Pete Carroll, Raiders must beat Colts in Week 5 to reach NFL playoffs

Winning at the Colts in Week 5 seems to be a non-negotiable requirement for Pete Carroll and the Raiders if they want to make the NFL postseason

Matt Zemek
 |  Trojans Wire

Pete Carroll and the Las Vegas Raiders are able to look at their full 2025 NFL schedule and map out a path to a successful season. The schedule was released on Wednesday, and every NFL analyst is making win-loss predictions right now. Raiders Wire is making those predictions, too. We won’t make win-loss predictions, but we will tell you that the Raiders’ Week 5 game at the Indianapolis Colts might be the most important game of Carroll’s first year in Silver and Black.

The following statement is broadly true for any football team in any season: The biggest games are often the road games a team is expected to win. Why is this the case? It’s simple: The toughest road games figure to be losses. If a team is going to pick up a loss, the hardest road trips naturally fall into that category. Teams’ seasons therefore sink or swim based on winning the easier road games. As long as the manageable road games get handled, a team can take care of business at home and collect enough wins to make the postseason. This is why Week 5 at the Colts matters so much for Pete Carroll and the Raiders in 2025.

If you look at the Raiders’ full schedule, you will see that the Week 5 trip to Indianapolis is sandwiched between very winnable home games against the Chicago Bears and Tennessee Titans. If the Raiders beat the Colts, they could easily create a three-game winning streak and be 4-2 through six games, which would put them in good position to make the playoffs.

The Raiders will have a tough time winning their AFC West road games plus a road trip to Philadelphia to face the Super Bowl champion Eagles. Making the playoffs means grabbing the attainable road wins against the Colts, also the New England Patriots (Week 1).

The Colts could be good down the line, but the Raiders get Indianapolis early in the season, which should be an advantage for them. The Colts are a mediocre AFC South team, precisely the kind of road opponent the Raiders should beat if they are a legitimate playoff contender.

The Raiders need to go at least 9-8 to have a reasonable chance of making the playoffs. They might need to go 10-7. Any path to those records will almost surely involve a win at Indianapolis in Week 5.