Former Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak has Raiders off to 3-0 start

HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — First-year coach Klint Kubiak certainly doesn’t want to hear any talk about playoffs just three weeks into the season.

However, the numbers favor the Las Vegas Raiders ‘ chances of making the postseason.

Which is one of this season’s most stunning developments.

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Las Vegas won three games all of last season under Pete Carroll and now is 3-0 and will welcome the 3-0 Kansas City Chiefs this Sunday.

The timing couldn’t be much better to face an intense AFC West rival.

“Our job as coaches is to get them dialed in,” said Kubiak, who was the Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator last season, on Monday. “The thing about our team is we have a mature team that’s very goal-oriented and has some strong leadership, and they’re not satisfied with what’s been done for three games.

“I know it’s a long season, and we know that in order for us to be successful, we just have to just get better every day and have a great Wednesday, Thursday, Friday practice to prepare for the game.”

The Chiefs are part of a challenging stretch of the schedule that is followed by games against New England, Buffalo and the Los Angeles Rams.

From a historical perspective, this is what the Raiders’ 3-0 record means:

— Since the playoff field expanded to seven teams per conference in 2020, 23 of the 28 clubs to open 3-0 made the postseason.

— From 1990-2019 when it was six playoff teams per conference, 109 of 148 advanced.

Also, the previous time the Raiders began a season 3-0 was in 2021. That’s the most recent time they made the playoffs.

Kubiak said he was impressed with how his team picked up its third victory, erasing an 11-point second-half deficit to win 35-27 at New Orleans on Sunday.

“You don’t really get to find out about somebody until the chips are down and their back’s against the wall,” Kubiak said. “Our backs were against the wall yesterday, down two scores. So we found out a lot about guys’ resilience and toughness because everything’s fine if you’re up two scores at the end of the game. But what do you do when you’re down two scores?”

Seattle Sports staff made minor additions to this post.

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