Raiders at Dolphins final score takeaway

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After eking out a over the on Sunday night, the aren't dead yet. For a lot of "experts" (us included, hence the quotations), Oakland came into 2017 as favorites to not only battle for a division title but to build off last season's 12-4 record that included its first playoff appearance since 2002.Instead, a 2-0 start was followed by four straight lo ses. An unlikely home win against the in Week 7 was followed by another lo s -- this time in Buffalo -- before the Raiders outlasted the Dolphins to move to 4-5 on the season.That's the good news. The bad news is that of the other 15 teams in the AFC, nine have a better record than Oakland. And while the latest win is reason enough for optimism, the reality is that the Raiders likely have too many obstacles to overcome -- Allen Robinson Jersey both self-inflicted and otherwise -- to return to the postseason for the second straight year.Out of the Raiders' control: the schedule. We've been talking about this since August, and other than a Week 1 win in Tenne see and Sunday night's win in Miami, not much has changed: The Raiders travel more than any other team this season. Thanks to , we know that it will be nearly 33,000 miles and that it includes four trips of at least 2,000 miles. By comparison, the travel just 6,800 miles, le s than any other team. This is noteworthy for one very simple reason: From 1997-2011, teams that traveled 2,000 miles or more for a road trip had a winning percentage of just .398, and it dropped to .364 for the 2014 and 2015 seasons.To recap: The Raiders have already lost on the road to the , and -- and at home to the (without ) and .Oakland has its bye next week before playing the in Mexico City. Then there are home games against the and before the final month of the regular-season that includes traveling to Kansas City, hosting the and finishing at Philadelphia and at Los Angeles against the Mitchell Trubisky Jersey . We can't just blame the schedule for the Raiders' plight. This was one of the league's most explosive offenses a season ago and there's little reason for that to have changed, especially with the addition of and , who joined , , one of the league's best offensive lines and, of course, Carr.But a year after leading the 's eighth-ranked offense -- in which Carr ranked seventh among all pa sers -- this Raiders outfit ranks sixth, according to . And even though Carr hasn't resembled his MVP form from '16, he's still ranked among the top 10 pa sers in efficiency. The biggest i sue has been the Raiders' no-show defense, which ranks 31st in the league, better only than the Patriots. Of course, New England is 6-2 and that defense has the luxury of and Bill Belichick. A lot has to go right over the next two months for us to even mention the Raiders as a po sible playoff team.For now though, a win is all that matters as Oakland moves to third in the AFC West, a half-game better than the Broncos who are alone in last place. Cook, Lynch showed up and were supposed to make Carr's life easier, but we'd seen little evidence of it through the first eight weeks. That changed against the Dolphins. Cook finished with eight catches for 126 yards while Lynch had his third-best rushing total of the season. Yes, it was just 57 yards on 14 carries, but the 4.1 yards per carry is 0.4 yards better than his 2017 average, and he scored twice, doubling his total for the season. His third quarter touchdown was vintage Lynch: BeastMode. NFL (@NFL) Dolphins remain terrible despite their recordOakland's defensive shortcomings were on fully display in Miami, where the team needed to recover an onside kick with 90 seconds to go to guarantee a win against a Dolphins team that ranks 31st in Football Outsiders' overall efficiency metric, behind the and better only than the . And we can't stre s that enough -- Miami is terrible. A week ago, Football Outsiders referred to them as part of the "Awful Eight" -- the teams ranked No. Buster Skrine Jersey 25-32 -- and nothing we saw on Sunday changed our minds about that.Ten days ago, the Dolphins were destroyed by the , 40-0, in part because was sidelined with an injury, but also because the 10 other offensive players appeared to have no idea what they were doing. "We're the worst offense in football," second-year coach Adam Gase after the Ravens' lo s. "Can't get any worse. I'm pi sed. I'm tired of this. I'm tired of the offense being awful. Guys better need to get their heads right. Coaching staff needs to do a better job because obviously our players not knowing is a direct reflection of them."Against the Raiders, the Dolphins were certainly better than they were in Week 8 but the bottom line is that they're not 4-4 after losing two straight. Miami's defense "held" to 21 of 30 pa ses for 300 yards with a touchdown and an interception, but the pa s defense also allowed four different receivers to haul in pa ses of at least 26 yards, including this 44-yarder: Go long, ! hits the 2nd-year WR for a 44-yard TOUCHDOWN! NFL (@NFL) In related news: That was Holton's second catch of the season. (His other catch went for a 64-yard Gale Sayers Jersey touchdown.) There were some great individual performances, and Gase made the point last week that the offense -- not the defense or special teams -- was the biggest problem. So naturally, it came as something of a surprise when the team traded away one of its best players: running back , who rushed for 77 yards on eight carries in his debut with the on Sunday. But Kenyan Drake ran for 69 yards on nine carries for the Dolphins (he also had one fumble) while added 47 receiving yards on six catches, including this second-quarter touchdown: In goes Damien Williams...TOUCHDOWN, ! NFL (@NFL) Special teams even followed up the Williams touchdown by recovering an onside kick: SURPRISE ONSIDE KICK recovers his own kick! NFL (@NFL) We even had a sighting, though none of it was enough to beat the Raiders. Incredible, . NFL (@NFL) Suh can flyHere's another Dolphins highlight! This time, it's defensive lineman going airborne to strip the the ball out of Carr's hand. The Raiders recovered long enough for offensive lineman to Walter Payton Jersey consider himself a running back, which ends exactly how you'd envision it: One Play.Two Fumbles.Our ball going the other way! | Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) Things you may not have knownThe Raiders still don't have an interception this season. A week ago, they were the first team since 1950 to go without an interception over the first eight games. That record is now nine.Meanwhile, long snapper might play forever: Congratulations to John Denney on his 200th consecutive game! Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) had six catches for just 32 yards and a score but he still managed to set an NFL record: Jarvis Landry has now surpa sed for most catches in first 4 seasons in history Michael Signora (@NFLfootballinfo) Landry has 344 career receptions since coming into the league i