LAS VEGAS — Things appear to be back to normal for the Raiders. If what we’ve seen for the majority of their time in Las Vegas can be considered “normal.”
The Raiders put up a good fight but ultimately lost a “home” game to the Buffalo Bills Sunday at Allegiant Stadium, 33-30.
After a 3-0 start where it appeared things were on the improve and maybe, just maybe the Raiders would finally break free from their losing ways since their arrival here from Oakland, they’re now 3-3, having dropped three straight and it feels like they’ve reverted back to what we’ve been accustomed to seeing the last few years. Penalties. Missed tackles. Turnovers. Kicking field goals when touchdowns were needed. And of course, the other team’s fans turning the home-field advantage in their favor.
“Very disappointed, very disappointed that we didn’t get it done today,” said head coach Klint Kubiak. “As a team, we didn’t close the game. We’re not satisfied.”
You know those takeovers the Professional Women’s Hockey League stages where it comes into a city that doesn’t have a women’s hockey team and they literally take over the arena? Magnify that ten-fold and that’s what Allegiant was Sunday. The Bills Mafia travels well everywhere. But the first time to Las Vegas? You knew they were showing up en masse.
My Sunday morning flight from Oakland, which normally would be packed with fans clad in Raiders gear, competed equally with Buffalo fans. Fortunately, they played nice for the hour or so we were airborne en route to Reid International Airport. I’m guessing the flight attendants looked up to the ceiling of the aircraft and thanked the almighty once we got to gate B-15 and Metro wasn’t required to escort anyone off the plane.
Hey, it’s not like we haven’t seen this before. The Chiefs Kingdom dominated on Oct. 4 as Allegiant became a sea of red, which has been an annual thing around here. Or orange when the Broncos show up. Of black and gold with the Steelers.
You get the point.
You’re a Raiders season ticket-holder. You know your tickets for the Bills game will fetch a pretty penny, enough to offset a good portion of your annual bill. You figure the Raiders are going to lose so you put the seats up for sale on the secondary market, stay home and watch it on TV.
So when Kirk Cousins gets intercepted or Treydan Stokes or Hezekiah Masses gets called for pass interference or holding or the offense gets called for a false start on fourth-and-1 or Josh Allen manages to make something out of nothing, you can merely shake your head and flip the channel to another game.
“We need to play for four quarters,” Kubiak said. “I’m really upset with how we’re starting the third quarter. You can’t go three-and-out.
"The penalties on fourth-and-1 are killing us, just killing us."”
It’s like the Raiders had been toying with their fans’ tender psyches for the first three weeks and have reverted back to their old ways that frustrate the hell out of the supporters. It took the better part of three quarters for Brock Bowers to impact the game. The running game still remains stuck in first gear even if Ashton Jeanty appeared to be moving well.
Jeanty had just 22 yards on the ground but caught four passes for 36 yards. And on a day where Allen had run for just a single yard, he picked the Raiders’ defense apart, throwing for 255 yards and two scores on 23-of-33 passing.
And while the Raiders had fewer penalties than the Bills, their flags came at the most inopportune times. The 62 yards acrrued through penalties helped keep a couple of Buffalo scoring drives alive and despite Cousins out dueling Allen yardage-wise with 313 yards, he threw a costly interception in the third quarter that led to a Bills TD. The false start in the second quarter on fourth-and-1 at the Bills 13 which had they converted would have put them in prime scoring position. Instead, they wind up at Buffalo's 18 and settle for a Matt Gay field goal.
“It’s hard to sleep after games like that,” Cousins said. “It’s about taking advantage of the opportunities you get. We’ve got to find the inches in the fourth quarter.
“You can’t go 2 of 5 in the red zone. You can’t throw an interception and give them a short field.”
These were the things the Raiders have been doing for the last few years — making just enough plays to be in the game, then failing just enough times to wind up on the short end.
For Kubiak, it comes down to one task for him and his players.
“Close games out,” he said.
In September, the Raiders were doing that. But here in October, that hasn’t been the case. And in the NFL, you have to find ways to win on the road, especially when you’re at home and you wind up the visitors in your own stadium.