An Oakland Raiders fan shows his displeasure about the team possibly moving to Las Vegas during their preseason game against the Tennessee Titans at the Coliseum in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, Aug. 27, 2016. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)

On the 15th anniversary of the “Tuck Rule” game, the Raiders have officially filed papers with the NFL in their bid to move to Las Vegas.

How’s that for a gut punch for Raider Nation?

Raiders owner Mark Davis reportedly believes he has enough support among fellow owner to win the two-thirds vote required to move the team. There are still details to be worked out with Las Vegas as Davis formulates his exit strategy. But all signs point toward a March vote by NFL owners to determine whether Las Vegas will get the Raiders.

Many of you have been through this before when Al Davis took the Raiders to Los Angeles after the 1981 season. And you obviously stayed true to your team or you wouldn’t be on this blog.

But will a move to Vegas change how your view your team? Will you still go to games in Nevada?

Should Oakland play hardball with the Raiders now?

Davis’ move, coupled with the haunting, anniversary memories from 15 years ago when the Raiders were seemingly robbed of a victory in snowy New England because of a little-known NFL rule?

If you have some time, here’s a terrific story on what happened in New England that night.

Until then, the waiting game until the owners meeting in March begins.

FOXBORO, UNITED STATES: New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (C) takes a hit from Charles Woodson (R) of the Oakland Raiders on a pass attempt in the last two minutes of the game in their AFC playoff 19 January 2002 in Foxboro, Massachusetts. The Patriots won 16-13 in overtime. AFP PHOTO/Matt CAMPBELL (Photo credit should read MATT CAMPBELL/AFP/Getty Images)

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Oakland Raiders quarterback Connor Cook (8) fumbles in the second half of an NFL football game against the Denver Broncos, Sunday, Jan. 1, 2017, in Denver. The Raiders recovered the ball. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

Connor Cook will boldy go where only one man before him has gone in the storied 57-year history of the Oakland Raiders.

Come Saturday in Houston at 1:30 p.m., the 23-year-old Cook will become just the second rookie quarterback in franchise history to start a playoff game. The Raiders have played 43 postseason games in their history and the only other time a rookie started came in 1991 when Todd Marinovich was under center.

Marinovich’s fateful start against the Chiefs came in under eerily similar circumstances to Cook’s expected start against the Texans. Long before Marinovich’s career and life spun out of control, he was a rookie first-round pick out of USC filled with promise. Like Cook, Marinovich threw his first NFL pass the week before the playoffs. Like Cook, Marinovich was impressive in a Raiders loss — very impressive, throwing three touchdowns in a 27-21 loss to the Chiefs in that Dec. 22 game in ’91.

Connecting the dots of the Raiders rookie quarterbacks, Cook also gave the Raiders reason for optimism in Sunday’s crushing loss in Denver by going 14 for 21 for 150 yards and a touchdown.

But this is where Raiders fans are hoping the similarities between Marinovich and Cook come to an end.

A week after getting his feet wet in ’91, a week later Marinovich was overwhelmed by the same Chiefs defense while throwing four costly interceptions in a 10-6 loss in Kansas City in the wild card round. Marinovich went 12 for 23 for 140 yards and also fumbled once. Not included in his woeful stat line was a locker room mirror that Marinovich broke with his helmet after the loss.

How will Cook respond to the pressure of being the first rookie in NFL history to make his first career start in the playoffs? And what about the task of playing on the road against the NFL’s top-ranked defense? Can Cook become the first Raiders rookie quarterback to ever win a playoff game? It’s probably safe to say the Raiders’ best chance of winning would be for their offensive line to turn in a dominating performance, and for their defense to make some plays against Houston’s Brock Osweiler.

On the other hand, a guy who knows a couple things about quarterback play seems to think an awful lot of Connor Cook!

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ALAMEDA — Life without Derek Carr officially began Tuesday, with the Raiders returning to work for the first time since losing their starting quarterback to a broken fibula.

The Raiders as a matter of policy don’t confirm surgical procedures, but Carr himself passed along the news on Twitter.

“Surgery couldn’t have gone better! Received great news! Already started the recovery process!,” Carr said. “Thank you for all of your prayers as I heal up!”

