Raiders emerge as the only winner in the wake of Thursday night’s inexcusable debacle

One of the worst displays you’ll ever see on a football field took place on Thursday night. Myles Garrett, the former No. 1 overall pick by the Cleveland Browns, ripped off the helmet of Mason Rudolph during a scrum and struck him in the head with it.

There’s much more nuance to exactly what transpired, and it is unsure what exactly incited this type of rage from Garrett, but what we do know is that his actions were totally inexcusable and embarrassing for the Browns franchise and fanbase.

While Cleveland grabbed a 21-7 victory, the final result in the win column will mean much less than the totality of Garrett’s actions and the repercussions that follow him the rest of his career. The NFL has already opted to suspend Garrett indefinitely and issue suspensions to Larry Ogunjobi (one game) and Maurkice Poundey (three games) in the immediate aftermath.

Rudolph has not received any discipline yet for his involvement, but the clobbering he took from Garrett might have been punishment enough for whatever he said to ignite the fight. Meanwhile, Garrett’s indefinite suspension is expected to last for the rest of this season and possibly into some time next season.

While almost all of the talk surrounding the game has to do with the incident between Garrett and Rudolph, Raiders fans were maybe the only fanbase wrapped up in the game itself.

That’s because the Raiders now slide into the AFC’s No. 6 seed in the playoffs in the wake of Pittsburgh’s loss. And that’s no small feat for a team that has made it to postseason play just once since 2002.

Oakland is tied with Indianapolis at 5-4 in the standings, but their head-to-head tiebreaker gives them the nod. And with upcoming games against the bottom-feeding Bengals and Jets on the horizon, this team may overtake the Bills for the No. 5 seed before we know it.