Raiders are being dissed in NFL power rankings. 3-0 start deserves much more

Apparently, the Raiders need to beat their opponents and their reputation.The first assignment is going swimmingly.Three games, three victories, including consecutive road wins and a comeback in New Orleans that required the kind of composure this franchise has been lacking for years.That makes them one of five remaining undefeated teams in the NFL.The second remains a work in progress.That should raise some eyebrows.

At what point does reasonable skepticism become an unwillingness to judge the team John Spytek and Tom Brady have built, and Klint Kubiak is coaching, on its own merits? These Raiders should not have to answer for the failures of their predecessors.How else to explain a team sitting at 3-0, producing numbers that belong in the NFL’s upper tier, still looking up at teams with considerably less impressive September resumes?CBS Sports’ Pete Prisco has the Raiders 15th entering Week 4.Sharp Football puts them 18th.

Arrowhead Pride slots them at 12th.Different evaluators, different approaches, same conclusion: keep waiting outside the top 10.At some point, skepticism becomes stubbornness.Call it whatever you want.

That’s disrespect.Yes, the Raiders earned their lousy reputation.

Years of losing, coaching changes and promising moments that dissolved into familiar disappointment will do that.Nobody should be required to erase those memories because this September finally feels different.But those memories should not count more than what is happening on the field.Lift the hood.The Raiders have scored 88 points and allowed 54.

That is a plus-34 differential or an average winning margin of 11.3 points.They are scoring 29.3 points per game, seventh in the league, and allowing 18, also seventh.That is meaningful production on both sides of the ball.They beat Miami by 14, the Chargers by 12 and New Orleans by eight.

Whatever reservations exist about the competition, this has not been three weeks of surviving on last-second field goals and hoping an oppo...