The Las Vegas Raiders arrived at Gillette Stadium on Sunday as a 3-1 team fresh off pushing Kansas City into the final minute. They left 3-2, beaten by four touchdowns, outgained 536 yards to 306, and were exposed in ways that are hard to spin.
Drake Maye accounted for five touchdowns, and the Patriots punted only twice. The Raiders, meanwhile, scored just once while the game was still competitive.
After a respectable showing last week, this performance was an embarrassment. The league got a clear look at the holes on both sides of the ball, and they are not small.
Still, the afternoon was not a total loss. There were two positives.
Brock Bowers is as advertised…
When the rest of the offense is stuck, Brock Bowers remains the problem defenses have to solve. He caught eight of 10 targets for 110 yards. One of those catches was a 13-yard touchdown that briefly tied the game at 7-7. Those 110 yards accounted for roughly a third of Las Vegas’ total offense.
He did this against a Patriots secondary missing its starting cornerbacks. He also did it while the rest of the skill group struggled to create separation or finish runs. Ashton Jeanty managed 27 yards on 10 carries. The wide receivers were secondary options. Michael Mayer had one catch. Bowers was the only player who consistently moved the chains. He was also the only one who threatened the defense downfield.
That is exactly what the Raiders drafted. They wanted a tight end who can win one-on-one, catch in traffic and turn short throws into real yardage after the catch. Sunday was not a clean game for anyone. Bowers even lost a fumble late, when the score was already lopsided. But that does not change the larger picture. When Kirk Cousins needed a reliable target early, Bowers was there. When the offense needed a spark after a long Patriots drive, Bowers was there.
The rest of the unit has not matched him. Until the run game rediscovers the lanes it had in Week 1, Bowers is the offense. The same holds true until the receivers become more than complementary pieces. He looked like it again. That is no mystery.
Raider Nation got its first look at Fernando Mendoza…
The No. 1 overall pick and Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza entered with 6:06 left and the score already 45-17. It was not a real evaluation. The Patriots were in a prevent defense, and the game was over.
Mendoza still completed his first five passes and finished six of eight for 48 yards. He ran the offense without panic. He worked left to right, took what the defense gave him and got the ball out on time. On fourth-and-4 near the Patriots’ 14, he tried to pick up the first down himself and came up a yard short. It was a small moment in a blowout. It was also the first time most Raiders fans saw the quarterback the franchise bet its future on in a regular-season uniform.
Afterward, Klint Kubiak was clear that the depth chart has not changed. Cousins remains the starter for next week. Mendoza’s appearance was about giving a young quarterback live snaps once the outcome was decided. It was not a permanent shift.
Still, the look mattered. This fan base has watched the offense live and die with protection, the tight ends and Cousins’ accuracy. Seeing the next quarterback take a series without turning the ball over is not nothing. It is not a solution, either. One drive in garbage time does not fix a 28-point hole. It does remind people that the long-term plan is on the bench and that he just got his first regular-season reps.
That is the short list of positives. The rest of the tape is a problem.
The Patriots showed the league what the Raiders still are when an opponent plays clean and physical. New England ran for 165 yards. Drake Maye completed 26 of 34 passes for 374 yards and four touchdowns, and he added a rushing score.
The Raiders’ pass rush did not consistently affect him. The secondary did not stay attached to its receivers. On offense, Las Vegas was sacked three times and averaged barely over 2 yards per carry. The Raiders also committed more than 100 yards in penalties. They were out-executed in the trenches and out-schemed in space.
The early 7-7 tie disappeared quickly. By halftime, it was 21-7. By the time Dylan Laube scored his first career touchdown in the fourth quarter, the Patriots were already up 38-10.
This is the version of the team that opponents saw last year. It can hang with good teams for stretches, then get run out of the building when the details break. The run game has been inconsistent since the opener. The receivers are not creating easy answers.
The defense also failed to repeat its earlier form. It forced four turnovers in the fourth quarter against New Orleans and took the ball away from Justin Herbert. Against Maye, it did not generate the same pressure or coverage. Special teams and discipline were not clean either.
When all of those things tilt the wrong way at once, a three-point loss to the Chiefs becomes a four-touchdown loss to the Patriots in the span of a week.
Where do the Raiders go from here? Who are they, really?
The Raiders are a 3-2 team that beat Miami, the Chargers and the Saints, then lost a close one to Kansas City and got embarrassed in Foxborough.
The roster has a clear offensive hierarchy built around Bowers and a quarterback who has thrown touchdowns in bunches, but it lacks a consistent ground game and a deep receiving threat. The defense can swarm and take the ball away on its best days, yet it can get gashed on its worst.
A first-year head coach has shown he will call aggressive plays, and he has not been afraid to face the cameras after bad ones. The team’s No. 1 pick also just took his first regular-season snaps, so the present and the future now share a sideline.
Related: Why is Dylan Laube suddenly getting a bigger role?
Kubiak said after the game that the team is not happy with what happened and that it has to do something about it. That is the right sentence, but it is the easy part. The hard part is the film.
The staff has a full week to figure out why the line could not create lanes. It also has to determine why the coverage did not travel and why the penalties kept giving New England extra downs. From there, the coaches must decide how much of the game plan against the Bills can look like the one that worked against Miami. They must also decide how much has to change after what Gillette exposed.
Cousins will start, and Bowers will be the focal point. The rest of the unit has to meet a higher standard, or the same holes will show up again. Next up are the Buffalo Bills at Allegiant Stadium. They are a better team than the one that just beat the Raiders by 28 points.
A sharp drop back to earth can ground a young roster if the response is honest. It can also confirm the worst version of the season if the response is noise. The Patriots just handed Las Vegas a clear picture of what still needs fixing. Whether that picture arrives in time for the Bills is the only question that matters this week.
The coaching staff has its hands full, and so do the players. One tight end playing like himself is not enough to cover the rest of the tape. The rest of the tape is what they have to fix.
*Top Photo: Ramble Illustration/Getty Images