KC Chiefs: What we learned about the AFC West after Week 17

What did we learn about the Las Vegas Raiders?

The 2020 season was Jon Gruden’s third year as the head coach of the Raiders and it ended in the same way his first two years ended – With the Raiders not participating in the playoffs. Gruden did accomplish his goal of beating the Chiefs and celebrated by circling Arrowhead Stadium in the team buses. Hope that was worth it, Gruden.

When the Raiders hosted KC in Week 11, they sat at 6-3 and narrowly lost to the Chiefs that week, dropping them to 6-4. They finished the year at 8-8, meaning they went 2-5 in their final seven games. They honestly should have gone 0-7 during that stretch but thankfully for them, the Jets and Broncos were terrible.

The Raiders experienced a similar second-half disappointment in 2019, so you’d think Gruden would have had a game plan for 2020, but nope — Same old ending for the silver and black. Hey, at least Vegas only has seven years left on his deal.

Something positive that we learned about the Raiders is that their offense can play with the best of them and they displayed that both times they faced KC. I’ve always been one of Derek Carr’s biggest critics, but he played good football this season. It wasn’t his fault that things ended so poorly for the Raiders.

Something negative that we learned about the Raiders is that their defense is atrocious and is going to need all of the team’s attention this offseason. They fired their defensive coordinator and now have to focus on completely rebuilding that side of the ball. They won’t come anywhere close to winning the division with that horrible defense.

Next up: The Raiders finished their 2020 campaign with an 8-8 record and will pick 17th in the draft.