HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — The Las Vegas Raiders have had just about every chance to build on their surprising 3-0 start even while facing a gauntlet of Super Bowl contenders the past three weeks.
Except for a 45-17 blowout loss at New England on Oct. 11 when they were not competitive, the Raiders went into halftime leading Kansas City by three points and were even with Buffalo.
Then came the third quarter and the offense dried up. The Raiders were shut
out in the third in both games and outscored 24-3 in all three in that period. Las Vegas' minus-26 point differential in the third quarter this season is the NFL's worst.
That lack of production makes the three-point losses to the Chiefs and Bills even more excruciating for the Raiders.
“Overall, it’s just a complete lack of production,” coach Klint Kubiak said Monday. “It’s really putting us in a bad spot as a team, not getting it done, getting outscored in the third quarter. So, as a coaching staff, we’re hard at work trying to identify: What are those common things and what do we need to do to put our players in better position?
“(Sunday against the Bills) was a great example of how much it can hurt you, and it did. So we’re looking at our process at halftime, at what we’re asking the players to do coming out in the third quarter, and that’s a major point of emphasis.”
The Raiders were tied 13-13 with the Bills at halftime, but then were outscored 10-0 in the third quarter. Kirk Cousins' interception set up a Buffalo touchdown to turn it into a two-possession game.
Though Las Vegas rallied to tie the game in the fourth, Cousins lamented what that sequence in the third meant to the outcome.
“We just had too many three-and-outs coming out of the second half,” Cousins said. “We have not played good football for the most part. We’ve got to be much, much better coming out. Got to emphasize it this week. Work at it. It’s one of those things that I think we can be a much better football team if that start of the third quarter is where we need it to be. I’d like to think it’s going to really help us win games.”
Cousins, minus the interception, was at the top of his game, moving the offense as the running game struggled. He passed for 313 yards, breaking 300 for the second time in three games, and threw two touchdown passes to Tre Tucker. Cousins' 14 touchdown passes were tied with Jacksonville's Trevor Lawrence for most in the league going into Monday night, which San Francisco's Brock Purdy entered with 13.
The Raiders converted just 2 of 5 red-zone opportunities into touchdowns against Buffalo and went 0 for 2 two weeks ago against the Chiefs. Both were three-point losses, and doing even slightly better inside the 20-yard line could have been enough to flip those games. For the season, the Raiders are 12th worst in the NFL with a 52.2% conversion rate.
Before Sunday, the Raiders were relying heavily on their tight ends, while not getting much out of their wide receivers. That changed with Tucker's two touchdown catches, including a 44-yarder where he beat Bills defensive backs on a go route and made a spectacular diving catch.
“Tre’s shown that he can really stress the defense,” Kubiak said. “Any time that you can push a ball down the field, it’s going to open things up.”
Las Vegas' defense has given up 30-plus points in each of the past three games, the first time the Raiders have done that since late in the 2019 season. To be fair, the Raiders faced three top-tier quarterbacks in Patrick Mahomes, Drake Maye and Josh Allen. Next up is the Los Angeles Rams' Matthew Stafford.
DT Tonka Hemingway (concussion) is expected back at practice this week.
1 — The number of Raiders takeaways over the past three games, a fumble recovery against the Patriots. Las Vegas forced nine turnovers over the first three weeks — five fumbles and four interceptions.
The Raiders host the Rams on Sunday.
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