Six measly points.
That is the combined margin separating the Raiders from the Chiefs and Bills in two gut-wrenching home losses over the last three weeks. Two competitive, winnable games against teams widely considered among the favorites to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl.
If you were measuring the distance, it might be a yard. A yard and a half, tops.
For a franchise that has spent most of the last three decades wandering through the wilderness, that represents progress. Especially for a team pegged for six or seven wins this season, and especially coming a week after the Patriots knocked the Raiders sideways in a blowout loss.
They got back up Sunday. They answered. They pushed Buffalo to the limit before falling 33-30.
So why was the prevailing sentiment inside the Raiders’ locker room that you could take all that progress talk and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine?
Because they are tired of close.
They are sick of almost.
And because the distance between where they stand and where they want to go keeps getting filled with mistakes they know they are capable of eliminating.
That was the aggravating part Sunday. The Raiders could appreciate the caliber of the opponent without accepting that losing to it was inevitable. They could see the encouraging signs without overlooking the opportunities they squandered in dropping their third straight game to fall to 3-3.
“We are not satisfied with morale victories,” is how Raiders coach Klint Kubiak put it.
Or, as Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins said: “It’s one of those games where it’s hard to sleep afterwards. When you kind of think through the plays that you could have, should have made.”
Should have, being the key phrase.
But didn’t.
Again.
Close.
Just not close enough.
Nobody needed to explain how good Josh Allen is. Or how difficult it is to beat the Bills.
The Raiders needed to explain why they kept making that assignment harder.
Start with the red zone, where they scored touchdowns on just two of five trips. Turn one of those field goals into a touchdown, and the additional four points would have been enough to flip Sunday’s result.
“That’s unacceptable, and that starts with me,” Kubiak said.
Making matters worse? One of those red zone visits turned into a first-and-goal from the Bills’ two-yard line, only for the Raiders to go backward, not forward. Rather than punching it in and trimming the Bills’ lead to 23-20, they had to settle for a field goal and a 23-16 deficit.
“You take field goals in a tight game like that, it comes back to haunt you,” Cousins said.
Against teams like Buffalo and Kansas City, those opportunities carry extra weight. You cannot assume the next one is coming. You cannot keep asking your defense to make up the difference between the points available and the points you actually put on the scoreboard.
Eventually, the bill comes due.
The same goes for the penalties, an area that once looked like evidence the Raiders were learning how to give themselves a chance.
Through their first four games, they had accumulated the fewest penalty yards in the NFL. They were building an identity around discipline, around understanding their limitations and refusing to make life unnecessarily difficult.
Over the last two weeks, they have piled up nearly 200 penalty yards.
Sunday brought seven more flags for 62 yards, including a particularly maddening mistake by center Tyler Linderbaum on a fourth-and-one tush push.
The Raiders had a chance to keep a promising possession alive. Instead, Linderbaum was flagged for offsides.
For the third time this season on that exact play.
Once is a mistake. Three times demands an answer.
“It’s killing us. Absolutely killing us,” said Kubiak. “And I have not fixed it. So shame on me.”
A team trying to close a small gap against superior opponents cannot keep surrendering ground through the same correctable error. Those are the details that turn a manageable afternoon into another exhausting exercise in chasing points and regretting possessions.
Then there is the turnover battle.
For the third consecutive week, the Raiders failed to finish with an advantage. All three games ended in losses.
That is no coincidence for a team whose path to winning still requires a particular level of efficiency and care. The Raiders have enough ability to compete. They have yet to show they can consistently absorb giveaways, wasted opportunities and penalties against good opponents.
Cousins’ third-quarter interception was another reminder.
So was the three-and-out to open the second half, part of another scoreless third quarter that left the Raiders trying to recover ground they could not afford to lose.
Coming out of halftime, there should be an opportunity to establish control. To apply the adjustments, sustain a possession and make the opponent respond.
Instead, the Raiders again spent a critical portion of the game getting in their own way.
They kept fighting. That matters. After what happened in New England, their willingness to stand back up and trade punches with Buffalo said something about the foundation Klint Kubiak is building.
But resilience becomes an exhausting requirement when you keep creating the adversity yourself.
At some point, the comeback cannot be the only thing worth celebrating. The clean possession, the disciplined fourth-down snap, the touchdown instead of the field goal have to become part of the story, too.
That was the tension inside the locker room Sunday.
From the outside, it is reasonable to see a rebuilding team inching closer. Six combined points against the Chiefs and Bills is evidence of competitiveness. Responding to a blowout with a performance like this suggests the Raiders have some backbone.
Inside, the players have to live with the plays that could have changed everything.
They know how attainable some of those corrections are. Which makes another narrow loss harder to swallow, not easier.
The Raiders are showing what separates playoff teams from the teams still trying to become one. It is often less dramatic than the difference in talent might suggest: a red-zone snap, a flag, a possession thrown away.
They are close enough to see the other side.
They are also making too many of the same mistakes to get there.
Six measly points can measure progress.
Sunday, they measured the Raiders’ frustration.