Oakland Raiders in Familiar Spot in AFC West in 2011 and That Needs to Change

Nine games into the 2011 NFL season, the Oakland Raiders find themselves in a very familiar spot.

The silver and black are 5-4; in 2010, they were 5-4. 2011 has a slightly different feel, as the Raiders are all alone atop the AFC West. Last year, they were tied with the Kansas City Chiefs.

This year, the road traveled to 5-4 has been tougher, though. In Week 6, they lost their starting quarterback, Jason Campbell, for the season and are 1-2 since.

In 2010, the road to 5-4 included a three-game winning streak (first since 2002 season) and a dramatic come from behind overtime victory in Oakland against the Chiefs to complete the aforementioned streak.

The Same But Different

The record is the same this year as it was last year. The similarities stop there.

The 2010 5-4 version of the Raiders were probably as good as they were going to get.

After a bye, they were embarrassed in Pittsburgh against the Steelers and lost a huge game to Jacksonville on the road that would have put them in the hunt for a wild card spot. Instead, they were forced to scoreboard watch for the remainder of the season and were officially eliminated in Week 16.

Much More Potential in 2011

Don't be fooled by the 1-2 record and the weak division that has landed the Raiders on top of the AFC West during the last four weeks.

This team is better than last year's team, and they have yet to play their best football.

All-In and All Need to Be In

In Hue Jackson's postgame locker room speech aired on the NFL Network after Thursday's win against the Chargers, he talked about the team being all-in as far as effort and commitment were concerned. This notion of effort and commitment is nothing to snub your nose at, and it will be very important for the Raiders down the stretch.

But, if the Raiders want to make the playoffs and make a deep run in the postseason, they need key players to all be in. Running back Darren McFadden, Jacoby Ford and kicker Sebastian Janikowski and Carson Palmer's development all need to be in for this to happen.

Palmer's play on Thursday night proved that his development is coming along just fine.  As for the others, the Raiders need them healthy and on the field as soon as possible.

Raiders Will Need Best Football

Like I said, the Raiders have not played their best football in 2011. This will have to change.

Four games against teams in the very tough NFC North will make sure of that. It all starts this Sunday on the road against the Minnesota Vikings, by far the softest team in the division.

The Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers will all be tough and crucial games for Oakland. The Minnesota and Chicago games are on the road, and things are never simple on the road; don't be sucked in by the Raiders 3-1 road record.

Although their record on the road is nice, one could argue that the only quality win away from Oakland was in Houston. The win was impressive, but they did escape with their lives in that game aided by the help of Al Davis as the 11th man on the final play.

Games played in San Diego are filled with Raider fans, and that doesn't put them at a real disadvantage. The other road win was in Denver against a Bronco team that is a far cry from where they are now, and that game was too close for comfort.

The Raiders' remaining road games, other than Minnesota and Green Bay, include trips to Miami and Kansas City.

After the Vikings game, they return home against the red-hot Chicago Bears, who have rattled off four wins in a row.

The Bears game will be the Raiders bench-mark game. They could be 6-4 and possibly two games up in their division at kick-off. This game could be hyped by the media as a "just how good are Raiders," type game.

Not so Fast

This is as far into the future as I will go for now. Let's wait and see how these next two games play out. I will return after that and give my two cents on the final five games.