Raiders playoff chances sit at just 2 percent after Week 15 loss

We’ve all heard the phrase that “it’s not over until the fat lady sings.” Unfortunately, she’s warming up her voice for the Las Vegas Raiders and their playoff chances.

After their Week 15 loss to the Chargers, their odds of making the playoffs have dropped all the way down to two percent, according to FiveThirtyEight. While they aren’t officially eliminated from the playoffs yet, wins by the Ravens, Titans, Colts, and Browns on Sunday can essentially remove them from the conversation.

Heading into the night, the Raiders had about a 15 percent chance of making the playoffs. With a win that would have moved up to 25 percent and the Raiders were just a few yards away from making that happen. But after two unsuccessful runs and an incomplete pass to fullback Alec Ingold from the five-yard line, the Raiders kicked a field goal. And well, you know the rest.

While the end of this season has been incredibly disappointing for the Raiders after starting the year at 6-3, they likely were never going to be a real contender in the AFC due to their defense. They just have too many problems in the secondary and with their pass rush to compete with good teams. Add on the fact that Derek Carr will likely miss the next few weeks, at minimum, and it’s not hard to see why this team wasn’t going to make a real run in January.

Over the offseason, the Raiders are going to have to find out why they continue to have these late-season collapses. In each of the past two years, they’ve been in a great spot to grab a playoff spot, only to come up short. As we come to the end of Year 3 of Jon Gruden’s rebuild, fans are starting to get antsy as they haven’t had a winning season since 2016.

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