Klint Kubiak didn’t sound like a coach trying to play it safe after the Raiders’ 26-14 road win over the Chargers. He sounded like a man who knew exactly what his team had just done.
“How do you change a place? You do something they say you can't.
You guys [expletive] did something they said you can't. Seven-point [under]dogs?
[Expletive] that! Great job, man.
Great [expletive] job!”
That was the opening blast of his locker room speech after Las Vegas moved to 2-0 for the first time since 2021. But Kubiak didn’t leave it there. He shifted gears and brought the message back to the ground.
“Hey guys, I'm so proud of you. And I'm going to say exactly what we said last week, okay?
We are humble in victory. We are humble in victory.
We are a team; it's about us, and you guys proved that today.”
That mix of fire and restraint has become the early shape of Kubiak’s Raiders. He’s not flinching from mistakes, and he’s not coaching like a man afraid of what might go wrong next. Instead, he’s trusting his players to make the play, even when the safer choice would be to back off.
That showed up all over Sunday’s game.
The offense opened with a turnover, a punt and a turnover on downs. The run game wasn’t moving, the timing was off, passes were being dropped and blocking assignments were missed.
Las Vegas did manage to put together a touchdown drive, but then came another quick punt. When the Raiders got the ball back with 35 seconds left in the half, a lot of teams would have simply run out the clock and settled for a tie.
Kubiak didn’t.
Even after the Raiders had struggled to throw downfield in Week 1 and the offense had looked scattered early against the Chargers, he asked Kirk Cousins to attack deep and chase field-goal range. Cousins delivered, and Las Vegas got close enough for Matt Gay to try a 59-yard kick that would have been a new career-long. Kubiak trusted him with it, and Gay sent the Raiders into halftime with a 10-7 lead.
That willingness to keep leaning forward is part of what makes Kubiak’s approach stand out. The Raiders kept working the run game even though it wasn’t fully there.
They went back to the tush push with Connor Heyward even after it didn’t look clean the week before. They kept asking Cousins to push the ball downfield.
They didn’t treat one failed idea as a reason to scrap it for good.
He even showed that same mindset near the goal line, when a wildcat look with Cousins lined up out wide didn’t work. Kubiak didn’t retreat from it. Later in the game, he called another trick play, and this time it hit, setting up a Raiders touchdown that gave them the lead.
That’s the thread running through the first two weeks: no fear, no panic, and no quick hook when something doesn’t click right away.
It’s also a style that fits a roster full of young and inexperienced players. Kubiak and his staff have made a point of letting those players learn on the job and play without feeling like one mistake will send them to the bench.
Zeke Masses started and played most of the snaps on Sunday, and he finished with two interceptions and five tackles in his first start. Jermod McCoy got his chance to run, and the Raiders didn’t yank him when things got rough. They let him work through it.
Cody White was another example. He has never played much receiver, but in Week 2 he was put in spots where he could run routes in key areas at important moments. Kubiak knew where White could help, and White answered with two catches, both touchdowns.
Those moments fit with the message Kubiak keeps hammering home: be where your feet are. The Raiders have presented themselves, publicly and privately, as a one-day-at-a-time team. Through two weeks, that approach has helped them prepare cleanly for opponents and stay upright when things get messy.
Every snap is just a snap. Every series is just a series. The game doesn’t have to be treated like one giant crisis.
That kind of approach matters for a young team trying to build something from the ground up. If the Raiders keep going this way, they’ll look back on this stretch as a major part of the foundation. And if they do, it will be because their coach trusted them enough to let them grow in real time.
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Kirk Cousins was central to it, finishing 19 of 29 for 253 yards and three touchdowns while giving the Raiders the kind of quarterback play they have been searching for. Klint Kubiak is now the fourth full-time head coach in franchise history to win his first two games, and with the salary cap already part of the bigger conversation, the next question is how long this version of the Raiders can stay together before the contract talk really starts to matter. [Read more 🡒]
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For a Raiders team watching the AFC West from across the rivalry, the bigger issue may be what comes next for Harbaugh if the slide continues. The schedule is about to stiffen, with playoff teams lining up ahead, and that kind of stretch can turn an early stumble into a much louder conversation about accountability. If the Chargers do not find answers quickly, the pressure around Harbaugh is only going to grow. [Read more 🡒]