Right now, the Raiders are their own worst enemy

LAS VEGAS — Halloween is still six days away. But if you watched a good portion of the Raiders’ performance Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams, you got to see Chiller Theater in real time.

Man, that was some scary stuff.

The Raiders looked like a Zombie football team, showing virtually no life on offense or defense and the only thing that could be perceived as energetic were Dylan Laube’s kickoff returns. And even that was short-lived as the Rams opted to kick the ball into the end zone rather than risk trying to tackle him.

The 35-21 defeat should serve as a wakeup call for everyone in the Raiders organization — from Mark Davis and Tom Brady to John Spytek to Klint Kubiak to the assistant coaches to all the players. This kind of performance is unacceptable. And then you wonder why Raiders fans sell their tickets and the opposing team’s fans take over Allegiant Stadium all the time?

Kubiak, as he has done each week during what is now a four-game losing streak following a 3-0 start, took the blame. Which is fine. It’s on him to have his team prepared to play. And while he may be a first-year NFL head coach, he has been in the league long enough to know what it takes to be ready to go when it’s kickoff.

“We started way too slow,” Kubiak said. “It’s very disappointing. I thought our guys were ready to play. We just didn’t execute early in the game.”

The Raiders fell behind 28-3 and never recovered. What little life the Raiders displayed came late in the third quarter and early fourth as Kirk Cousins completed touchdown passes to Tre Tucker and Ashton Jeanty to make things, ahem, interesting. as the Silver and Black cut the deficit to 28-18 (The Raiders missed both 2-point attempts).

But the Rams answered with a TD of their own as the Las Vegas defense allowed 30 or more points for the fourth straight week. As a result, you have two teams sporting identical 3-4 records but that’s where the similarity ends.

“We have to make plays,” Kubiak said as the offense was unable to convert on 4th down on three occasions trying to extend drives or find the end zone. “We have to make throws. We have to make catches. It didn’t happen.”

This town doesn’t accept losing. And while this may be the NFL, no fan base is going to tolerate long-term losing. Any goodwill the Raiders may have built from the fast beginning is gone. They’ve crashed to Earth harder than Skylab and a season that was showing so much promise after Week 3 is looking bleak after Week 7.

So the big question is: How do you fix it? Where is the tourniquet to stop the bleeding? Can the season still be salvaged? The trade deadline is Nov. 10. Could Spytek be moving some pieces to shake things up?

There’s 10 games left. Even the most eternal of optimists will say there’s time to turn things around. But the reality is it’s a multitude of issues facing the Raiders. Their warts have been exposed and opponents are exploiting the weaknesses.

Once again, the running game was virtually non-existent. Mike Washington Jr.’s 21-yard scamper in the second quarter was the team’s best on Sunday. The offensive line failed to give Cousins sufficient time to throw the ball and even without Myles Garrett, the Rams put plenty of pressure on Cousins.

Defensively, the Raiders continue to blow assignments, miss tackles and allow the big play. And when the offense is unable to match the other team score for score, it’s up to the defense to keep the dam from breaking.

And when that doesn’t happen, you get what we saw Sunday. The Raiders’ worst version of themselves, the team that went 3-14 a year ago, the team that has made the postseason once since it moved to Las Vegas from Oakland six years ago.

“It’s about doing the little things,” linebacker Quay Walker said. “It’s about technique. It’s about communication. We just have to go out there and execute.”

Safety Isaiah Pola-Mao said the mistakes are fixable.

“It’s everybody involved,” he said. “We have to make plays when called upon. It comes down to that.

“it’s about being complementary. It’s about creating a turnover and giving the offense the ball where they can score. That’s the name of the game.”

It’s what the Raiders were doing at the start of the season as they built a 3-0 record. But that seems like a long time ago.

Some will call for Fernando Mendoza to start next Sunday in the Meadowlands against the Jets. The logic being, “Hey, he can’t do any worse.” But if the line doesn’t block for him, if his backs can’t run the ball, if he doesn’t get time to execute, do you want to see him get killed out there?

If Cousins were absolutely horrible and the reason the Raiders are bad right now were his fault entirely, yeah, you could justify making the move to Mendoza. But Cousins is one symptom of things that have gone awry. Teams are not going to let tight end Brock Bowers beat them. So when Bowers doesn’t make his first reception until well into the second quarter, that’s why. Opponents would rather take a shot of Tucker or Jalen Nailor beating them then letting No. 89 run free in their secondary.

When asked if he’d consider changing quarterbacks, Kubiak said: “We have to watch the film. We have to think a lot about everything.”

Here’s an idea. Maybe start faster, not chase the game, get the running game untracked once and for all and stop asking your quarterback to throw 44 times. And while you’re at it, tackle the other team’s ballcarrier and make the opposing quarterback’s life less than Shangri-la. That would be a good starting point.