No one needed Sunday’s trip to Gillette Stadium to be a reminder, but the Raiders delivered one anyway.
For a team that opened the season with momentum and optimism, the 45-17 loss to the New England Patriots looked alarmingly familiar. The secondary got lit up.
The ground game never got going. Kirk Cousins spent too much of the afternoon under pressure.
Drake Maye carved up the defense. And the penalties piled up.
By the time the Raiders were grinding their way down Route 1 toward the airport, the damage was already done.
“We weren’t ready to go,” Klint Kubiak said. “It’s on me to get us ready to go and we weren’t ready to go,”
The defeat dropped Las Vegas to 3-2 and turned a promising start into a much shakier picture. There was one bright spot: Fernando Mendoza made his NFL debut in the fourth quarter, giving the Raiders a glimpse of what’s ahead.
The No. 1 overall pick in age 2026 NFL Draft completed 6 of 8 passes for 48 yards and added three rushing yards against a Patriots defense that had clearly eased up. Even so, he looked calm, handled pressure well late and played with confidence.
“He did a good job,” Kubiak said of Mendoza’s first taste of the NFL. “All reps are valuable, all are important for him."
The bigger story, though, was how thoroughly the Raiders were outplayed in the areas that have been concerns all along.
The run game was again stuck in the mud. Ashton Jeanty may not be 100 percent, but there was barely any room for him to work with.
The passing game still leans heavily on Brock Bowers and doesn’t offer much downfield threat. And when the quarterback doesn’t have time to throw, any talk about vertical options starts to feel academic.
General manager John Spytek spent big to upgrade the offensive line, and Jackson Powers-Johnson was back at guard Sunday, but the protection still broke down. The Raiders couldn’t create lanes for Jeanty and couldn’t keep Cousins clean long enough to trade blows with the Patriots.
“They did a great job of pressuring us,” Kubiak said of the New England defense.
Maye was the difference. After a slow start to the season, he has looked like a different quarterback over the last two weeks, and the Raiders got the full version Sunday.
He threw for 374 yards and four touchdowns, ran for another score, and repeatedly attacked a Las Vegas secondary that had no answers for him. Rookie corner Hezekiah Masses in particular had a rough afternoon, drawing three penalties as part of an eight-flag, 101-yard day for the Raiders.
New England piled up 536 yards of offense, a franchise record for a regular-season game. Tom Brady never topped that total in one game, though he was part of the previous mark of 516 against Miami in 2011. The Patriots’ overall team record, regular season or postseason, remains 613 yards against the Eagles in Super Bowl LII.
The miscues kept coming, too. Center Tyler Linderbaum was flagged for offensive offsides on a 3rd-and-1 because his head was ahead of the football, another one of those back-breaking mistakes that has become all too familiar.
By the time the Patriots reached 35-10 entering the fourth quarter, the outcome was settled. The Raiders had no real path back, especially with Maye slicing through the defense and the Las Vegas offense unable to keep pace.
Bowers did provide a brief lift with a 13-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter to tie the game at 7-7, but he also lost a fumble late in the third quarter. That was the kind of afternoon it turned into for Las Vegas: one step forward, two steps back.
After the loss to the Chiefs a week earlier raised questions about how the Raiders would respond, Sunday’s performance only deepened them. Now comes another test, with Josh Allen and Buffalo coming to Allegiant Stadium next week and the Bills Mafia arriving in force.
Kubiak and his staff have a week to try to straighten things out. If they can’t, October is already starting to look like a Halloween nightmare for a team that looked far better through its 3-0 start than it did in Foxboro.
In Other News...
Raiders Hot Start Just Created A Trade Deadline Question Fans Will Love
A strong start has changed the conversation around the Raiders ahead of the Nov. 10 trade deadline, turning what looked like a sell-off scenario into a possible shopping trip. Las Vegas entered the season with plenty of outside doubt, but the early results have made it fair to ask whether the front office will look to reinforce the roster instead of merely stand pat, especially along the defensive line where help always carries extra appeal.
Khalil Mack has naturally surfaced in the speculation, which is enough to get Raiders fans talking even if the path to a reunion looks crowded with obstacles. The idea has some romance to it, but the deal itself would have to clear several hurdles, and the Raiders are also watching how other teams and situations play out, including rumblings around Marvin Harrison Jr. and the Texans as they weigh whether to wait and see how their own start unfolds. [Read more 🡒]
Patriots Fans Got An Intriguing First Look At The Raiders Top Pick
Fernando Mendoza finally got his first NFL snaps Sunday, and the setting gave the Raiders a little something to evaluate even in a lopsided game. The No. 1 overall pick came off the bench in the fourth quarter against New England and immediately looked poised, giving Las Vegas a glimpse of the player it believes can shape the offense for years to come.
Mendoza settled in quickly, completing his first five pass attempts and helping push the Raiders deep into Patriots territory before the drive fizzled out. It was only a brief cameo, and it came in a game already well out of hand, but for a rookie making his debut, there was enough there to leave Raiders fans with a reason to keep watching. [Read more 🡒]
Patriots Face An Early Depth Test With Their Secondary Running Thin
New England is heading into its Week 5 matchup with the Raiders already stretched thin in the secondary, and the roster churn around the Patriots has only made the setup more interesting. Christian Barmore and Rhamondre Stevenson are expected back, while practice squad players Elliott Davison, K.J. Britt and Brenden Schooler are set for their season debuts, but the bigger personnel story has been on defense, where the Patriots moved to add Kindle Vildor for cornerback depth.
The timing matters for Las Vegas because the Patriots are still sorting through several injuries at once, including Gonzalez and Davis, and the available depth at cornerback and receiver is far from ideal. With A.J. Brown and Mack Hollins unavailable at wideout, New England is walking into the game with a thinner margin for error than it would like, and the makeup of the secondary will be worth watching long before the first snap is over. [Read more 🡒]