The Las Vegas Raiders' Week 6 home matchup against the Buffalo Bills will be the third consecutive week that Las Vegas plays one of the league's top teams. It is shaping up to be yet another challenging outing for a Raiders team still under construction across the board.
After starting the season on a three-game winning streak, the Raiders are now looking to stop a losing streak in a span of games that rival even the toughest schedules in the league. How Klint Kubiak's team performs on Sunday will tell us a lot.
The Raiders have shown us they are better than the bottom-tier teams, which they weren't for the past few seasons. However, Las Vegas' past two games also confirmed they are not elite like the Chiefs and New England Patriots. How they perform against the Bills will clarify things even more.
Las Vegas faces an uphill battle against the Bills this Sunday. Below is additional information regarding the matchup.
Announcers
Jim Nantz will take care of the play-by-play duties, while JJ Watt will serve as the game analyst. Tracey Wolfson will be the sideline reporter.
Referees and Jersey Combinations
Referee Shawn Smith and his crew will call Sunday's matchup against the Bills. Las Vegas will wear its traditional black jerseys and silver helmets, with silver pants, at home on Sunday.
The Raiders look to clean up the penalties that derailed their chances of being competitive last week against the New England Patriots. Entering Week 5, Las Vegas was one of the league's least-penalized teams. The Raiders will need to play clean football against the Bills.
The Raiders, of course, have several other things to worry about besides the referees or the game. Las Vegas has struggled on both sides of the ball over the past two weeks. Sunday's matchup against the Bills, Las Vegas looks to clean up the mistakes.
One of the few positives from Las Vegas' Week 5 loss is that it made it clear where the Raiders need to get better. It also put additional pressure on them not to let the Patriots beat them twice. Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins explained his thoughts on the matter.
“I think the more you can zoom focus, the more you can make it about one technique or one fundamental that just has to be improved, and then kind of allow the bigger picture to fix itself as a result of that one technique. That's the ideal way to approach it,” Cousins said earlier this week.
“But that analysis is such a big part of getting better, is being able to look at it and say, 'Okay, let's boil this down.' It wasn't 17 plays that all had 17 different reasons why we weren't good enough on those plays. Let's try to think what was a common theme, what was a consistent thing that we struggled with or that we can get better in. If we can do that, that's how I think you can get better, is just having that deliberate analysis that helps you then be more productive at practice."
The Raiders have had two consecutive seasons that included 10-game losing streaks. Although that is unlikely to happen this season, with two games against the Bills and the Los Angeles Chargers, they could quickly find themselves almost halfway there.
As the season continues, Las Vegas still has similarly challenging streaks of games. The Bills may very well be the best team they have faced so far, aside from the Kansas City Chiefs. Raiders offensive coordinator Andrew Janocko knows the Bills present several different challenges.
“I think it's a very talented group. They're talented. They're well coached. They have a good scheme. They play very hard. They play fast. They're physically gifted. So, those are guys that present a heck of a challenge for us this week. It's something that we're going to attack different ways, but we're excited for the challenge. Those guys are a really talented group,” Janocko said before practice this week.
The Raiders have to find a way to snap out of it before what has happened in the past two weeks continues over the next two weeks.
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