On to the Bills

[Attyla]

Back home, spread should be around 6.5 or so.

Let' go back to being competitive. Discuss. Bills have not won a SB. This is my way of saying we are better than them. I know, it does not help.

[GoodTimeCharlie]

Why the hell would the Raiders or anyone do that??? The game is in Vegas

Goto Indiana University tomorrow. Stay in the dorms. Fly to Vegas the morning of. Start Mendo. Start Mike Washington. Put Jeanty on IR for the minimum. Trade Maxx/JPJ before the deadline. Stack picks. Win a few, lose a few. Take your lumps. Gain experience. Draft Charlie B, Stone/Echoles DT, Pieper/Johnson G. (Re)Build for the future.

[ELCAraiderfan]

I don't think we should be fooled by the small number of plays Mendoza was in. Yes he looked very good, BUT he was playing against a prevent defense too. the pats were not playing the same way they did for the majority of the game.

I think the biggest problem is the Raiders offensive line, both in the run and pass protection game. They're not opening up holes on majority of running plays and their pass protection has sucked these last two weeks. Against betters teams oddly enough. So first 3 games gave us a false reality of the oline. Because I remember connecting on a 40 or 50 yard pass to Tucker one of the first games, so Cousins does have some arm left. He just doesn't have the arm for quick long throws when the defense is quickly in his face. There was no excuse for not hitting Tucker on that long pass play, he was wide open 3 to 5 steps in front of the defender. he hits tucker in stride easy touchdown.

Now Dennison is supposed to be some offensive line savant, he needs to start proving it. But I also believe that Kubiak play calling was not good today. He made no adjustments to slow down the pass rush when the running game wasn't working. He needed to come up with short passes and screens and whatever else would slow down the pats rush. Unfortunately the only player that seems to get open on short routes so far has been Bowers. Lack of talent from a lousy team last year that hasn't been fully made over yet showed up today.

Plus arriving the day before was retarded you idiot staff. Didn't the 49ers leaving a week early to Australia help you learn anything? Now you didn't have to leave a week early for this game being only 3-4 hours away but a minimum of 2 days getting to the east coast was/should have been mandatory.

[raiders93]

That's a good question and I can't answer that. Cousins has played well and wasn't the reason we lost today but it's going to get increasingly hard to win with Cousins if we can't start pounding the rock.

Would Mendoza fare better in that situation? I think he would be tucking and running a lot. I am not so sure that is a good thing despite the spark it could give the offense.

All for seeing Mendo but it’s a total misdiagnosis of the problem. We have not been hampered by bad QB play. Running game, sure. Defence today, absolutely. But poor QB play hasn’t really been our problem even in the 2 losses.

I get the idea that Mendo’s mobility and arm strength could open things up for our offence. Potentially create more space for the ground game. But it’s also worth considering the possibility that Mendo is just much less efficient at this point. Presumably if the staff thought he could run the offence as well as Kirk, just with more athleticism and arm talent…. Mendo would already be starting.

So it’s worth noting the likely tradeoff at this point: Mendo probably gives you more big play ability, more off script ability. But you likely also get a lot more down and distance situations from things like sacks, missed audibles, lower completion percentage etc…

I’d also say at least in my estimate, it’s not clear Kirk’s the reason defences seemingly play us with total disregard for the intermediate/deep passing game. Is it Kirk’s arm that teams don’t concern themselves with or is it or weapons? In theory, Mendo might have a way better deep ball but if we don’t have guys that can actually win in the intermediate/deep area it doesn’t matter, there’s still nowhere to go with the ball.

Still think the jets in 3 weeks is prime candidate for Mendoza to take over the starting job. Bills and Rams coming up make a 4 game losing streak feel basically inevitable. I think 3-4 with a winnable game after a brutal 4 week stretch seems right about the time you make a QB change. Especially if we’re non competitive in two hard matchups

[GoodTimeCharlie]

[SuperRaider]

Really need to start Mendoza; and get him playing time for next year…Cousin has done a good job not to be benched; but Cousin won’t be here next season….

Right now I thinking the Raiders are going to be +20 going into the buffalo game; the Bills are going to kill us..

I am not too depressed by the raiders this season as I actually thought it would be a rebuilding year for them….we are still missing quite few pieces and the rookies will get better; but not till next season….

I will be honest; the 3-0 raiders did build my hope up until reality step in….

[GoodTimeCharlie]

Really need to start Mendoza; and get him playing time for next year…Cousin has done a good job not to be benched; but Cousin won’t be here next season….

Right now I thinking the Raiders are going to be +20 going into the buffalo game; the Bills are going to kill us..

I am not too depressed by the raiders this season as I actually thought it would be a rebuilding year for them….we are still missing quite few pieces and the rookies will get better; but not till next season….

I will be honest; the 3-0 raiders did build my hope up until reality step in….

On the bright side, we beat “bad” teams. That’s a big step up for this organization.

[SuperRaider]

On the bright side, we beat “bad” teams. That’s a big step up for this organization.

Yeah that is true; normally we beat the Superbowl champs one week and lose to the worst team in the NFL

[RaiderandBulldog]

View from the enemy
https://www.twobillsdrive.com/community ... dium-wall/

[Rabidraider]

The one screen pass to Jeanty was decent, why do we not do it more often?

[Willmark]

The only thing I see we got going for us is it's a crazy f[raiders_icon]cking year, and anything can happen from week to week. Just when you think a team is good they shit the bed or vice versa.

Especially the AFC, it’s all over the place.

[haji81872]

If we finish with 7-8 wins this season, I am still ecstatic. Just be competitive.

[RunOverByHubbard]

The only thing I see we got going for us is it's a crazy f[raiders_icon]cking year, and anything can happen from week to week. Just when you think a team is good they shit the bed or vice versa.

Basically every NFL season starts like this. It takes weeks for things to sort out.

Our offensive line is subpar and that is the engine that has to be rebuilt. And Cousins looked old yesterday to me for the first time. His footwork was slow and his arm looked weak. Kubiak is going to have to be more creative.

[352Raider]

3-4 by the end of the month, not expecting much more than 6-7 wins this year anyway.

[DeathStar24]

Less than 2% chance they win next week. Just don't lose 45-17. At least look like you belong.

[Marzan]

If we finish with 7-8 wins this season, I am still ecstatic. Just be competitive.

Agree. But that’s the thing with the last couple of decades with the Raiders. Most of the times when they lose they just don’t lose. They get picked apart and make the opponent look like a SB team. Kubiak needs to instill some backbone on the team so they stop losing like that. And it will take a while