It didn’t take long for the Raiders to learn how thin the margin can be in the NFL. The loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was brutal, but it also left Las Vegas with something to carry into Week 5: a little more respect around the league.
Now comes the real test of response. The Raiders head into Sunday morning’s matchup with the New England Patriots needing a bounce-back, and for Klint Kubiak, his staff and his players, the details are going to decide everything.
That starts with the run game on both sides of the ball. Rob Leonard’s defense has had trouble stopping the run this season, and New England brings a tricky one-two punch in TreVeyon Henderson and Rhamondre Stevenson.
They’re different backs with different styles, which means the Raiders can’t settle into defending one look over and over. This is the first time Las Vegas will see a true tandem getting equal work against them, and that makes an already tough assignment even more demanding.
If the Raiders can slow that group down, the entire game changes.
The other major question is whether Las Vegas’ defensive front can win against a Patriots offensive line that has struggled and is dealing with injuries. The Raiders’ pass rush was solid last week, even if it didn’t quite match the standard set in the first three games.
That matters here because Drake Maye has been vulnerable when pressure gets home, whether it leads to risky throws or fumbles. If the Raiders can get after him, they have a real path to controlling the game.
If they can’t, it could be a long morning.
Then there’s the matchup that always has to be on the board when the Raiders are involved: Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer against a strong New England secondary. Bowers is the kind of tight end nobody truly shuts down, but Christian Gonzalez would be the Patriots defender best equipped to make life difficult for him if he’s healthy enough to play.
Even with that uncertainty, New England still has quality on the back end. That puts the burden on Kubiak to scheme his tight ends into space.
And while the Patriots’ secondary is a problem, there are soft spots the Raiders can target. Marcus Jones is only 5-foot-8, which doesn’t help him against a tight end, and New England’s linebackers are described as flat-out abysmal in coverage. Creating those mismatches will be a key part of the plan, and Kubiak has the tools to make it happen.
In Other News...
Raiders Have Extra Motivation In New England After Incognito's McDaniels Blast
Richie Incognito added another layer to the Raiders' trip to New England by publicly revisiting Josh McDaniels' brief and rocky run in Las Vegas. On a podcast, Incognito said McDaniels treated players poorly during his time with the team, a reminder of how quickly that tenure unraveled before he was fired on Oct. 31, 2023, after 21 months as head coach.
There are only a handful of players left on the current roster who were around for McDaniels' final season, but the memory of that stretch still lingers in the building. Malcolm Koonce is among the holdovers, and his rise after McDaniels' departure stands as one of the clearer examples of how different things looked once the coaching change was made, which helps explain why this matchup carries a little extra edge for some in the locker room. [Read more 🡒]
Raiders Face An Early Prove It Spot In New England
The Raiders head to New England in a spot that already feels more revealing than the calendar suggests. Las Vegas has opened 3-1 and still looks like a team with real early-season credibility, even after a loss to the Chiefs, but the trip to Foxborough comes against a Patriots squad riding the momentum of an upset in Buffalo and trying to turn one statement win into something sturdier.
Oddsmakers have made New England a 3.5-point favorite, a sign the market is giving the Patriots more respect than it did before the weekend. From the Raiders' side, the trip raises familiar questions about whether their offense can control games the way a contender needs to, especially against a defense that is being viewed as one of the league's tougher early assignments. [Read more 🡒]
Maxx Crosby Trade Buzz Puts Raiders At Center Of A Huge Debate
The Cowboys loss to Tampa Bay only turned up the volume on a conversation that has been building around one of the NFLs most disruptive defenders, with Dallas once again short on edge pressure and looking the part of a team that could use help in a hurry. Jerry Jones sounded disappointed afterward, and that frustration has fed the kind of trade chatter that always follows a game like this, especially when a proven pass rusher is sitting on another roster and drawing attention from a team with a glaring need.
For the Raiders, the noise matters because Maxx Crosby is not just a name in speculation, he is the centerpiece of a defense and one of the most recognizable players on the roster. Any idea of moving him would put Las Vegas at the center of a huge debate about where the team is headed and how much it would take to even consider listening, while the talk around Dallas keeps circling the same basic question: how far would the Cowboys go to fix a problem that showed up again on a national stage? [Read more 🡒]