The Raiders walked into SoFi Stadium as the team nobody figured to trust in Week 2, and they walked out with the result that changes the conversation inside the AFC West. Las Vegas knocked off the Chargers on Sunday, a road divisional win that looked far bigger than the usual early-season tiebreaker stuff. At 2-0, the Raiders are tied with Kansas City for the division lead, and for the moment they’re the ones with the momentum.
That win mattered because Las Vegas didn’t exactly do it the easy way on offense. Ashton Jeanty and the offensive line struggled, but Klint Kubiak’s approach kept the Raiders moving anyway.
Kirk Cousins was dominant through the air, Tre Tucker and Cody White delivered at receiver, and the defense under Rob Leonard kept stacking strong moments. Zeke Masses played like a No. 1 cornerback, while Nakobe Dean and Jeremy Chinn came through late again.
It was the kind of performance that felt stitched together by the whole roster.
The Chargers, meanwhile, are already in a rough spot at 0-2. Sunday looked a lot like Week 1: unprepared, disjointed and out of sync.
The defense was shaky in coverage, the offensive line couldn’t hold up, and the penalties piled up. Justin Herbert didn’t resemble himself, Quentin Johnston continued to underwhelm, and Joe Alt had stretches that were downright unplayable.
Omarion Hampton, Rashawn Slater and Jake Slaughter were the only real bright spots on that side of the ball.
Even defensively, the Chargers couldn’t say they held up. Nobody was individually terrible across the board, but allowing 24 points to a Raiders team missing Brock Bowers and getting almost nothing from the run game is not the kind of outing that settles anyone down. New defensive coordinator Chris O'Leary is already learning how hard Jesse Minter’s job was to replicate.
Denver, at least, gave itself a much better look in Week 2. The Broncos were down 13-3 after the opening drive of the second half before ripping off 17 unanswered points at home to beat the Jacksonville Jaguars.
It was the sort of comeback Denver keeps making a habit of. Bo Nix wasn’t perfect - he threw another interception - but he still finished with 288 passing yards and a touchdown, and he showed enough mobility to matter.
He also got Jaylen Waddle going, which looms larger with the running back situation getting thinner.
That backfield is taking hits. Starter J.K.
Dobbins is reportedly banged up again, though the injury is not supposed to be that serious. Denver was already without 2025 second-rounder R.J.
Harvey, and Jonah Coleman looks useful, just not ready to carry the full load as a bell cow. The Broncos are having to piece that side of the offense together.
The defense answered after getting burned last week. Denver settled in, shut down Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars in the second half, and cleaned up the missed tackles that had hurt them before.
The usual pressure and coverage suspects showed up and helped close the door. It looked like a classic Broncos win.
Whether it can hold up over time is another question.
Kansas City stayed right with Las Vegas by winning another primetime game, this one a shootout overtime victory over the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday Night Football. The Chiefs’ offense looked balanced, Kenneth Walker III kept dominating, and Patrick Mahomes looked more like himself in his second game back from injury. That’s a dangerous group again.
The defense was less airtight than it was in Week 1 against Denver. The Chiefs weren’t missing tackles, but they also weren’t getting enough heat on the quarterback, and that opened the door for L'Jarius Sneed to be exposed as the glaring weak spot. Travis Kelce also still has it, which was apparently worth noting too.
Looking ahead to Week 3, the Raiders head to New Orleans for a test against a Saints team that arguably should be 2-0 after a fluky loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 1 and a comeback win over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. It’s a useful measuring stick for Las Vegas against a team that appears farther along in its rebuild.
The Chargers get no relief. They’ll go on the road to face the Buffalo Bills, and that’s a brutal spot for a team trying to stop the slide. If things go poorly again, the questions about Los Angeles will only get louder.
Kansas City, by comparison, has a softer landing spot with the Miami Dolphins in Week 3 before hosting the Raiders in Week 4. Miami is arguably the worst team in the NFL, but how convincingly the Chiefs handle them will still matter when it comes to sizing up where Las Vegas fits in the division.
Denver gets one of the better matchups of the week on Sunday Night Football, hosting the Los Angeles Rams. Both teams shook off ugly opening losses with Week 2 wins, so that game should reveal plenty about whether the Broncos are for real or just hanging around early.
In Other News...
Ashton Jeantys Rough Raiders Day Raised One Bigger Concern
Ashton Jeantys Week 2 against the Chargers looked a lot different from his opener, with fewer gains on the ground and through the air, plus a couple of dropped passes that stood out in an offense still trying to find its footing. Even so, Klint Kubiak kept feeding the rookie with a workload similar to the one he handled in Week 1, a sign the Raiders are still committed to riding him through the early part of the season.
For Las Vegas, the bigger concern is not just one uneven afternoon, but what it says about a young player still settling in while carrying real responsibility. Jeanty has already shown enough to suggest better days are coming, and the Raiders will be hoping the next few matchups give him a cleaner runway to make the impact they expect. [Read more 🡒]
Raiders May Have Found The Playmaker Their Secondary Has Missed
Rookie cornerback Zeke Masses got his first NFL start in Week 2 against the Chargers and looked nothing like a player easing into the job. He finished with five tackles and two interceptions, including a 29-yard return that turned one takeaway into a real swing play and a late pick that helped close out the game for Las Vegas.
Darien Porters injury opened the door, but Masses may have done more than cover for a missing starter. His instincts and ball production have already put his role under a brighter spotlight, and the Raiders now have to figure out whether what they saw was a one-game burst or the kind of playmaking presence their secondary has been searching for. [Read more 🡒]
Raiders Defense Just Raised A Bigger Question About This Team
The Raiders defense gave the kind of performance that can change the mood around a team in a hurry, harassing Justin Herbert into multiple mistakes and helping fuel a 26-14 win over the Chargers. Rookie cornerback Hezekiah Masses came away with two interceptions, and the pass rush did its part too, piling up three sacks and nine quarterback hits to keep the pressure on all afternoon.
What made the victory more revealing, though, was how little help the offense got on the ground. Las Vegas averaged just 2.0 yards per rush, a number that underscored how much the result leaned on the defense carrying the load. That kind of formula can work in a single game, but it also leaves a larger question hanging over the Raiders as the season moves on. [Read more 🡒]