Turnovers Take Raiders Out Of Race Oakland’s Two-Game Slide Taints Kansas City Showdown

Despite an overtime loss at Kansas City and the debacle at Denver earlier in the season, the Oakland Raiders looked like they were back among the NFL’s best a couple of weeks ago.

Now, with one of their biggest games of the year on the horizon, the Raiders are a team in trouble.

Within a span of nine days, they were defeated by the Dallas Cowboys, one of the league’s elite teams, and shown up by the San Diego Chargers, who have fallen on hard times.

Two games behind Kansas City in the AFC West, the Raiders have a rematch against the Chiefs on Sunday at Oakland. Kansas City can clinch the division title with a victory.

The Raiders are 8-4 after losing two in a row for the first time this year, and they have an ailing quarterback. Jeff Hostetler, who reinjured his bruised left shoulder in the 34-21 loss to Dallas, watched in street clothes Monday night as backup Vince Evans and the Raiders stumbled in a 12-6 loss to San Diego.

Hostetler’s status for the showdown against Kansas City (10-2) is uncertain. He’s listed as day-to-day with the lingering injury to his non-throwing shoulder. Coach Mike White was unavailable on Tuesday, opting out of what is a day-after-game routine for most NFL coaches.

White, upset with the Raiders’ mistakes against Dallas, had more reason to be miffed Monday, when the Raiders turned the ball over four times. The turnovers all were in the second half, and Evans accounted for all of them, throwing three interceptions and losing a fumble.

“For whatever reason, we haven’t been completing the job in these critical games,” White said. “I’m just very, very disappointed in the fact that we can’t get it done. The real outstanding teams make their own breaks and take advantage of them. We’re just not to that point yet.”

The Raiders have been plagued by inconsistency. Their worst showing was at Denver in a Monday night game on Oct. 16, a 27-0 embarrassment. The Raiders’ other loss was a 23-17 overtime defeat at Kansas City in the third game of the season.

Despite Oakland’s consecutive losses, only two other teams, Dallas and Kansas City, have a better record.