranks him 4th in the league in rushing. Yes, and that was a loss vs the New Orleans Saints 35 year old back-up QB, Andy Dalton (Jameis Winston started the year as the Saints #1 QB, but Dalton has been the starter beginning on October 2).

So, what’s wrong with the Raiders this year? Besides the question, “should we really care”… the AFC West was supposed to be the best division in the NFL this year, but if you take the Chiefs record out off the mix, the rest of the division is 9-and-13, and not really looking like they’re going to get any better any time soon.

Things have been so bad this year with the Raiders that their fans have begun to call for new Head Coach Josh McDaniels’ head. To address that situation, owner Mark Davis (son of Al Davis) met with McDaniels and then made this public statement:

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We all are aware of what happened to the Raiders previous full time Head Coach, Jon Gruden, but Gruden’s tenure there may be part of the problems facing that team right now. While I don’t think it’s my problem to figure out, you can be sure that if the Raiders were a winning team this year, that I would not be singing their praises.

Yardbarker.com points to their QB and Head Coach having a lack of chemistry and following their most recent travesty of a loss, Josh Dubow is already writing about their playoff chances and chances of a top five pick in next years’s draft:

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While Raiders fans are wondering if the team will be sellers or buyers at the trade deadline, it won’t matter much because they Raiders wouldn’t be solid trade partners with the Chiefs.

The biggest loser in this whole Raiders-gone-bad situation is… Davante Adams. Adams went to the Raiders to be with his old college buddy, Derek Carr. This Carr is being driven into the ground, literally. He’s been sacked 15 times this season. Adams hasn’t had this few Yards per Target — 7.5 — since 2015, his second year in Green Bay.

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Winners? –> the Chiefs. While I’m loathe to say we need the Raiders to win some more games… it may take that kind of positivity in Las Vegas for the Chiefs vs the Raiders to become a real thing again. My friend and co-writer here at ArrowheadOne, David Bell, says his Raiders Week is always, “Hate Raiders” Week… and I agree. It’s just football hate he explains. What can’t be explained is their lack of winning. “Win” I ask? Just When Baby?

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Laddie Morse — ArrowheadOne

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