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          Las Vegas Raiders 2022 schedule: Tough finishing stretch will determine playoff fate

          Derek Carr will have to navigate the NFL's seventh-toughest schedule to get the Raiders to the playoffs in back-to-back years. Ethan Miller/Getty Images
          • Paul Gutierrez, ESPN Staff WriterMay 12, 2022, 08:35 PM ET
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              Paul Gutierrez joined NFL Nation in 2013 and serves as its Las Vegas Raiders reporter. He has a multi-platform role - writing on ESPN.com, television appearances on NFL Live and SportsCenter, and podcast and radio appearances. Before coming to ESPN, Gutierrez spent three years at CSN Bay Area as a multi-platform reporter, covering the Raiders and Oakland Athletics as well as anchoring the SportsNet Central cable news show. Gutierrez votes for the Baseball Hall of Fame and is also a member of the Professional Football Writers of America and currently serves as the PFWA's Las Vegas chapter president. He is also a member of the California Chicano News Media Association and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Gutierrez has authored three books: Tommy Davis' Tales from the Dodgers Dugout, 100 Things Raiders Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die and If These Walls Could Talk: Stories from the Raiders Sideline, Locker Room and Press Box with Lincoln Kennedy. You can follow Paul on Twitter @PGutierrezESPN
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          HENDERSON, Nev. -- The Las Vegas Raiders' 2022 schedule was released, along with the rest of the NFL slate Thursday.

          The 2022 NFL season will kick off Thursday, Sept. 8, with the Buffalo Bills facing the Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium. ESPN opens its schedule with a Monday Night Football game on Sept. 12, featuring the Denver Broncos at the Seattle Seahawks.

          The NFL expanded to 17 regular-season games last season. The final regular-season games in 2022 will be played January 8, 2023. The playoffs begin Jan. 14, and continue through Super Bowl LVII on Feb. 12 in Glendale, Arizona.

          Here's what in store for the Raiders:

          Schedule

          Sept. 11: at L.A. Chargers

          Sept. 18: vs. Arizona

          Sept. 25: at Tennessee

          Oct. 2: vs. Denver

          Oct. 10: at Kansas City (MNF)

          Oct. 16: BYE

          Oct. 23: vs. Houston

          Oct. 30: at New Orleans

          Nov. 6: at Jacksonville

          Nov. 13: vs. Indianapolis

          Nov. 20: at Denver

          Nov. 27: at Seattle

          Dec. 4: vs. L.A. Chargers

          Dec. 8: at L.A. Rams (TNF)

          Dec. 18: vs. New England (SNF)

          Dec. 24: at Pittsburgh

          Jan. 1: vs. San Francisco

          Jan. 7/8: vs. Kansas City

          Strength of schedule: T-7th, .528

          Raiders | Tickets

          Biggest takeaway

          Stop us if you've read this before, but the schedule makers did the Raiders no favors down the stretch, with six straight games against teams that should all be in the playoff hunt in December. Throw in a cold-weather, cross-country game in Pittsburgh and, well, the Raiders have to get off to a quick start to give themselves some wiggle room if they want to make back-to-back playoff trips for the first time since the turn of the century. But at least they get a "home" game in Los Angeles against the Chargers to open the season and then play host to the Cardinals sans receiver DeAndre Hopkins, who will miss the first six games of the season on suspension. Might the Raiders stay east with consecutive roadies at New Orleans and Jacksonville?

          Revenge game

          Sure, we could say both games against the Chiefs are rife with revenge, given how Kansas City blew out the Raiders by a combined score of 89-23 in two games last season. But let's go outside the box and pick the game at the Rams. The teams got into a huge brawl in a joint training camp practice last year, the Rams built SoFi Stadium on the same plot of Inglewood land that Al Davis was initially looking to erect a home for the Raiders in the early 1990s before moving back to Oakland, the Raiders are still the most popular NFL team in SoCal and, well, the Rams just joined the Raiders as the only teams to win a Lombardi Trophy while calling L.A. home.

          What the oddsmakers think

          The oddsmakers have the Raiders' win total at 8.5. That seems insulting, given they are coming off a 10-win playoff season, improved across the roster and joined the 21st century with an elite playcaller in new coach Josh McDaniels. That's on paper, though, and the offensive line still has to protect quarterback Derek Carr, who will need time to deliver the ball downfield to college bestie Davante Adams.

          Bold prediction

          Carr silences his haters -- real and imagined -- and, buoyed by the presence of Adams, plays like the elder statesman he is among AFC West quarterbacks and excels in new coach Josh McDaniels’ system to carry the Raiders to a second straight playoff appearance. Carr beats Kansas City in the flexed-to-prime-time finale and, for the first time since 2015, a team other than the Chiefs wins the AFC West. Hey, you wanted bold.