Raiders report card from Bills loss shows why they still cannot finish

The Raiders offensive guard Caleb Rogers didn’t want to hear about how close his team came in Sunday’s disappointing loss to the Bills.

“But at the end of the day, we don’t want a moral victory,” Rogers said after his second start. “There’s no stat for that, there’s no column for it. As of right now we’re just a really good team who hasn’t closed in some games and we’ve got to close. And so when we’re a team that loves each other we can do that, and we can lean on each other. But we’ve still got to get it done.”

Fair enough. But while Rogers does not believe in moral victories, there’s still room for a report card. And the Raiders (3-3) earned a mix of A’s and C’s. They put up a good fight against Buffalo to deserve some credit, but when they needed those defensive stops late in the game, they came up short. 

Kirk Cousins threw for 313 yards and two touchdowns, but completing 23 of 41 passes (56.1%) keeps him off the honor roll. But the Bills linebacker Dorian Williams intercepted him early in the third quarter, and Buffalo turned the takeaway into a touchdown.

“Gritty, gutty,” coach Klint Kubiak said after the game. “Just the same guy you guys have seen all season. He’s playing superb football right now.”

Cousins graded himself harder, especially three straight incompletions after James Cook’s go-ahead touchdown.

“The first was the dagger out, we just weren’t able to connect,” Cousins said after the loss. “And then the next one, I felt like I just led Brock too far and was mad at myself for that.”

The Raiders ran 20 times for 65 yards. Ashton Jeanty did punch in his first rushing touchdown of the season on the opening possession, and Mike Washington Jr. nearly doubled the starter’s yardage on one fewer carry.

Kubiak said the run game looked better than it had in recent weeks. Well, that still worked out to 3.3 yards per carry, hardly a case for a higher grade.

The tight ends carried this class. Mayer and Brock Bowers combined for 11 catches and 165 yards, and Tre Tucker posted the third multi-touchdown game of his career. Outside of Tucker, the wide receivers barely showed up on the stat sheet.

Of six catches by Raiders wideouts, five belonged to Tucker. Buffalo paid so much attention to Bowers that Mayer was free to produce a career-high 95 yards. The other receivers still have some work to do.

Cousins attempted 41 passes and was never sacked. That’s a sharp turnaround from the protection problems against the Patriots. Caleb Rogers started at right guard over Jackson Powers-Johnson, a decision Kubiak took full accountability for.

The run blocking managed just 3.3 yards per carry, and center Tyler Linderbaum jumped early on fourth-and-1 at the Buffalo 13, his third such flag in that situation this season. The B comes with a big asterisk (*).

Josh Allen ran five times for 1 yard, and Quay Walker and Kwity Paye each sacked him on third down. Nakobe Dean added a team-high 12 tackles. That part of the assignment went well.

The takeaways have vanished, though. The Raiders forced 10 in their first three games and just one in the three losses since. Buffalo scored 20 points after halftime, and the Raiders could not come up with the stop they needed.

“We were taking the ball away early in the season a lot, we haven’t done that the last couple of weeks,” Maxx Crosby said after the game. “I put that on us and as a leader, it starts with me.”

AJ Cole averaged 55.3 yards on three punts, and Matt Gay went 3-for-3 on field goals. Dareke Young and Dylan Laube combined for 204 kickoff-return yards. The late onside kick went Buffalo’s way, but the kickers did their jobs.

Kubiak threw a challenge flag in the third quarter and admitted afterward that risking it for a possible two- or three-yard gain probably wasn’t worth it.

The Raiders also committed seven penalties for 62 yards, which Kubiak called seven too many. Worse, Las Vegas has been outscored by 26 points in third quarters this season.

A 13-13 halftime tie became a 23-13 deficit after Las Vegas opened the second half with three straight incompletions. That’s the part of this test the coaches will want back.

This article originally appeared on Raiders Wire: Raiders report card from Bills loss shows why they still cannot finish