Meanwhile, the long faces in the locker room on Christmas Eve have given way to optimism, with players invoking the NFL custom of “next man up.” In the Raiders case, that means backup quarterback Matt McGloin.

“Nobody wants to lose the starting quarterback, so it was an adjustment for that moment,” center Rodney Hudson said. “We’re confident (Matt’s) going to do a good job. He prepares well, works hard, and we’ve just got to do our part to make sure we stay sharp.”

McGloin started six games as an undrafted rookie in 2013, winning his starting debut in a 23-20 road win against the Houston Texans and losing his next five starts.

His only extended playing time in the last 47 games were single appearances replacing Carr due to injury in London against the Miami Dolphins in 2014 and in the 2015 regular-season opener against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The good news for the Raiders is there will be need for major tweaks to the offensive system, given that McGloin operates in a similar way in terms of execution and delivery.

McGloin, who will speak to the media Wednesday, goes about his job Monday through Friday much like the man he is replacing.

“I would say the only thing is McGloin probably swears a little more than Derek,” rookie quarterback Connor Cook said. “That’s the main difference.”

Tight end Mychal Rivera said McGloin brings a competitive edge that was evident when both players were rookies in 2013.

“He’s a leader at heart and a hard worker,” Rivera said. “It’s almost like he lives for being that underdog, and that’s what fuels him. We’re going to rally behind him and we’re excited for Sunday.”

In McGloin’s first start, Rivera caught five passes for 54 yards, including a 26-yard touchdown.

Wide receiver Andre Holmes, who also played with McGloin in 2013, cited the quarterback’s late 19-yard completion to Amari Cooper which put the Indianapolis game away after Carr was injured.

“He put the ball out there for Amari to go up and make a play on it,” Holmes said. “Those aer some of the things he did a lot when he was starting here a few years ago. He understands the abilities that his playmakers have. He has full confidence in those players having his back.”

This time around, McGloin has a far superior team around him as opposed to the Dennis Allen-coached Raiders that finished 4-12 in 2013.

“Now he’s got a running game and he’s got weapons like Crab and Amari, and tight ends that do a good job working the middle of the field,” running back Taiwan Jones said. “He knows we’ve got his back and we’ll keep the show going.”

In a podcast Tuesday with Monday Morning Quarteback’s Albert Breer, former Raiders offensive coordinator Greg Olson seconded the notion that Carr to McGloin should be a smooth transition in terms of preparation.

“You can’t minimize the loss of Derek Carr and how well he’s playing, but I think the staff believes in Matt and the locker room believes in Matt,” Olson said. “A lot of the traits they have are similar. They’re accurate, they make good decisions.”

Olson, the offensive coordinator in 2013-14, said McGloin is a “very capable backup quarterback and one that could probably be starting for a lot of teams this season. I think they’re confidenet in that, and there won’t have to be a lot of changes.”

Carr, whose chances of returning to the field even if the Raiders were to make the Super Bowl are extremely remote, is expected back soon.

“I think he’ll be back around tomorrow,” running back Latavius Murray said. “I know he’s not going to take time off or be away from this building if he doesn’t have to — that’s the kind of guy he is.”

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ALAMEDA — Raiders coach Jack Del Rio was in the business of moving on Monday, declining to discuss any additional details on the status of quarterback Derek Carr’s broken fibula.

“I’m not really going to shed any more light on it,” Del Rio said at his weekly news conference. “I think at some point there may be more details that follow, but I don’t have any for you today.”

Carr, according to an ESPN report, will have surgery on Tuesday in Los Angeles. But Del Rio claimed to not be aware.

“I don’t know the details,” Del Rio replied when asked specifically when Carr’s surgery would occur.

Carr’s brother, NFL Network analyst David Carr, did however confirm on air that Carr’s surgery will take place Tuesday in Los Angeles. He also said Derek is eyeing a return if the Raiders can reach the Super Bowl.

“I’m there and they say six to eight weeks,” David Carr said on NFL Network of the initial recovery diagnosis, “and he quickly does the math in his head and he’s like, ‘That’s the Super Bowl.’

“Me as a fan, I’m like, ‘Do the Raiders have a chance without him?’ I’m thinking that way. But for him, he feels so much love for this team and this team is such a good football team, he really thinks that they can go out and do that.”

