Something To Play For?: Oakland Raiders Can Help the (Gulp) Broncos

Oh, the mess we love to be in.

Oakland has a final game remaining on its schedule, with a home game against the Baltimore Ravens.

While the Raiders have been playing injury-riddled and mostly for pride, they actually have a team that would like them to win.

Enter the Denver Broncos.

At last look, Denver was sitting in seventh place in the postseason rankings, meaning if the season ended today, the New York Jets and the Baltimore Ravens would be wild card teams.

Denver would be joining the Raiders in the offseason watch list for draft picks.

But there's one remaining week of football to be played.

Oakland does have a few things they can address in this last week. Have they improved over the last year? Has the WR corps been made better with the draft infusion of players? The QB situation, obviously is a train wreck. Our running game, which has looked good, may see further tweaks or possibly the departure of Justin Fargas.

But for all the offseason chaos that normally happens, this last week comes with a few questions.

Can the Raiders win one more game and go into the postseason with some hope for the future? Or has the team been spinning its collective wheels for another year?

Will the Raiders give the Broncos an easier path to the playoffs and knock the Ravens out?

Will the Raiders become their own worst enemy and self-destruct in Oakland, and possibly watch Tom Cable for the last time walking on our sideline?

I wouldn't mind seeing the Raiders win one against the Ravens. Since their inception, the Ravens are 4-1 against this team. Joe Flacco hasn't been the same QB since last year's run to the playoffs.

Not to mention that most people have again written this game off as a win for the Ravens.

A few weeks ago, some Bronco fans thought the Raiders should just give up and play for the draft.

They would probably love for us to repeat our performance from the Denver game one more time.