PRO FOOTBALL DAILY REPORT : RAIDERS : Wild-Card Berth Is Newest Goal

There is no question Sunday’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was a crushing defeat. It might have even ended the Raiders’ hopes of winning the AFC West because it left them three games behind the front-running San Diego Chargers, also losers Sunday, with seven games to go.

But there are still the wild-card berths. At 4-5, do the Raiders remain postseason contenders?

At this point, four teams--Kansas City (6-3), Pittsburgh (6-3), Buffalo (5-4) and the New York Jets (5-4)--are ahead of them in the battle for the three wild-card spots. Of the seven opponents left on the Raider schedule, four have below .500 records. The overall mark of all seven opponents is 32-31.

Figuring that a 10-6, or at least a 9-7, record will be required to squeak into the playoffs, the Raiders could make it by beating their four sub .500 opponents, including the 4-5 Rams on Sunday, and then winning one or two of the remaining three against San Diego (7-2), Pittsburgh and Kansas City.

That would mean winning five or six out of seven for a team that is below .500.

Considering the Raider inconsistency, is it realistic to expect a turnaround?

“What do we do?” Coach Art Shell said. “Do we just shut the engines down? We don’t do that. We keep trying to work.

“When you lose, there’s frustration from everybody. The easiest thing in the world to do is to drop your head. But you can’t do that because there’s still too much left in this season. Even if we were out of it, you’ve still got to play on. But the thing is, we’re not out. We’re still in this thing.”