There were a few positives in the Las Vegas Raiders‘ 41-24 loss to the Washington Commanders on September 21 at Northwest Stadium. Over the past two games before Week 3, the Silver and Black’s defense was a pleasant surprise.
Las Vegas’ defense only allowed 13 points to the New England Patriots and 20 points to the Los Angeles Chargers. However, the unit had an off day against the Commanders. Washington scored seven or more points in each quarter, which led to the blowout win.
Moreover, the home side had a field day on the ground as they recorded 201 rushing yards as team. After the loss, Raiders star Maxx Crosby didn’t hold back on the self-criticism of the team as they have now lost two straight games.
“We just didn’t play good enough in all three phases,” Crosby told reporters after the loss to the Commanders. “It’s just not our standard. We got to play better. we got to start fast and finish better. I feel like we had moments where we played well, but just overall it just wasn’t a good performance on all three levels.”
Raiders Didn’t Do the Details to Win
After noting that the entire team didn’t play up to their standard, Crosby noted that it was the little details in a football game that ended up being what led to their downfall and giving the Commanders the win.
While the group is coming off a short week, the Raiders star noted that it’s not an excuse for how they played.
“I mean, we didn’t play well, so we just got to play better,” Crosby added. “It’s as simple as that. Short week, there’s no excuses. Everybody has short weeks during the season. It’s just how you prepare. We just got to play better. There’s never going to be excuses with this group. We know, everybody knows, we got to take accountability and we got Chicago [in Week 4] at home, so we got a lot of work to do until then.”
Raiders Will Need to Improve Their Run Game
Three weeks into the NFL season, the Raiders are still searching for consistency on the ground. Against the Commanders, though, there were glimpses of what the run game could be. Veteran Geno Smith admitted the team has to find a way to establish the run early to ease the pressure on the offense.
“Extremely important [to establish the run],” Smith told reporters postgame. “But more importantly, we got to dominate the line of scrimmage — we got to own the line of scrimmage. That’s football in a nutshell. If you can win the line of scrimmage, you can win a lot of games.
“If you can win the line of scrimmage, control the turnover battle, get first downs, convert in the red zone, be great in situations — you can win a lot of games. So yeah, it’s a lot of things that we can do better, but I look forward to getting it right.”
As Crosby noted, the Raiders will need to turn the page and focus on Week 4 on a Chicago Bears team that’s heading to Las Vegas off a win against the Dallas Cowboys.
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