NFL 2016

Oakland kick off wild card weekend tonight ( Sky Sports One 9pm ) against the Houston Texans. Eight of the twelve remaining teams play this weekend, with 4 teams receiving first week bye's. Strictly knock - out games from now on,so one loss and you are eliminated. The Raiders are indeed going into their game with 3rd string Quarterback Connor Cook starting. Whilst he played a bit in the pre - season and came on last week due to injury, this is his first NFL start.

Just to show how difficult it could be, Cook will be the first QB in NFL history, to make his first start in a play - off game and the Houston defence is pretty good. I don't however feel that all is lost as Cook had a decent college career and college games over there are huge and he can certainly handle the pressure. On the plus side, Houston have an anemic offense and benched their QB a couple of weeks ago. Due to a concussion to the back up, they have had to go back to him, but clearly the organisation does not have much faith.

Been waiting for this night for 14 years, so not ready for it to end in Houston. Tough to make a predicition due to the injuries, but the Raiders do still have enough talent out there to win. Looking for big games from Raider Tight End's Michael Rivera and Clive Walford,as I do fell this is an area where they have an advantage. Fullback Jamize Olawale scored aginst Houston earlier in the year and is another that needs to make an impact.

Sadly not to be for the Raiders who went down 27 - 14. Not too disappointed with Connor Cook, who did as well as could have been expected, but again very unhappy with the defensive unit. As usual they played well in patches, but just gave up too many big plays. Personnel wise they really should have been a top ten ( or at worst top 15 ) ranked defence, but in many categories, they rated near to or dead last. Improvement never looked likely either and can't see Defensive co - ordinator Ken Norton Jr keeping his job.

In all probability the season was done when Derek Carr went down, as it is very rare for back up QB's to go deep in the play off's. Still very disappointing to go out with such a whimper as I was at least hoping for a bit more fight.

Can also see Bill Musgrave losing his job as Offensive co -ordinator, though he is not in as much danger as Norton. They have also been confirmed as having the 24th pick in the 2017 draft and whilst a good running back should be available, I see them adding to the " D " They also have some $10 Million remaining on the Salary Cap and I would expect them to add a top free agent, hopefully at Linebacker.