FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Raiders do not get a week to catch their breath after getting blown out, 45-17, by the Patriots on Sunday.
They get the Buffalo Bills.
Whatever answers they have for a running game going nowhere, a passing attack asking too much of too few, and a defense absorbing painful lessons had better come quickly.
Two straight losses have changed the conversation around a team that opened with three straight wins. The progress is real. So are the limitations.
Sunday’s blowout loss to the Patriots was a reminder that a good September did not erase everything that made this a rebuilding project.
The Raiders are better. They also have a long way to go.
Now coach Klint Kubiak must get them back on track against opponents equipped to exploit the weaknesses they have yet to resolve.
“We’re not happy with what happened today, and we have to go do something about it,” Kubiak said. “We have to fix it and move on.”
Easier said than done with two playoff teams arriving in Las Vegas over the next two weeks.
“We’re all gonna look at the mirror. It takes every single one of us,” defensive end Maxx Crosby said. “We’ve just got to improve from it.”
Start with the running game, where too many of the offensive problems begin.
The Raiders managed 38 yards on 18 carries Sunday. Another week, another afternoon searching for room that never materialized.
Falling behind pushed them toward the pass and away from the ground game Kubiak wants to establish as their identity. But the coach put that decision on himself.
“I abandoned the run game too early and didn’t give it a chance to get going,” Kubiak said.
Ashton Jeanty’s health belongs in the discussion. Limited in practice Thursday and sidelined Friday, he needed a pregame workout to determine whether his ankle and foot injuries would allow him to play.
He got clearance.
“Unless I can’t run, jump, cut, I’m playing,” Jeanty said.
Clearance is one thing. Full explosiveness is another. Jeanty, though, wanted no part of an injury excuse.
“Football’s a tough game. Like, you’re never going to play feeling one hundred percent,” Jeanty said. “At the end of the day, I just want to go out there and do my best for my teammates and whatever it takes.”
Reducing this to his health would let too many others off the hook. The Raiders are not consistently opening lanes. Their inability to move defenders is undermining everything Kubiak wants to build.
An offense designed to have its parts complement one another keeps operating with one missing.
The consequences ripple through every possession: difficult down-and-distance situations, fewer chances to keep defenses guessing and more pressure on the quarterback to rescue drives.
And when the Raiders turn to the pass, another limitation becomes impossible to ignore.
Brock Bowers is a difference-maker.
Who else consistently scares anybody?
Tre Tucker can stretch the field. Michael Mayer can contribute. The other receivers have roles.
But useful and dangerous are different things.
The Raiders need an outside receiver who changes how defenses line up. Someone who beats good coverage, creates something when a play breaks down and makes opponents reconsider how much attention they can devote to Bowers.
That absence was glaring Sunday.
It is why, if the Raiders were not involved in pursuing Marvin Harrison Jr., they should have been.
General manager John Spytek cannot let two losses turn a disciplined rebuild into an impulsive shopping trip. But discipline should not rule out aggression when an opportunity to add explosiveness presents itself.
Bowers needs a legitimate running mate. The offense needs another answer.
Of course, no receiver fixes the Raiders’ breakdowns in discipline.
A team that entered Sunday with an NFL-low 120 penalty yards accumulated 80 in the first half. It finished with eight penalties for 101 yards.
“I’ll have to go back and look at each individual one, but that’s not up to our standard,” Kubiak said.
Neither were the negative plays that repeatedly put the offense behind schedule. That is how a limited attack becomes an overwhelmed one.
One sequence late in the first half captured the damage.
Trailing 14-7, the Raiders recovered a fumble at the Patriots’ 38-yard line with a chance to tie the game. An end around to Tucker lost 11 yards, helping derail the possession. Matt Gay’s missed field goal left them empty-handed.
“That was one of those plays that does come back to say, man, could the game have been different?” quarterback Kirk Cousins said.
New England answered with a touchdown drive to make it 21-7.
A developing team cannot squander opportunities like that, especially when it lacks the firepower to recover.
The same scrutiny belongs on a defense that repeatedly left young cornerbacks in single coverage without generating enough pressure to make Drake Maye uncomfortable.
Aggression needs support. Without it, the offense gets the reward for the risk the defense takes.
Kubiak and his staff have to adjust. Clean up the penalties. Stop sabotaging possessions. Give young defenders help when the matchup demands it.
And be honest about what this roster can handle.
The first three wins showed progress. The next two losses exposed how much work remains. Neither cancels out the other.
Some fixes require better execution. Others require better players. The Raiders must address the first while Spytek works on the second.
The Bills and Rams will not wait.
September offered a glimpse of where the Raiders want to go. October is showing them how far they still have to travel.