Carr’s injury occurred exactly six weeks and a day before Super Bowl LI in Houston and Tuesday’s surgery would leave him just under six weeks to recover in order to play in that game. That’s obviously taking the absolute most optimistic approach.

For Del Rio though, Monday was all about looking forward to Sunday’s game on the road against the Denver Broncos, where the Raiders (12-3) have a chance to clinch the AFC West with a win or a Kansas City Chiefs loss to the San Diego Chargers.

They’ll do so with Matt McGloin under center ,as the former undrafted free agent will make his first start since 2013. He’s 1-5 all-time as a starter.

“Really competitive guy,” Del Rio said of McGloin. “Really attacks his preparation. A little bit fearless. I think he’s got a little bit of a chip on his shoulder, I’d say.”

McGloin showed some of that fearlessness in Saturday’s 33-25 win over the Indianapolis Colts with his throw to a double-covered Amari Cooper on third-and-8 that allowed the Raiders to run out the clock.

“We expect our guys when they step in and play, to play well, and we expect to win with them,” Del Rio said. “He made a couple of nice throws at the end there.”

— The Raiders weren’t the only ones shaken by Carr’s injury.

Colts linebacker Trent Cole, whose fourth-quarter sack of Carr led to the injury, was initially unaware of the extent.

“Things happen, and it sucks that it happened,” Colts said, according to the Indianapolis Star. “He loves to play football just like I love to play football. I hope he’s OK, man. I really do.”

Later a reporter told him the diagnosis. Cole quickly looked away.

“There was no intent,” Cole said, a phrase he repeated several times, even as reporters left his locker.

— It took more than three months, but Menelik Watson did enough to reclaim his starting job at right tackle.

Watson, with little fanfare, was the surprise starter in place of Austin Howard Saturday in the Raiders’ win over the Colts.

Health permitting, it will stay that way, as Del Rio gave Watson a thumbs up for his performance.

Health has been a constant issue since Watson was a second-round draft pick out of Florida State in 2014. He was winning the starting job over Howard last season before a torn Achilles ended his year.

This season, Watson opened as the starter but didn’t finish the opener, leaving with a groin injury. He missed Week 2 against Atlanta, came back to face Tennessee in Week 3, but departed with a calf injury.

Inactive for five weeks, Watson was gradually worked into a role as an extra tight end.

Line coach Mike Tice likes Watson’s athletic ability and nasty attitude. Del Rio left it up to Tice to re-insert Watson into the lineup.

“I trust coach Tice on that,” Del Rio said. “He’s been grading out pretty well. He’s been working very yard. We felt it was justified that he earned his way back into the starting lineup. We didn’t give it to him. We just played the guy that was playing well and gave us the best chance to win.”

Howard was designated as inactive because rookie Vadal Alexander has more experience in the role of being a blocking tight end.

Watson’s original four-year contract expires at the end of the season, making him eligible for unrestricted free agency.

— Defensive end Mario Edwards Jr. played 18 snaps in his first action since being activated off injured reserve after a preseason hip injury.

“It was really good to get him back,” Del Rio said. “We wanted to cap it 20, 30 (reps), somewhere in there. It was a solid first outing and I know he had a big smile on his face. He was just happy to be back in the action and to have a chance to play again.”

— Wide receiver Michael Crabtree, who has been dealing with a finger injury in recent weeks, missed time in Saturday’s game but Del Rio seemed to indicate he’s fine.

“He’s been banged a little bit, but he’s been making his way to the ball games, so I don’t have anything to add to that right now,” Del Rio said.

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December 23, 1972 – Pittsburgh touchdown, fourth quarter. Franco Harris, 32, bounce enroute to TD on pass that won game. (Lonnie Wilson / Oakland Tribune Staff Archives)

Any Raiders fan of a certain age won’t soon forget what happened 44 years ago today.

In short, it was hell on earth for any Silver & Black fan. (I remember some little kid crying on the stairs inside his house for hours, but we won’t name names!)

On this day in 1972, Franco Harris grabbed a ball that caromed off of Jack Tatum’s shoulder pads and rambled in for a touchdown to beat the Raiders in perhaps the most stunning finish in NFL history.

