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Raiders can’t close out Bills, lose 3rd straight contest
Updated: 1 day ago
During perhaps the toughest stretch of their season, the Las Vegas Raiders have lost their third straight game.
The team fell short, 33-30, to the Buffalo Bills Sunday, Oct. 18 from Allegiant Stadium in a Week 6 matchup to continue the skid. It knocked Las Vegas to 1-2 at home while Buffalo stayed perfect on the road at 3-0.
“Very disappointed that we didn’t get it done today,” head coach Klint Kubiak said. “As a team we did not close the game.”
While already holding the fourth-toughest schedule from Week 6 through Week 12, the Raiders had a precursor with a home contest against the Kansas City Chiefs and a road game against the AFC Champion New England Patriots.
“That’s the expectation,” Kubiak said. “We have really talented players, that was the expectation to bounce back. That’s the type of football we need to play but we need to do it for four quarters.”
To make matters potentially worse, the franchise will host the league’s last two Most Valuable Players having already welcomed the 2024 MVP Josh Allen into The Deathstar this weekend. That duo will be completed when last year’s MVP Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams come to town Sunday, Oct. 25.
Kickoff is scheduled for 1:25 p.m.
“There’s plenty of improvement,” Kubiak said. “We’re not satisfied with any moral victories. We’re a 3-3 team with everything ahead of us.
“You don’t look big picture, you look at the next game. That’s what you have to do.”
After taking two timeouts in the first five minutes of regulation, it appeared the gameplan began evident. Allen would have to extend plays while facing constant pressure from the Las Vegas defensive front
The Raiders would tally two sacks in the loss, by linebacker Quay Walker and defensive tackle Kwity Paye. Aside from that, the game mostly featured Allen theatrics.
“That’s why you have balls to the walls effort every time,” defensive tackle Thomas Booker said. “Because the players that are dynamic like Josh Allen, you’re going to have guys that miss or whatever else and do you have the rest of the defensive line in the position to make a play if somebody misses?
“I think we have an extremely high standard for ourselves and it’s not just enough for us to get in the backfield and cause disruption but we’ve got to finish plays.”
On the first play of the second drive of the game for the Bills, Allen found 37 yards through the air while scrambling outside of the pocket. Early in the second quarter, he crossed over into triple-digit passing on a drive that would conclude with the visitors’ first touchdown of the game. By that point, Buffalo had logged 20 plays in Las Vegas territory while the latter racked up just eight to that point.
Already in a full groove, Allen flicked a shovel pass over the goal line to receiver Keon Coleman as the Bills took a 10-point third quarter lead. Earlier in the drive, the Raiders’ secondary was whistled for back-to-back penalties.
“Being a defensive back, that’s your life,” rookie safety Treydan Stukes said. “You’ve got to be able to surrender the outcome and commit to the things that you’re in control of and you know, sometimes there’s plays like that. You get a penalty but you’re still on the field.”
Stukes was whistled for one of those penalties while also getting his helmet in the thick of things on a third down stop earlier in the quarter. Despite that defensive win on third down, Buffalo would score through the air on the very next play.
“He’s a great player,” Stukes said. “It’s super dynamic for their offense to have him be able to escape from things that you don’t think he would be able to [...] You’ve got to understand how to play when he starts making those types of plays.”
Tight end Brock Bowers was held in check for the majority of the first half, going into halftime with just eight yards on one catch. It appeared he hauled in a second catch just over midway through the third quarter but a holding penalty would call the play back.
Bowers would soon turn it on, however, on the way to ending with 70 yards on four catches.
In the second quarter, Bills defensive back CJ Gardner-Johnson was ejected from the game after officials deemed he spit at Bowers.
“I don’t even know [what happened],” Bowers said. “We just talked a little bit but I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
Receiver Tre Tucker caught both of quarterback Kirk Cousins’ touchdown passes in the loss as he led all players with 97 receiving yards on five catches. Both scores came in the second half including one with 1:32 left in regulation to trim the deficit to just three points.
“He can roll,” Cousins said. “And I played with [receiver] DeSean Jackson, I’ve played with [receiver] Aldrick Robinson. I’ve played with [4.2 40-yard dash] guys and he can roll. I said coming off the field I think he’s faster than I think he is. There’s times where I just need to launch and he’ll go get it.”
Cousins went 23-for-41 with 313 yards, two touchdowns and an interception that counted for his fifth of the season.
“Gritty [and] gutty,” Kubiak said. “The same guy you guys have seen all season. He’s playing superb football right now.”
Of those 313 passing yards for Cousins, his tight end tandem of Bowers and former Notre Dame product Michael Mayer accounted for 165 of them.
Rookie running back Mike Washington Jr. led the team with 43 rush yards on nine carries including a long of 18 yards. Starting running back Ashton Jeanty was limited to just 22 rush yards on 10 ground touches with a long of eight yards.
“I’m encouraged,” Kubiak said. “I thought the run game was better, it has not been good enough [...] You’ve got to play to your strengths so that was what we did.”
Coming into the game, offensive lineman Spencer Burford got the start at left guard while fellow offensive lineman Jackson Powers-Johnson, who typically got the start at right guard.
With that move, second-year player Caleb Rogers got the start at right guard.
“That was my decision,” Kubiak said. “Let’s go watch the film and see where we’re at.”
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