HENDERSON, Nev. -- How big of an opportunity is staring the Las Vegas Raiders in their eye patch-covered faces with three straight games against AFC West rivals upcoming, beginning Sunday at the Los Angeles Chargers?

In a few words, it's ... well, let's let Derek Carr take it from here.

"Oh, big stretch for us, you know that," said the Raiders' seventh-year quarterback. "Anytime it's in the division, those games mean more than just one game. So, [we're] very, very excited for the opportunity that we have in front of us.

"Every game, especially in the division, I've been a part of this, I've been an 0-10 team when we beat the Chiefs [in 2014]. It doesn't matter. When you're in the division, at any moment, someone can beat somebody ... especially in the division, you know each other too well."

Consider: Las Vegas (4-3) already has a division win in hand with the 40-32 defeat of the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium on Oct. 11. And running the table against the Chargers, Denver Broncos and Chiefs again would set the Raiders up rather nicely for a postseason run, thank you very much.

Yeah, go ahead and upload your Jim Mora "Playoffs?!?" gifs.

Also keep in mind, the Raiders have that winning record through seven games after playing the most difficult schedule in the NFL to date, according to ESPN's Football Power Index. And per the FPI, Las Vegas now has the 25th-hardest schedule the rest of the way.

Just don't expect any big sigh of relief from Raiders coach Jon Gruden.

"I don't look past the Chargers at all," Gruden said. "They had the Buccaneers down 24-7. They had the Saints down 20-3. They had the Chiefs beat, had them third-and-20 and lost the game. We're not looking past the Chargers. We've got a lot of guys hurt. We're just trying to figure out how to be ready to put our best foot forward on Sunday.

"But you're right, this is a great opportunity. But if we look any further ahead than tomorrow we're not very smart."

This season marks the eighth time the Raiders will face their three division rivals in consecutive games -- first playing at the Chargers before hosting the Broncos and Chiefs in that order -- since NFL realigned into its current division format in 2002.

Things have not gone so well for the Raiders in those previous runs. As in, they never had a winning record in those trio of games, going 1-2 in 2004, 0-3 in 2006, 1-2 in 2008, 1-2 in 2009, 1-2 in 2011, 0-3 in 2013, 1-2 in 2014.

That's a 5-16 mark in potentially season-defining stretches.

This is the first time, though, the Raiders will play their AFC West brethren in this continuous order and in these particular locales -- at the Chargers, home against the Broncos, home against the Chiefs.

"But, again, we have to take it one at a time," Carr said. "The Chargers, they're 2-5 and everyone talks about that [record] but they're beating some of these really good football teams by 10, 13, 20 points at some points. And they end up just losing, somehow, at the end of the game."

The Raiders, no doubt, hope that trend continues as a springboard for this three-game AFC West stretch.