The game of football is decided in the trenches — more often than not.
And the Las Vegas Raiders are habitually losing that battle. And, as a result, the team is in a four-game freefall and are 3-4 overall after a torrid 3-0 start to the 2026 season.
The Silver & Black’s most recent outing — a 35-21 shellacking at the hands of the visiting Los Angeles Rams this past Sunday — where the team was outgained on the ground 199 yards to 48 yards, was the latest example of the ineffectiveness in the trenches.
The Rams battered the Raiders at the line of scrimmage — offensively and defensively — sprinting to a 28-6 lead at halftime and the deficit threw everything into disarray for Las Vegas head coach Klint Kubiak and his coaching staff.
The lack of production in the ground game reeked of not only ineffectiveness but also coaching ineptitude and the reeling Rams used the Raiders as a get-right game showcasing the balanced offensive attack and aggressive defense that Kubiak wants from his football team.
“Yeah, well, we’re not going to run the ball until we stop the run. Until you make the game competitive,” Kubiak plainly said on Monday when asked about the constant theme of Las Vegas improving the run game and run defense. “You can’t be in the fourth quarter chasing points and expect to be a good run team. So, you need attempts, and in order to get those attempts, then we have to stop the run, and we have to keep our opponent out of the end zone.”
In those four-straight losses, Las Vegas defense is getting sliced through like hot knife through butter allowing 656 total rushing yards while the offense has struggled to produce 223 rushing yards. The 199 yards yielded to the Rams ground game was the high mark during that span and the 72 yards the Raiders run game produced in the 30-27 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 4 being the most Kubiak’s crew produced.
Through seven games, Las Vegas owns the third-worst ground game with 523 yards total and a 3.0 yards per carry average (second-worst). Only the Green Bay Packers (419 yards) and Cincinnati Bengals (487) are worse in that department — those two teams are 4-3 and 4-2, respectively, by the way. While there are fleeting moments breakaway runs, Raiders starting running back Ashton Jeanty (stats) and rookie backup Mike Washington Jr. (stats) run into the backs of offensive linemen or are taken down behind or at the line of scrimmage.
Despite being stonewalled on the ground, Kubiak’s aerial attack is producing, albeit in one-dimensional fashion. Led by veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins, the Raiders passing game is the second-best group in terms of yardage (1,883) and atop the league with 16 touchdowns. The Rams have the most passing yards (1,919) and the San Francisco 49ers and Bengals are tied for second in touchdowns with 15.
To showcase the imbalance that Kubiak spoke about above, Las Vegas is sixth with 266 passing attempts compared to 16th in rushing attempts with 174 totes. And the disparity in production from those two areas are crystal clear. It’s great that Las Vegas has the fifth-best offense with a total of 183 points, but the team also has the second-worst defense allowing a total of 197 points (a -13 point differential, the winless Los Angeles Chargers (-61) and 2-5 Arizona Cardinals (-66) are worst teams in this department).
All of that showcases this isn’t an aberration for the Raiders.
After the team’s defeat to the Chiefs, I noted Kubiak’s quickness to take ownership of the team’s shortcomings as admirable. Admitting an issue is the first step to fixing it. However, the inability to get the ground game going remains a glaring liability. Even considering there would be growing pains with a rookie head coach in Kubiak and his chosen defensive coordinator Rob Leonard (who is also a neophyte at his post), not being able to run the ball and stopping opponents from doing is a total collapse that exceeds realistic expectations.
This highlights a disconnect in coaching, player execution, and overall roster quality. Of that trio, the first two are within Kubiak’s and his coaching staff’s control while the third can be truly bolstered next offseason with another round of free agency and draft. Sure the general manager John Spytek can explore the trade market before the November 10 deadline, but the Raiders roster issues in Year 1 of the Kubiak era requires more than just that.
“Well, no one’s coming to help us. We’ve got to figure it out ourselves as a coaching staff with the players, and we have to complement each other as well because to we’ve got to start the game a lot faster offensively,” Kubiak said in the postgame press conference after the loss to the Rams.
Accountability is key and it’s present in both the Raiders coaching staff and roster.
“Absolutely, yeah. And there’s conversations like that every game, whether you’re winning and losing. There’s always hard conversations at halftime, making adjustments, holding people accountable. That’s part of every team,” middle linebacker Nakobe Dean said after the loss to the Rams.
“For sure, for sure, I got a lot of belief. I got a lot of faith in this team,” Dean added. “We got a lot of great players. We just got to put it together. We got to play as a team. We got to play as one. We can’t be all individual mercenaries out there.”
The taking action to change the behavior and fixing specific problems remains an issue.
Opponents continue to load the box to stymie the Raiders ground game and daring the team to beat them over the top — which Las Vegas hasn’t consistently done even though it’s gotten quality production from tight end Brock Bowers and wide receiver Tre Tucker. Communication issues on defense compound a young Raiders secondary as tight ends, deep routes, and short passes in the flat are wide open too often. There there’s poor tackling technique and angles (Pro Football Reference charts Las Vegas with 41 missed tackles, eighth most int he league and a 8.5 percent missed tackle rate as a team) that make the soft zone coverages even more ineffective.
And because of the consistent shortfalls, tempered expectations are in order.
The luster of the 3-0 start is gone and reality has set in like heavy fog. Three victories and four losses in the initial seven games is progress for a rookie head coach, so kudos to Kubiak. And while his expectations from his football team are elevated and gargantuan, this is Year 1 of his tenure. And the Raiders are no paragon of quality depth and talent roster-wise — I don’t think anyone will say otherwise (and if you do, can I have a sip of that Kool-Aid?).
“Yeah. I think from our perspective as players and coaches, that’s not something that’s on our mind. What’s on our mind is win the next game, and we’ve played very talented teams and played much more competitive games than that, being the Chiefs and the Bills,” Kubiak responded when asked about this not being an overnight rebuild and did the last four loses show there’s a gap that needs to be made up. “Yesterday, when you start the game that slow, you put yourself in position to be behind that much, you don’t give yourself a chance to win.”
Kubiak and Co. clearly have winning as the prime directive as it continues the 2026 campaign and the next opportunity is this coming Sunday at the New York Jets. The ultra-productive Cousins remains the starting quarterback and Kubiak continues to seek offensive balance and improved outings from Leonard’s defense.
To do so, Leonard must quell the 35.8 points per game surge his unit has allowed the last five weeks and bring back the all-for-one effort the Raiders defense showed when the team rattled off three-straight wins. The team was communicative and playing both aggressive and fast in that span which included an impressive nine takeaways. Since then, however, Las Vegas has forced just three turnovers. Leonard’s group is tied for second-best in the NFL in that regard (the Packers are tops with 13 takeaways).
Leonard was naturally defiant when asked if the bevy of takeaways mased his defense’s weaknesses during the 3-0 start. But it’s quite clear without them, opposing offenses are toying with his cover-four and coverage-matching system. Kubiak, when asked the same question, was more diplomatic in his response noting the turnovers forced is complementary football.
And that’s what’s been lacking when it comes to the Silver & Black.
Like Kubiak said, no one is coming to help them, and in order to snap the losing streak, it’s up to both coaches and players to rekindle that lost art of complementary play.
Lest the losses continue to stack.
