 The four-game skid is over. The Las Vegas Raiders walked out of MetLife Stadium with a 38-33 win over the New York Jets, a 4-4 record, and the first win since Week 3.
They trailed by nine at halftime and allowed the Jets to score on their first six possessions. Even so, they scored 24 points after the break and sealed the win when Jeremy Chinn intercepted Geno Smith’s final heave in the end zone.
It was a win, but it was also a reminder that the problems from the losing streak have not gone away. The run defense was still porous, and the offense still leaned heavily on the pass. Special teams and the tight ends picked up the slack when the ground game could not, and Kirk Cousins kept producing. For one Sunday on the road, that was enough.
Kirk Cousins continues to have a Pro Bowl season…
Cousins finished 19 of 26 for 247 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions, and he added a 1-yard rushing score. His passer rating was 141. He threw two touchdowns to Brock Bowers and the go-ahead score to Jalen Nailor from 2 yards out with just over 11 minutes left. On the drive that produced the Nailor touchdown, Ashton Jeanty caught a 45-yard pass that moved the chains and flipped the field.
It was the version of Cousins the Raiders have seen for most of the year. He has thrown 19 touchdown passes through eight weeks, still the most in the league, and he has not turned the ball over in the last two games. When the offense needs a play in the second half, he is the one who delivers it, which is why the Comeback Player of the Year conversation is not just talk.
He arrived as a veteran bridge but has played like a starter who can still win games even when the supporting pieces are limited. The Raiders are 4-4 largely because he has been that player. The rest of the offense has not matched him consistently, yet he has not asked it to. He has simply kept making the throws.
Special teams came to play…
Dylan Laube returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter, the first kickoff return for a score in the NFL this season and the first for the Raiders since Jacoby Ford did it in 2011. Playing near his hometown on Long Island, Laube caught the ball at the 5-yard line and went untouched down the left sideline. The score put Las Vegas ahead 14-13, though only briefly, before the Jets answered.
It did not decide the game by itself, but it changed the feel of the afternoon. A team that had been bleeding points for four weeks suddenly had a touchdown that did not require the offense to drive the length of the field.
Special teams have not been a weekly strength for the Raiders, but they were on Sunday. Laube’s return gave them a spark while the offense was still searching for its rhythm. Later, Matt Gay hit a 53-yard field goal that made the final margin five points and forced the Jets to need a touchdown on their last possession.
Those plays, Laube’s return, Gay’s kick and Chinn’s interception, were the difference between another close loss and the first win in a month. The offense and defense still have to be better. On a day when neither was clean, special teams gave the Raiders a path.
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The tight ends continue to be Cousins’ safety blanket…
Brock Bowers caught seven passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns, and one of his catches was a one-handed grab that kept a drive alive. His two touchdowns came in the red zone and kept the Raiders within striking distance. Michael Mayer added five catches for 53 yards. Together they gave Cousins the short and intermediate options he has leaned on all season. When receivers are covered or protection breaks down, the tight ends are there, and when the run game is stuck, they become an extension of it. Bowers has been the most consistent skill player on the roster for weeks, and Mayer has been the reliable complement. With the ground game producing only 95 yards, the tight ends gave the offense a way to move the chains and score without forcing the ball downfield every snap.
That has been the pattern: The tight ends keep showing up, the wide receiver room remains thin and the run game remains inconsistent. Cousins keeps finding Bowers and Mayer because they are open and because they catch the ball. That works until a defense takes those options away. The Jets did not do that Sunday. The 49ers will try.
The losing streak is finally over, which matters for a team that had dropped four in a row and watched its early-season optimism fade. It does not solve the larger issue, though. Next week, the Raiders travel to Santa Clara to face the San Francisco 49ers, a better team than the Jets and one that will notice the same things the Jets noticed and exploit them more cleanly.
The run game remains the clearest problem…
It was nearly obvious Sunday that when Jeanty was on the field, the play would be a pass, and when Washington was on the field, it would be a run. Jeanty carried the ball twice for 9 yards and caught three passes for 64. Washington carried 25 times for 83 yards. Defenses can play that tendency by loading up against Washington and dropping into coverage when Jeanty is in the game. The 49ers will study the same tape. They will not give Washington the same free looks, and they will come with a plan to keep Jeanty from catching the ball in space.
Klint Kubiak has to get the run game going with both players. The wide zone still is not creating consistent movement, and the personnel split is too clean. Until the offense can hand the ball to either back and trust the line to create a crease, every defense will keep treating the Raiders as one-dimensional. Cousins can keep producing, the tight ends can keep catching and special teams can keep making plays. None of that changes the fact that a good defense will sit on the pass if the run is not a real threat. The 49ers have a good defense, and the Raiders will need more than they showed against the Jets to keep their momentum.
A win is a win, and the skid is over, but the next test is harder. Until the run game arrives, every week will ask Cousins, the tight ends and special teams to do a little more than they should. On Sunday, they did enough. Santa Clara will ask for more.
*Top Photo: David Becker/Getty Images