Oakland Raiders Must Earn Week 3 Win in Eastern Time Zone to Show Real Progress

The Oakland Raiders' Week 2 victory against the Baltimore Ravens was a big step for a franchise, coach and quarterback looking to turn the Raiders into an NFL force once again. But Week 3 will be an even better indicator of how far the Silver and Black have come. 

Oakland travels to Cleveland to take on a gritty Browns team, which will present its own set of challenges. But the biggest challenge for the Raiders this Sunday will not be the team they play against—the Raiders will be fighting for a win in the Eastern time zone. 

It sounds silly, but Oakland's struggles in 1 p.m. ET time slots are well-documented. The last time the Raiders won a game on the road at 1 p.m. ET was Nov. 17, 2013 against the Houston Texans. 

Looking at the graphic below, you can see that the Raiders haven't been a morning team in recent years:

Graphic created by the author using Piktochart.

The keys to turning around the Raiders' road woes lie in the hands of head coach Jack Del Rio and quarterback Derek Carr. 

Above all else in Oakland's Week 2 victory over Baltimore, it was apparent that the Raiders have finally found a coach who can keep his team in check after a devastating loss. After imploding against the Bengals in Week 1, the Raiders bounced back with a solid win.

Coaching is key, but players must execute at a high level if the game plan is to come to fruition on Sundays. Against the Ravens, Derek Carr did just that. 

Take a look at some advanced statistics from Pro Football Focus on Carr's Week 2 performance, relayed by Bleacher Report's lead NFL writer Matt Miller on Twitter:

Those are certainly impressive numbers, but Carr must put together a similar performance against Cleveland this week to prove the Ravens game wasn't a fluke. 

Raider Nation might be optimistic after looking at Carr's stats from last season's game against the Browns, which was on the road but started at 4:25 p.m. ET:

Cmp	Att	Yds	TD	INT	Lng
34	54	328	1	0	31

Carr was mediocre in the Raiders' four road games played at 1 p.m. ET last season. The stats below may give a glimpse into the future of how he'll perform in a problematic time zone for his team as his career continues:

Graphic created by the author using Piktochart.

Those numbers should go up this season, as Carr has not only more experience under his belt but far greater weapons at his disposal than a season ago. 

Football is a team effort, though, and for this Raiders squad to legitimately begin turning the page on more than a decade of darkness, it needs to beat the Browns at that dreaded 1 p.m. Eastern start time.

All stats in tables and graphics taken from Pro Football Reference. Graphics created by the author using Piktochart. Follow Ethan on Twitter @ebai_today for NFL and Oakland Raiders analysis.