Things continue to slide as Raiders lose fourth straight game

Las Vegas head coach Pete Carroll stares onto the field during his team's, 40-6, loss to Indianapolis. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Raiders

The lone win for the Las Vegas Raiders seems so long ago as the team’s backward slide continued this past weekend.

Las Vegas dropped a fourth straight game when it was blown out, 40-6, by Indianapolis Sunday, Oct. 5 from Lucas Oil Stadium in a Week 5 matchup. The singular win for the now 1-4 Raiders came back in Week 1 on the road against the New England Patriots.

“The [Washington] Commanders game and this game were similar,” head coach Pete Carroll said. “We just couldn’t get out of our own way enough.”

After entering Sunday being outscored by 29 points in its last three games, Las Vegas has now been outscored 63 in its last four outings. Looking to end the four-game losing streak, the team will get back to action against a winless Tennessee team.

The Raiders will host the Titans Sunday, Oct. 12 from Allegiant Stadium with kickoff set for 1:05 p.m.

“We believe we’re going to be much better than this,” Carroll said. “The coaches do and the players do, we feel like we can prove it with the way we’re working and the way we’re preparing it all but you’ve got to take it to the game.”

Raiders quarterback Geno Smith rifles a pass inside Lucas Oil Stadium. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Raiders

While the game ended up in a lopsided lashing, quarterback Geno Smith’s mistakes with the football continued to be an issue for the team’s offense.

Smith was intercepted at the Indianapolis 11-yard line to kill a drive while trailing by 11 points in the second quarter. In the loss, the Raiders went 0-for-4 in the red zone.

“With the blocks and the significant field changes, they’re just huge to deal with,” Carroll said. “You couple that with a couple turnovers – I think one of them was obviously questioned as a huge play in the game.”

On the second play of the second Las Vegas drive of the third quarter, Smith threw his second interception of the day and his ninth of the season. Through five games, nine interceptions are the most interceptions thrown since quarterback Zach Wilson did it for the New York Jets back in 2021.

In the loss, Smith went 25-for-36 with 228 passing yards and two interceptions.

“I was thinking if there was a reason to [insert backup quarterback Kenny Pickett],” Carroll said. “Here’s the reason why I didn’t do that, we need to stay out there and keep practicing. We need the reps, we need the turns, we need to run the system. We need to feel it.”

Smith was able to engineer some long drives including a near 10-minute drive on the team’s first possession of the game. In the fourth quarter, he doctored a pair of 13-minute drives with just three points to show for it.

Las Vegas kicker Daniel Carlson boots one of his two field goals in three tries as part of the team's 34-point road loss. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Raiders

In fact, it’s the second time through the first five games of the year that the Raiders have been held without an offensive touchdown. All six points on Sunday came off the foot of kicker Daniel Carlson, who went 2-for-3 in his outing.

“It’s been hard,” Carroll said. “It hasn’t been easy. It’s been tough to get the big plays in the last couple of weeks that give you the easy scores. Even going back to the Commanders’ game, we exploded a bunch of times in that game.”

Las Vegas also had to deal with an injury to punter A.J. Cole in addition to Indianapolis dealing with the loss of kicker Spencer Shrader. Even without a kicker in tow, the Colts managed to rattle off six straight touchdown-scoring possessions while scoring 20 points apiece in the second and third quarters.

As part of those six straight scoring possessions, former Raiders running back Ameer Abdullah got in on the action for his first touchdown of the season. Starting running back Jonathan Taylor racked up three touchdowns and 66 yards on 17 carries.

Along the entirety of the scoring stretch, the home team attempted two-point conversions in place of field goal tries with the absence of its kicker.

Colts quarterback Daniel Jones launches a pass over the Raiders defense during the Week 5 matchup between the two clubs. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Raiders

“They were able to get their conversions,” Carroll said. “We had calls and we had gameplans and things that you try to get done. They just out-executed us.”

Opposing quarterback Daniel Jones continued his stellar play this year with 212 more passing yards and two touchdowns on a 20-for-29 through the air on the day.

“The game is we have to get off the field,” Carroll said. “We’ve got to make our plays when we’ve got our chances. And we’ve got to stay away from the extremely big plays that happen. The punt block and losing the ball on the interception [in the red zone].”