The Raiders awoke Dec. 10 in an enviable position. They were 6-6, with flaws already becoming evident, yet still were tied with two teams for first place in the AFC West and about to play one of those teams, the Chiefs, whom they had beaten dramatically in October.
“It’s good stuff,” then-coach Jack Del Rio had said that week. “It’ll be exciting.”
It was anything but. The Raiders, facing a critical moment in their season, fell behind 26-0 in an eventual 26-15 loss in Kansas City. In the postgame locker room, team radio voice Greg Papa said this week, the coaching staff laid into franchise quarterback Derek Carr.