Raiders quickly need to move on to Week 14 against the Rams

Nothing like a Victory Thursday on a Monday.

Sorry for the confusion, but in the Raider Nation this week, it’s already Thursday.

The Las Vegas Raiders play at the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday night (5:15 p.m. PT kickoff). Thus, it’s a very short week and they don’t have much time to savor their 27-20 home win over the Los Angles Chargers on Sunday, their third straight victory.

Raiders coach Josh McDaniels told his team in the locker room after the game that they must quickly turn the page and prepare for the Rams. In fact, the coaching staff was preparing for Thursday’s game even prior to playing the Chargers.

“It’s Wednesday night. We just told him in there, it’s Wednesday night for us,” McDaniels said Sunday night. “You do at least one of these a year, maybe once a while you do a second one. But it is what it is. We knew this was on the schedule, it’s not a surprise. The coaches did a great job of working ahead Friday, Saturday and probably a little bit this morning just to prepare and be ready to go for tomorrow morning. The great thing about a Thursday game is both teams are in the same boat. So, we’re going to cram, they’re going to cram, and nobody’s going to do a whole lot physically in the next few days and try to get as healthy as we can get. And then go out there Thursday with as much energy as we can bring and go play the best football we can on Thursday night.”

The Raiders’ players have Monday off and then will have light walk-through practices Tuesday and Wednesday before flying to Los Angeles.

It may be a short week, but, at least, the Raiders will be fueled by their current winning streak and the fact tat they still have a heartbeat in the AFC playoff race going into their game against the battered 3-9 Rams

“I mean, I’m definitely proud of them. We never really discussed records or where we stood, and we’re not going to do it this week either,” McDaniels said. And reality is, nothing has been decided. Nobody’s this or that, or in or out, or whatever. And it’s really just about playing and coaching your best football. And if you can do that and improve, I really believe that the teams that are ultimately going to earn the right to keep playing are the ones that play the best after Thanksgiving. And so, that’s our goal each week is to try to figure out a way to do that and hopefully keep stringing them together.”