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Las Vegas lose season-high 5th straight as Sanders stars in debut
- Terrel Emerson
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Las Vegas is on a season-high losing streak after its latest loss to Cleveland despite the opponents starting a rookie quarterback under center.
The Raiders lost to the Browns, 24-10, Sunday, Nov. 23 from Allegiant Stadium in the second of back-to-back home losses for the franchise. They are now 1-5 at home this season.
“We’re pretty disappointed about this one,” head coach Pete Carroll said. “But if you don’t score, you can’t win and we couldn’t score. And it was an incredible game of defense on both sides.”
Las Vegas is now on a season-high five-game losing streak while averaging 12.4 points per game during that stretch. It’s the second losing streak of at least four games this year’s Silver & Black squad.
Sitting at 2-9, the Raiders will now gear up for another AFC West divisional matchup as it looks for its first win in its fourth such instance. It will be a Sunday, Nov. 30 meeting at SoFi Stadium against the Los Angeles Chargers. Kickoff will be set for 1:25 p.m.
Los Angeles beat Las Vegas, 20-9, in Week 2 as part of Monday Night Football.
“Well, something good is just about to happen,” Carroll said. “If you can hold onto that mentality then you keep believing that you can turn and you can turn and make things happen. That’s kind of what’s guided me for all of these years.”
Quarterback Geno Smith entered Sunday as the fourth-most sacked quarterback in the NFL. He endured a season-high performance on Sunday that would push his total even higher to the top of the league.
“We have to protect the quarterback a whole lot better than we did,” Carroll said. “We tried the guys we thought had the best shot to do it.”
Smith was sacked for a career-tying seventh time early in the third quarter by defensive end Myles Garrett. In the fourth quarter, Garrett would get to Smith again for the eighth sack of the game for Cleveland.
As a result, Garrett tallied his 17th sack of the season which is a new career-high for the future Hall-of-Famer on his way to three on the day.
“It’s really on me,” Smith said. “I’ve got to make better plays [and] find a way.”
In total, Smith was sacked 10 times in the loss and has now been wrestled down 41 times this season. Even when not faced with that vaunted pass rush, Smith had at least three misfires on deep pass plays to receiver Tre Tucker.
“Uncharacteristic misses there,” Carroll said. “There was like three of them where Tre got behind [the defense] and we had some real shots and opportunities and did have a chance to get the ball out.”
Smith went 30-for-44 for 285 yards and a touchdown and a fumble. Tight end Brock Bowers was held in check early in the game but would finish with 55 yards on six catches.
“We had opportunities to hit big plays and we didn’t hit them,” Carroll said. “[The quarterback] was under duress the entire time and our ability to matchup with their pass rush didn’t work out well.”
As a result, rookie running back Ashton Jeanty did more heavy-lifting with 108 scrimmage yards on 25 touches. He even scored the team’s lone touchdown of the day on a late fourth quarter drive.
On the ensuing drive, he’d leave the field after being slow to get up while appearing to favor his right ankle.
From one rookie to another as the Browns started fifth round draft pick Shedeur Sanders for the first time in his NFL career. And even after forcing two first half turnovers, the Raiders still found themselves on the wrong side of an 11-point deficit.
Las Vegas forced some pressure of its own with five quarterback hits as defensive end Malcolm Koonce accounted for the team’s only sack of the day.
On the first play of a second quarter drive, defensive end Charles Snowden stood up from the line of scrimmage and picked off Sanders. Later in the second, receiver Jerry Jeudy would have the ball poked free on a 39-yard completion from Sanders.
“I thought we played great on defense tonight,” Carroll said. “There’s the one big breakout screen. We just screwed it up in terms of the way we would contain the thing and that play goes.
“Our guys played great tonight all night long. I mean, they were in for 50 yards or something like that and they had two plays that were worth the rest of their offense.”
Sanders still flashed the ability to fling the football downfield. He uncorked a 52-yard bomb in the first quarter to set up the first of two direct-snap touchdown runs by fellow rookie Quinshon Judkins.
Late in regulation, Sanders would find some end zone success of his own on a 66-yard touchdown pass to running back Dylan Sampson. In his first start, Sanders went 11-for-20 with 209 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
“They won the game,” Carroll said. “He did good enough to win the game and made the play of the game really was that scramble play. And that was an extraordinary ball that he threw on that one.
“That was really kind of the dagger in the ball game as it turned out. That changed things.”