After starting the season 5-2, the Raiders are trying to stave off a third consecutive season of collapse.
Granted no team has dealt with more off-the-field disruptions in 2021, Las Vegas has still lost its last three games to fall to 5-5 entering Week 12. Now the club will go on the road to face the Cowboys on Thanksgiving with an increasing sense of desperation.
Quarterback Derek Carr — who has thrown for four touchdowns, four interceptions, and lost a pair of fumbles in the last three losses — said after Sunday’s game that the offense’s problems start and end with him. He reiterated that point in his Monday press conference, noting that if he plays better the entire unit will improve.
But the quarterback also noted that Las Vegas feels the urgency to turn things around.
“I don’t know the right wording for it, but there’s definitely a feeling of, ‘Enough is enough — we’ve got to win,’” Carr said in his Monday press conference. “We’re in the business of winning and if you don’t win, it doesn’t feel too good. When you do when, it feels pretty good. You want to make sure, win or loss, you come in and you’re always trying to get better and get better at things you’ve got to get better at. But for us, this is a big game, just like they all are. And it’s a big game because it’s the next game. But what an opportunity for us to get back on track on the road in a hostile environment against a really good football team.”
Playing just once every four years, the Raiders haven’t defeated the Cowboys since 2005. In 2009 and 2013 the Raiders lost to Dallas on Thanksgiving.