Raiders week 5 power rankings round-up

Another bad loss means another slide for the Raiders in the power rankings. A team that was in the top five just two weeks ago looked nothing like it the past two weeks with losses in Washington and Denver. Let’s see just how far the mighty have fallen.

SB Nation: 17 (11)

NFL.com: 20 (8)

Huge drop for the Raiders with the news that Derek Carr could be out for 2-6 weeks. We saw how poorly this team fared without Carr last season -- along with Sunday's loss against the Broncos, where the offense stunk again. OK, for his part, EJ Manuel showed poise in his relief stint, completing 11 of 17 passes for 106 yards. One of those incompletions came in the end zone when Jared Cook pulled a Ricky Watters on a perfect delivery from his quarterback. ("For who? For what?") Manuel atoned for his surprisingly good play by throwing a jump-and-go-get-it pass to Amari Cooper that Cooper had no chance of getting. Of course, it'd help if Cooper caught the footballs that hit him in the hands. Next up: Ravens. They're worse.

ESPN: 11 (7)

The Raiders are bending this season, but the defense has yet to really break. Oakland has held opponents to just three touchdowns on 12 red zone trips through four weeks, the lowest touchdown percentage allowed in the red zone so far in 2017.

Yahoo!: 16 (6)

Obviously the only thing that matters is how quickly Derek Carr can get back and be effective. Will he really be back after missing just two games? What if it’s six? We saw last season what happens when Carr isn’t in the lineup, and it’s bad. The Raiders could come back from 2-4 if Carr returns then. They couldn’t come back from 2-8 or 3-7 or whatever EJ Manuel could lead them to. It’s impossible to rank them fairly, because they’re probably in the bottom 5-10 teams as long as Carr is out. We’ll have to figure it out when he returns.

CBS: 19 (9)

Derek Carr's back injury bears watching. At 2-2, the offense hasn't looked good even with Carr the past two games.

Average rank: 16.6 (8.2)

With their loss in Washington the Raiders had dropped nearly twice their previous average rank from 4.2 to 8.2. They do that and worse this week with their loss in Denver, going from 8.2 to 16.6. How much farther could they possibly drop? Well, if they lose at home to a bad team in the Ravens, we’ll certainly see.