Raiders’ Geno Smith Breaks Las Vegas Record in Debut Against Patriots

It was an impressive debut for Geno Smith of the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday against the New England Patriots. The Raiders went into Sunday’s game with some questions on the offensive side of the football, but Smith was excellent, throwing for 362 yards on 34 attempts, adding a touchdown and one interception. The Raiders will have things to clean up, but they beat a much-improved Patriots team on the road, showing some promise in their first week. 

Smith also enjoyed other things in that game, including making Raiders history in more ways than one. According to Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk, Smith’s 362 passing yards broke Dan Pastorini’s record for the most passing yards in a Raiders debut. 

“Smith was 24-of-34 for 362 yards, a touchdown, and an interception in the 20-13 road win over the Patriots. The 362 yards broke Dan Pastorini’s record for most passing yards in a Raiders debut and it marked the eighth time since the start of the 2022 season that Smith threw for at least 300 yards while completing at least 70 percent of his passes,” he wrote.

The Raiders also announced in an article released by the team that Smith had nine completions for 20-plus yards, which tied for the most in a game in his career. It also tied for the most in a single game by a Raiders quarterback since 1991. 

“Another impressive feat for Smith was his nine completed passes for 20+ yards against the Patriots, tied for the most in a game in his career. It also tied for the most in a single game by a Raiders quarterback since 1991. He accomplished this while completing a pass to seven different receivers,” Levi Edwards wrote.

Raiders QB Geno Smith Proves to Be a Late Bloomer

Smith has been a polarizing player around the NFL due to his play at times. 

For much of the past few years, he’s been one of the better quarterbacks in the NFL. 

Of course, he isn’t elite by any means, but he threw for 4,320 yards and 21 touchdowns last season. The issue, however, is that he turned the ball over 15 times. Despite that, the Las Vegas Raiders finally seem to have an above-average quarterback again, and for Pete Carroll, this might be all he needs. 

“He’s been doing this now. Geno had a regular game today,” Carroll said, per NFL.com. “I don’t think it was a big statement game or anything like that. I just think that’s what he does. And we’ll do better than that. He’s got it in him to do better than that.”

Geno Smith’s Honest Take on Raiders Start

While Smith had an impressive game, this is just the start of what the Las Vegas Raiders need to do. He found seven different receivers in a great effort by the entire team, but there are questions about how the Raiders will look offensively still, despite the above-average performance. 

For Smith, however, he’s just doing what he’s asked to do, adding that he wants to make the right reads and get everyone the football when he can. 

“That’s how we want to play football,” Smith said. “We want to make sure that we make the right reads. I want to make sure that I’m making the right decisions and getting the ball into the hands of the playmakers. We’ve got a lot of great players and that’s something that we can take advantage of. I want to spread the ball around if need be but I want to find the open guy, first and foremost.”

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