Oakland After the Bye: What Can Be Expected from the Raiders?

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For the Oakland fans, they've seen this before.

2-6 for anyone has got to be frustrating, as other teams are jockeying for playoff spots, your team is either looking at playing spoiler or looking at the College Bowl games for the next draft pick.

With the Raiders, the bye week did provide some good news. Some players who were hurt are coming back, such as Darren McFadden, Cornell Green, Robert Gallery and Chaz Schilens.

As it stands, Cable needs to work five wins out of the Raiders to stand a chance at keeping his job. As for JaMarcus Russell, since his boss is Al Davis the odds are strong he'll get one more year to play quarterback. As erratic as the Raiders have been playing, sometimes hanging tough, other times pathetic The Raiders do stand a chance to surprise but it comes down to the question of the teams they are playing.

Earlier in the season the Raiders proved this, when they upset the Eagles. The Raiders offense did not play well, but the Defense was dominant to the point the Eagles could not function either. Against San Diego, twice the Defense worked hard to keep the score close, but due to fourth quarter issues, the Raiders lost both games.

Looking at the last eight games, some guesswork is needed, but at the same time it also doesn't take into consideration how teams will play out the second half of the year. What happens if Ben Roethlisberger goes down? What if Carson Palmer gets injured? No one really knows how these games will play out.

The Raiders, at 2-6, will probably not go 8-0. But at the same time, could they get back to .500 at the end of the year?

The games against the Chiefs, Browns and Redskins are the most obvious, best chance wins to work at. Cincinnati has been growing stronger every week. Pittsburgh already has wins against both the Chargers and the Broncos. The Raiders will also have another visit to Denver, and there's the short week game when the Cowboys will host the Raiders.

And after all of this...the Baltimore Ravens finish the season in Oakland.

The way the schedule plays out, the Raiders need to go 4-0 at home, for the last half of the year, win in Cleveland will put the Raiders at 7-9.

If they can repeat the Denver game from last year, they could make 8-8.

The game to circle on the calendar?

Last one of the year, January 3rd against the Ravens. Possibly Tom Cable's last game too.

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