It’s strange that the Raiders got a win last week and yet it didn’t really feel like it this week. It’s been a week full of negative distractions, most notably Davante Adams’ trade request.

The Raiders have a lot to worry about as they travel to Denver to take on rival Broncos. Here are the ones that are at the top of the list.

The list of injuries continues to grow

As of Wednesday, the Raiders had 10 players, including eight starters, miss practice due to injuries and a few who are on injured reserve. On Thursday, the number of missing players somehow rose to 11.

That means the Raiders are essentially missing HALF of their starting unit. Sure, they missed a lot of them in the win over the Browns last week, but does anyone really think the Browns didn’t do better in that game than anything else? Namely Deshaun Watson?

This is not the Raiders team that went on a streak late last season. Literally, they are not the same people out there. They assume that they will have to do without their two star players Maxx Crosby and Davante Adams. Heck, Adams is basically not even one of their star players anymore. He’s just waiting to see which team he’ll play for next.

Denver pass rush

The Broncos are the best pass rushing team in the league. They lead the league with a 13.3% sack per dropback average. This means they sack the opposing quarterback once every 7-8 pass attempts. That’s crazy.

And the Raiders have been particularly vulnerable to layoffs this season. Gardner Minshew has been sacked 13 times this season. He was sacked on over 10% of his pass attempts.

And the thing is, the Broncos aren’t just about one man. Or even two boys. They have six different edge rushers with more than one sack on their team.

Self-distraction

This is a distracted team right now. Their star receiver wants out, their star edge rusher missed the first game of his career, their head coach punishes players for making “business decisions” in games.

While the head coach preaches not to let the emotional ups and downs get the better of him, he obviously allows both the wins and losses to take a toll on him – and the losses in particular cause him to say things he cares about then have to apologize. All that plus that college recruiting scandal that surfaced this week? Yes.

I mean, come on, Pierce is trying to preach that you should focus on beating Denver this week, but that would also require you to focus on the chemistry on your own team. Their emotional leader isn’t there, and last week he wasn’t even in the locker room or on the sidelines. Arguably their best cornerback was on the bench for a half. And their normally calm, cool star receiver is all but gone, but not technically, so the questions surrounding his desire to be traded remain.