Handling success suddenly challenge for unbeaten Raiders

This iteration of the Raiders entered uncharted territory with their 31-28 victory over the Miami Dolphins at Allegiant Stadium. The kind of territory that comes with additional attention, expectations and pressure as one of five remaining unbeaten teams in the NFL.

How the Raiders handle those things could ultimately propel or derail the team’s first 3-0 start since 2002. An opportunity to improve to 4-0 looms on Monday night against the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium.

“The hardest thing to handle in professional football is success,” said former NFL MVP Rich Gannon, who quarterbacked the 2002 team to Super Bowl XXXVII.

Raiders quarterback Derek Carr is on a mission to make sure he and his teammates remain focused and don’t look too far ahead.

“Hey, 3-0 is great, but if we lose the rest of them, we’re all going to be looking for jobs,” Carr said. “That’s just how that game goes.”

He said it’s all about the details at this point. Like “making sure our locker room is clean. Making sure we’re not late to weigh-ins. Making sure we’re not late to meetings. Makings sure we’re eating the right things. Going to bed on time. Not spending too much time doing other stuff.

“When you win, sometimes it’s easy to let the little things slide,” said Carr, the NFL’s leader in passing yards. “It’s just been on my heart to not let that happen.”

Numbers don’t lie

The Raiders have began 10 seasons with a 3-0 record since the NFL/AFL merger in 1970, qualifying for the NFL’s postseason in all but one of those years — 1987. A 3-0 start preceded championships during the 1976 and 1983 seasons and a Super Bowl loss during the 2002 season.

In those nine seasons that ended in the playoffs, the Raiders averaged 10.4 wins against 4.0 losses, figures that compute considering the NFL didn’t adopt a 16-game season until 1978. They finished 5-10 during the 1987 season, losing seven consecutive games after opening with three straight victories.

That was the only time they finished with a losing record amid the 3-0 starts.

On five occasions, the Raiders began with a 4-0 mark, reaching the postseason in all five of those years and the Super Bowl in 1983 and 2002. The internal and external expectations rise and the pressure begins to mount amid the kind of national media attention the Raiders are beginning to receive.

“It takes a very mature football team, a very mature locker room to demand that (the team doesn’t get overconfident),” said Gannon, now an analyst for SiriusXM’s NFL coverage.

“That was one of my biggest challenges and struggles with the Raiders. And I knew better. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it so many times,” he added. “The team becomes complacent. The team doesn’t prepare as hard. Guys start letting their mind wonder. Next thing you know, you get punched in the mouth.”

That’s precisely what happened in 2002 to the Raiders, who lost four consecutive games by one score after winning their first four games. Gannon said there were some “internal issues” during the losing streak that he didn’t detail during a phone interview.

But he noted that team and players meetings helped Oakland rectify the issues and finish 11-5 en route to its Super Bowl appearance.

“Staying disciplined, being consistent with your preparation and your performance each week … is what really separates the good players from the great ones,” Gannon said. “Can the Raiders continue to be disciplined? Do the little things right. Eliminate the penalties. The turnovers. The missed assignments. The mental errors. … It gets back to your discipline and your ability to handle success.”

Odds in their favor

Since the merger, 173 of the 230 teams that have started the season with a 3-0 record have qualified for the postseason. In other words, teams that start 3-0 have historically had a 75.2 percent chance of qualifying for the playoffs.

The Raiders, Los Angeles Rams, Arizona Cardinals, Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos are 3-0 this season. The historical data suggests that at least one of those teams will eventually fall off, though there are two additional playoff berths that have been available since last season.

Should the Raiders beat the Chargers and improve to 4-0 on Monday night, the likelihood they qualify for the postseason improves to 85 percent, according to data compiled on the NFL’s operations website via a simulation of 10,000 17-game seasons.

“We have to play better. There is 3-0 and you can get all caught up in statistics and individual things like that, but when you look at the film, we got to play a lot better,” Raiders coach Jon Gruden said.

That is certainly the message that Gruden has been delivering to the team this week. And a message that is more likely to resonate amid the 3-0 start.

Former Raiders All-Pro tackle Lincoln Kennedy said that wins help players“respect the coaching aspect” of football — creating additional credibility internally for the Raiders’ coaching staff.

Gruden “wants more out of this team. The possibility of this team is greater than it has been before,” said Kennedy, who played for the 2002 team and serves now as the color commentator on the Raiders’ radio broadcasts. “Wins help you to absorb the coaching aspect, the deficiencies a lot better.”

Kennedy said there’s a fine line between confidence and overconfidence, noting that “some guys will start reading the press and start feeling themselves,” especially now because of social media. But there’s one thing he thinks that would resolve those issues should they arise.

A loss.

“I’m sorry to project this, but I think they have to lose,” Kennedy said. “They have to drop one of those close games. They have to feel the taste this season of what it is to lose … It’s almost like a hard lesson when a parent teaches a child.

“From a coach’s aspect, you get a loss and you say ‘I told you, you don’t know more than me,’ … It’s not going to be easy. Even when you fight hard, it’s not going to always come out the way you want. … It’s a long season, and this team still has plenty of flaws that somebody may exploit. They have to find a way to overcome that.”

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.