Do you remember how you felt this day? If so, share your story below.

Oh, Merry Christmas Raiders fans! Just remember, this is just ancient history!

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ALAMEDA — Bruce Irvin makes no secret about his desire to deliver his first 10-sack season.

“I definitely want to get that,” Irvin said. “I definitely … I’m gonna get it. I’m gonna get it.”

The Raiders outside linebacker, in his first season in Oakland after four years with the Seattle Seahawks, has made the elusive double-digit sack season a possibility with five in his past five games.

His seven sacks on the year leave him one away from his previous career high, set as a Seattle rookie in 2012. Defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr., Irvin’s linebackers coach for three years in Seattle, likes the fact that Irvin is motivated to reach that milestone.

“No question,” Norton said. “Bruce has been trying to get there for a long time. He’s really been trying to get to that point. But to his value, he does so much.

“Everybody likes sacks, but Bruce is our spy, he’s our cover guy, he’s the guy on the other side of Khalil, he’s the guy who re-routes receivers well, he’s one of our fastest, best athletes, he’s a guy who shows up early and studies late, he’s one of the team leaders and you see the way he comes. He might not have a lot of sacks, but he has a lot of quarterback hits.”

Norton even said Irvin reminds him of one of his former teammates Charles Haley, a 2015 Hall of Fame inductee.

“He didn’t get a lot of sacks, but he always disrupted the quarterback, got him off the spot and is a guy who everyone knew where he was,” Norton said.

The Raiders talked after signing Irvin about “bringing him forward” — their lingo for saying they want him constantly rushing the passer. But as Norton noted, he’s also showed himself to be adept at playing the run, occasionally dropping into coverage and serving as a quarterback spy.

Irvin’s assessment is he’s playing the best football of his career and the numbers bear it out — he has a career high in tackles and his five forced fumbles are more than his first four seasons combined.

“As far as me being a complete player,” Irvin said, “playing the run, dropping in coverage, rushing the passer, just doing everything they’ve asked of me, I think I’ve really done a pretty good job in doing it. I’ve still got a long way to go, just got to keep getting better.”

Irvin credits his success to playing with a clear mind.

“Just worried about football, letting all the other stuff that don’t matter, getting it out of my life, Irvin said. “Just really committing myself to this team, to this organization and trying to put out there the best performance I can. I think I’m feeling it right now, but I’m also prepared during the week so it translates to Sunday. I’m just going to continue to do that and hopefully it continues translating.”

Irvin’s surge has coincided with the Raiders’ own defensive resurgence. After allowing 444.8 yards per game over the first six to rank last in the league, the Raiders have allowed am average of just 324.1 yards over the past eight.

“I just think we’re finally starting to jell,” Irvin said. “I think guys are starting to learn guys’ tendencies, when guys are going to take chances, and I think it’s really showing.”

— Raiders defensive lineman Mario Edwards Jr. could be in line to make his season debut on Saturday against the Indianapolis Colts.

Edwards, a second-year player who has been out all season with a hip injury, practiced all week and seems in line to be activated in time for the Christmas Eve affair at the Coliseum. He packed a bag in the locker room with his game equipment — a strong indicator he’ll finally return to action.

Raiders coach Jack Del Rio remained noncommittal.

“We’ll work through that,” Del Rio said. “He had a good week of practice. Obviously we’ve got to make a move to get him active before we can activate him and play him. But I think he’s had a good week.”

General manager Reggie McKenzie, speaking Wednesday night on SiriusUX NFL Radio, said, “We’re excited the way Mario has practiced here in the last couple weeks, so we feel pretty good about that situation, about the nation seeing him this weekend.”

Edwards was designated as the Raiders’ player to return from injured reserve on Dec. 5, allowing him a 21-day window to practice for the team to evaluate and decide if he can return. That window expires Monday but, along with McKenzie’s comments, Del Rio also said a week ago that the team was targeting this Colts game for Edwards’ return.

While this is the Raiders’ final practice of the week, they still don’t have to issue their projected game participation report until Friday and Edwards does not have to appear on the injury report until he’s back on the active roster.

— Left guard Kelechi Osemele returned to practice Thursday in a limited capacity after missing Wednesday’s with an ankle injury.

