The Raiders found their way out of a four-game slide Sunday by making plays when the game got messy, then making one more when it mattered most.
Las Vegas edged the New York Jets 38-33 at MetLife Stadium, a wild finish that pushed the Raiders back to .500 at 4-4. Jeremy Chinn sealed it with an interception in the end zone, and the Raiders walked away with a win that featured contributions from offense, defense and special teams in equal measure.
Chinn’s pick came after a rough sequence for him, since the play before had brought an unnecessary roughness flag that gave the Jets a shot from the Las Vegas 30 with 14 seconds left. Even then, the Raiders held together.
“We just put our foot down and found a way,” said Chinn. “It’s just a mindset more than anything.”
The offense did its part by leaning heavily on the tight ends. Brock Bowers was the centerpiece, catching seven passes for 92 yards and two touchdowns.
Michael Mayer added five receptions for 53 yards, while Jalen Nailor chipped in four catches and a score. Kirk Cousins also found Ashton Jeanty for a 45-yard gain, though the rookie running back’s day on the ground was limited to two carries for nine yards.
That workload opened the door for Mike Washington Jr., who saw his first meaningful action and ran 25 times for 83 yards.
“I give credit to those guys,” Kubiak said. “Brock and Mike were just fantastic. It surprises me when Brock doesn’t catch it.”
Cousins was efficient throughout, going 19 of 26 for 247 yards without an interception and taking only one sack. His performance kept him in the starting role over Fernando Mendoza.
“That’s who he’s been all year,” Kubiak said of Cousins. “He’s been a leader and a playmaker for us.”
Special teams supplied some of the biggest jolts of the afternoon, and Dylan Laube was at the center of them. He turned in three separate impact plays on kickoffs, starting with a smart decision to let a kickoff roll out of bounds, which gave the Raiders the ball at their 40 and set up a touchdown drive capped by a 12-yard Cousins-to-Bowers score.
Laube later made a key stop on a kickoff in the fourth quarter, bringing down Jets returner Isaiah Williams at the New York 24. And in the second quarter, he delivered the kind of spark that can change a game outright, taking a kickoff at his own 5 and racing up the left side for a touchdown with help from a block by Tommy Eichenberg.
“They’re giving me a bigger role each week,” Laube said. “I want to be the best in the league on special teams. Whatever it is, I want to be the best at it.”
Asked about the return, he added: “I had no idea. It’s just an adrenaline rush. You’re flying down the field.”
He also took pride in preventing Williams from answering with a return of his own.
“I think my role is to bring that juice every single time and try to do everything I can to make something happen because it fires up the crowd, the offense and the defense” he said. “It’s just a special play.”
Kubiak was quick to praise Laube, especially with the game taking place close to home for him.
“He’s from here and he had a lot of family and friends here so that’s really cool for him to have that moment,” Kubiak said. “He’s a stud player for us. He continues to make plays.”
The Raiders still had to survive a long stretch of pressure from the Jets. New York led 23-14 at halftime, with Geno Smith carving up the secondary and Braelon Allen powering through the defense. Smith had 146 passing yards on 11 completions in 17 attempts in the first half, while Allen had already piled up 121 rushing yards.
Smith finished with 290 passing yards, and Allen closed with 147 on the ground. The Jets outgained the Raiders 439-333, but the visitors made the key stops late. The defense got after Smith, slowed Allen down and kept New York from finishing the job.
“It’s part of the game,” Chinn said. “Geno’s a good quarterback.
He’s been in the league a long time. He’s going to get his.
But at some point, we’re going to get ours too so it’s about having a competitive stamina and continuing to fight.”
The result looked a lot like the version of the Raiders that opened the season 3-0: resilient, opportunistic and willing to hang around until the final whistle.
“Our players were very resilient,” Kubiak said. “They played four quarters of football. It wasn’t all pretty, but it’s not always going to be pretty and you just have to find a way to win.”
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