Fans gained confidence despite the ugly loss

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NFL. Each week, we send out questions to the most plugged in Raiders fans, and fans across the country. Sign up here to join Reacts.

It would seem that Al Davis’ famous mantra of “just win, baby” is truly embraced by Las Vegas Raiders fans. Because after 55 minutes and 47 seconds of downright embarrassing play against the listless winless New York Jets on Sunday, the Raiders pulled a miracle out of Gregg Williams’ foibles their hat, and won the game. And that was good enough for Raiders fans, who found that such a win actually increased their confidence. If that doesn’t sound right to you, then sign up for SB Nation Reacts and let your Raiders-loving voice be heard.

According to the most recent Reacts survey, 88% of Raiders fans believe the team is headed in the right direction. That’s up from 81% last week. Of course, we all know what happened last week, so perhaps that increase in confidence is less about beating a horrible Jets team, and more about looking like a group of players who had played at least one game of football in their life.

The Raiders are going to have to do better this week if they want to build a winning streak. The performance they put together in eking past the 0-12 Jets in Week 13, and losing 43-6 to the 4-8 Atlanta Falcons in Week 12 won’t cut it this week against the 8-4 Indianapolis Colts. Not surprisingly, fans nationally expect the Raiders to lose that game.

As for the rest of the league, NFL fans were asked which of the NFC teams fighting for a playoff spot are actual contenders. Fans saw the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks as being legitimate threats in the playoffs, but viewed the Arizona Cardinals and Minnesota Vikings as teams that can’t make noise. Most interesting is Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who fans are still split on even with the regular season winding down.

The Raiders will likely be really impressive this week or really disappointing. We just don’t know which one. All we know is that you can talk about it after the game by signing up for Reacts.