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ALAMEDA — It wasn’t long ago that the Raiders were humming along as one of the best red zone offenses in the league.

Nobody was better over the first four games and as recently as two weeks ago, the Raiders were seventh in the NFL with touchdowns on 64.3 percent of their possessions.

Two bad weeks — with two touchdowns on their last 11 trips — and offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave is suddenly answering questions about what happened to his once dynamic unit.

“A number of factors,” Musgrave said Wednesday. “We’re ready to get back on track, that’s for sure.”

The Raiders had one touchdown and three field goals on seven trips inside the 20-yard line against the San Diego Chargers. (One red zone possession was following a turnover and led to the game-ending kneel down).

It’s gotten so bad that, even taking that kneel down possession out of the equation, the Raiders are averaging just 2.9 points per red zone trip in these last two games. After producing at least a field goal on 41 of their first 42 drives inside the 20 over the first 12 games, they’ve had five scoreless red zone drives these past two. It’s happened numerous ways — a bad snap on a field goal, a turnover on downs, a fumble, an interception and then that kneel down.

Musgrave admits it hasn’t been up to snuff.

“It’s not enough to get to down there,” he said. “We want to finish the right way. So we’re working hard on that, count on being better moving forward.”

Musgrave blamed the struggles on a “couple uncharacteristic mistakes,” which include Latavius Murray’s first lost fumble of the season on Sunday and Carr’s first red zone interception of the year.

“We don’t want to just sweep them under the rug,” Musgrave said of those mistakes. “We want to address them, get them fixed and get back on track.”

Carr, as he did after Sunday’s win over the Chargers, insisted it was more about the defenses they’ve been playing. That may be the case against the Kansas City Chiefs two weeks ago — they have the sixth-best red zone defense and eighth-best scoring defense — it’s not so true against a San Diego team near the bottom of the league.

One thing the Raiders do discount is that the struggles are a result of the necessity to go from the shotgun or pistol formations because of Carr’s right pinkie injury.

That was a popular talking point after the Raiders failed to score a touchdown on first-and-goal from the 1-yard line in San Diego, but as some players pointed out, they’ve still be pretty successful along the goal line since abandoning snaps from under center for the past three and a half game.

“We got stopped once. I’m not about to make a big deal out of it,” Pro Bowl left tackle Donald Penn said. “The week before when we scored on the goal line, it was no issue. The week before that when we scored on the goal line it was no issue. One time, they stopped it. It’s not an issue an all.”

Penn’s right. Against the Chiefs, the Raiders faced first-and-goal at the 1 at the end of the second quarter and Murray plowed in for the touchdown.

The week before against the Buffalo Bills, they scored touchdowns on all three of their goal-to-go situations, including two on the ground. It happened with relative ease too with Murray scoring on first down from the 1 and then from the 3.

Overall, the Raiders have run well since Carr’s injury, averaging 4.1 yards per carry. Take away the second half of the Carolina Panthers game in which he was hurt (.ie, when the Raiders had a chance to practice and get used to exclusively going from shotgun) and Oakland’s averaging 4.6 per attempt.

“You’re only as good as your last game,” center Rodney Hudson said. “We didn’t score. We’ll fix it. We’ll come in, I’m sure we can do some things better. We’ll watch the tape and correct it. No matter what we’re in, we’ll just try to execute, no matter if we’re in the gun or under, as player, just try to execute and take advantage of the opportunities.”

— A day after doing some work on the side, Raiders rookie outside linebacker Shilique Calhoun was back at practice on Wednesday.

Calhoun has missed the past four games after having a minor knee procedure following an injury suffered Nov. 21 in Mexico City against the Houston Texans.

On the season, the team’s third-round pick out of Michigan State has eight tackles, three of which are on special teams, and a half-sack.

— Defensive tackle Stacy McGee, who has missed five of the past seven games with an ankle injury, remains out of practice. Same goes for rookie safety Karl Joseph, who seems poised to miss his third straight contest with a toe injury.

— Linebacker Bruce Irvin was named the AFC Defensive Player of the Week after recording six tackles and two sacks in the Raiders’ 19-16 win over the Chargers. He also pressured and laid a hit on San Diego quarterback Philip Rivers that led to the game-sealing interception.

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