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Raiders woes continue after week filled with distractions

Updated October 15, 2017 - 9:31 pm

OAKLAND, Calif. — Things that happened since the Raiders had last lost a football game at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum before they were defeated Sunday, 17-16 by the unheralded and unappreciated Los Angeles Chargers on the last play of the game:

— Donald Penn, the team’s two-time Pro Bowl offensive tackle, nearly got into a fight with a fan in the Coliseum parking lot. Yes, there are other places around the league this could happen. But that it happened here wasn’t exactly an upset. A fan apparently was trying to extort money from Penn and thought a good way to accomplish this would be to hurl a liquor bottle at the behemoth’s car and engage him in fisticuffs.

— Raiders owner Mark Davis showed up at T-Mobile Arena in his new home away from home wearing a hockey practice jersey before the NHL’s Golden Knights’ inaugural home opener. It was a show of support for the team and the city and, most importantly, first responders to the Route 91 Harvest festival shootings, about 30 of whom Davis flew in for Sunday’s game.

— Ash fell from the sky at practice, residue from the devastating Northern California wildfires. Some Raiders wore surgical masks to make breathing easier.

— Because of the soot and the air quality index, there was talk of playing Sunday’s game elsewhere, perhaps even in Los Angeles, which the Chargers now call home for some reason — and the Raiders used to call home for some reason. How weird would that have been?

— Quarterback Derek Carr, the figurative backbone of the franchise, was cleared to put on shoulder pads again after his literal backbone healed a lot faster than most thought it would.

— And for what this is worth, shortly before kickoff a small airplane flew above the Coliseum pulling a banner that said: “NFL = NO F’N LOYALTY. SD & OAK DESERVE BETTER.”

Playoffs? Not so fast

So it was an eventful week, with more human suffering to consider and distractions major and minor with which to contend, and the Raiders were coming off three consecutive losses, and football people were starting to raise eyebrows about playoff chances and whatnot.

What was most needed was a return to normalcy and a return to .500 in the standings — especially with the 5-1 Chiefs coming to town Thursday.

What wasn’t needed was another unexpected loss — this one to the Chargers (2-4), who have now won two in a row after losing four straight to open the season.

So instead of .500, the Raiders are .333. Instead of a battle for first place against the Chiefs, which those same football people were eagerly anticipating a few weeks ago, it very well could be a battle to salvage a season that might be in danger of slipping away in October.

“I believe you get what you earn,” Raiders coach Jack Del Rio said of Oakland’s 2-4 record after Nick Novak kicked a 32-yard field goal on the last play, which only magnified the importance of Giorgio Tavecchio’s missed extra point following Cordarrelle Patterson’s 47-yard touchdown run with 7:51 remaining. “That’s what we’ve earned so far.”

Del Rio didn’t mention the week’s many distractions, and Carr only alluded to the smoke-filled practices in passing. This is a game for professionals. Professionals overcome distractions.

Another punch to face

“If you ever go into a fight and you get punched in the face, you don’t just stop,” said Carr, who was intercepted twice and outplayed by Chargers counterpart Philip Rivers, who seemed to complete minimum velocity passes most times the visitors needed him to. “If you do, that says something else about you.”

So after getting punched in the face again, the Raiders find themselves in a fight, an almost must-win situation against a Kansas City team that is much more formidable than the Los Angeles one they lost to Sunday, the previously unbeaten Chiefs’ 19-13 loss to the Steelers Sunday notwithstanding.

“Ain’t nobody coming to save us,” Raiders cornerback David Amerson said. “We just need to buckle down, move on. It’s crazy.”

So was the practice week, and so is the Raiders losing four in a row after they looked so sharp in winning their first two.

If there was any solace in losing this one to the Chargers, it’s that at press time none of the Raiders had gotten involved in a skirmish with fans in the parking lot.

The next time it happens it might not be about extortion.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.

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