The Las Vegas Raiders took the Buffalo Bills to the wire but fell 33-30. Maxx Crosby, Kirk Cousins and Tyler Linderbaum on what went wrong and how they can fix it.
The Raiders lost 33-30 to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, their third straight defeat, and the players pointed to the same problem afterward: they cannot close.
“We just haven’t been able to finish, Kansas City was similar,” defensive end Maxx Crosby said. “We know we’re a really good team; we just need to do a better job of finishing games. Simple as that.”
Quarterback Kirk Cousins described the mood in the locker room. “One of these games where it’s hard to sleep afterwards,” he said.
Center Tyler Linderbaum took responsibility for penalties on the Connor Heyward sneak, a critical sequence in the game. “I gotta figure it out,” Linderbaum said. “Unacceptable to put our team in that position.” He called it “a big swing.”
The game also had a volatile moment, a spitting incident involving Bills defensive back CJ Gardner-Johnson, which resulted in his ejection. Asked what happened, Brock Bowers said, “I don’t even know.”
The losses matter because of what they reveal about the roster…
Crosby’s comparison to the Kansas City game shows a pattern: Las Vegas competes for three quarters and then fails to finish. Penalties from a veteran like Linderbaum, who anchors the offensive line, point to a unit that has not yet found its footing. An ejection also costs the depth chart a tight end for the rest of the game, and potentially more if the league adds discipline. Against an offense as potent as Buffalo’s, the defense has little margin for error.
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The Raiders have built this team to compete now, with Cousins and Crosby as the veteran core. Close losses are tolerable in a transition year, but three in a row begin to erode confidence in the plan. At 3-3, the early 3-0 start looks more like an outlier, and the team’s goals depend on turning near misses into wins.
Expect the Raiders to spend this week on situational football and discipline, with penalties on the offensive line and late-game execution the focus of practice.
*Top Photo: Ramble Illustration/Getty Images