Definition of the 1-3 Raiders: Practicing for things that won't happen

The Oakland Raiders practiced with crowd noise all week in preparation to play the Los Angeles Chargers, the only team in the National Football League that doesn’t have actual crowds.
 
But it is that level of granular thought that credits and curses all NFL coaches, because you never know when a stadium that seats 27,000 might attract 81,000.
 
“I’ve never been there (at StubHub Center), so I’m looking forward to it,” head coach Jon Gruden said in his traditional Friday fly-by. “I know we’ve played the Chargers before, and it’s been a great rivalry for a long time.”
 
There is, however, no telling at this point what kind of rivalry will be rekindled Sunday. The Chargers and Raiders are a combined 3-5, watching Kansas City pull away from the pack in the AFC West and still trying to figure out who and what they are in comparison.
 
They both score and allow a lot of points and yards, which is fairly traditional stuff from these two franchises, but the only template for their time at the Hub is last year’s final game, a throwaway for the Raiders, who had been eliminated weeks before, both record-wise and emotionally.

The Chargers ended up in a crowded field at 9-7, but they were effectively eliminated early by an 0-4 start.
 
The Chargers, though, are burdened by the expectations they never seem to fulfill, winning in alternate weeks but with an opportunity to build a run based on facing Oakland and Cleveland. The Raiders, who will be without safety Karl Joseph and may not have guard Kelechi Osemele (he is questionable), are trying to establish a form of play that doesn’t require that they score 45 points a game, as they did a week ago in overtime against Cleveland.
 
Where the crowd is supposed to come in is anybody’s guess.
 
That’s the oddest part of this game – the notion that two teams without established homes are meeting. The Chargers remain so unattached to their new digs that most people call them “the San Die --- Oops, Los Angeles Chargers,” and the Raiders are still continuing their glacial relocation to Las Vegas.
 
The difference, though, is that the Chargers are home while not being home. Their crowds are thin and responsive only when the other team brings in its own fan base, and the Raider fans could easily outnumber Charger fans on Sunday.
 
And Raider fans understand the crowd noise dynamic – when to make noise and when to stay quiet. Frankly, the team that should be practicing with crowd noise is Los Angeles.
 
Yet here we are, with Gruden preparing for a hostile environment that has never evidenced itself. It’s the mark of a coach who covers all eventualities even when those eventualities have almost no chance of occurring.
 
It’s like bringing snow gear to Miami to play the Dolphins.
 
But coaches gotta coach, especially 1-3 coaches. The Raiders are on the precipice of being aspiration-less, and a loss on home on the road to the San Die – oops, sorry – would play very poorly with all their fans in all their various homes.
 
So Gruden practiced the fellows with crowd noise, because JIC.
 
Just In Case.