At this point, calling Sunday a must-win game for the Rams feels almost redundant.
Every week brings another chance to rescue their season. Every loss makes the next game more urgent. Every injury makes you wonder who will be available to do the rescuing.
But there is another way to look at their visit to Allegiant Stadium, one that says as much about the team waiting for them as the battered group trying to hold itself together.
This is a game the Raiders should win.
They have earned the right for us to say that. Earned the expectations that come with it, too.
Which makes whatever magic trick Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford are preparing all the more intriguing.
And dangerous.
In a city that has given us David Copperfield, Penn & Teller and countless other masters of deception, the Rams arrive needing a Houdini act to escape with a victory.
The Raiders’ responsibility is to make sure nobody slips out of the handcuffs.
That represents a meaningful change for a franchise that spent too many years serving as somebody else’s opportunity to get right. The Raiders were the soft landing. The manageable assignment.
Now the Rams are 2-4 and wobbling, their depth chart resembling a MASH unit, and the Raiders should be expected to take advantage.
Consider what McVay and Stafford are working around.
Davante Adams is on injured reserve. So is nose tackle Poona Ford, sidelined by a triceps injury. Defensive lineman Kobie Turner is out for multiple weeks. Pass rusher Myles Garrett remains on injured reserve with a knee injury.
Cornerback Trent McDuffie missed consecutive practices with a groin injury. Linebacker Nate Landman is in concussion protocol.
Then Puka Nacua left Thursday’s practice with a calf injury.
That does not automatically rule him out Sunday. But potentially losing him, or having him at less than full strength, further complicates life for an offense already missing Adams.
How in the hell are the Rams supposed to navigate all that?
There is a reason the answer cannot simply be that they won’t.
McVay still designs the offense. Stafford still operates it. That combination can identify a weakness, disguise its intentions and make a defense pay before it understands what happened.
But respecting their ability is different from giving the Raiders an excuse.
The Silver and Black has shown enough to deserve a higher standard.
The Raiders are 3-3 after three consecutive losses. Their running game has been inconsistent. Their red-zone execution has cost them touchdowns. Too often, their first-half momentum never makes it out of the halftime locker room. Their defense has surrendered too many explosive plays..
Yet they took the Chiefs and Bills into the 12th round at Allegiant Stadium, trading punches with two AFC heavyweights before losing the football equivalent of split decisions.
Kansas City escaped 30-27. Buffalo survived 33-30.
Six combined points separated the Raiders from two victories that would have dramatically changed the conversation.
Those performances establish something. They also demand something.
If the Raiders can push those teams to the limit, they should be capable of finishing the job against this version of the Rams.
Kirk Cousins can recognize where a depleted defense is vulnerable. Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer force difficult coverage decisions, combining for 11 catches and 165 yards against Buffalo. Tre Tucker supplied two touchdown catches, including a 44-yarder.
The Raiders have the weapons. After answering their New England blowout by coming back swinging against Buffalo, they have demonstrated resilience, too.
Now comes the responsibility of delivering.
For the Rams, a loss would be devastating, dropping them to 2-5 and leaving their season in need of increasingly desperate repairs.
For the Raiders, it would carry a different sting.
This is the kind of opportunity teams revisit in December with deep regret, when they are a game out of the playoff picture and searching the schedule for the victory that got away.
A vulnerable opponent. A depleted roster. A home game they had every reason to win.
Lose Sunday, and the Raiders risk spending the rest of the season trying to steal back a victory they should have secured in their own building.
Avoiding that regret requires touchdowns instead of settling for field goals. Sustaining drives. Preventing the coverage breakdown that gives Stafford an opening.
Above all, it means refusing to confuse an advantage with a victory.
McVay and Stafford are accomplished enough to make that mistake costly. Give them an opening, and suddenly everyone is wondering how the guy escaped the locked box.
The Raiders have earned the right to be expected to win this game.
Now they have to keep their eyes on the trick.
