What we learned: Raiders’ blowout loss leads to QB change, Fernando Mendoza

The Las Vegas Raiders suffered another loss against a Super Bowl contender Sunday, and it may have been the final reminder the team just wasn’t ready to compete this year as constructed.

Two days after the Raiders suffered an ugly 38-17 road loss to the San Francisco 49ers, general manager John Spytek traded starting quarterback Kirk Cousins to the Minnesota Vikings for their 2027 third-round draft pick.

It was clear the Raiders took a big lesson about where they stood this season from the loss.

They played from behind all day. Cousins tossing three interceptions wasn’t pretty, but mostly appeared to be on balls where he was trying to make something happen that wasn’t there.

Fernando Mendoza will now take over with the same offense and nonexistent run game. While he won’t have the same understanding of the system that Cousins has shown from years working with coach Klint Kubiak, there will also be some aspects of the system he can unlock.

Kubiak will probably be able to use him on more boot actions because of his superior mobility.

Even though Mendoza isn’t traditionally fast, he is more agile than Cousins. He can also get to some spots that could open up more of the outside zone in the run game.

The benefit that Mendoza has that Cousins also enjoyed is that the pass protection from this group is actually pretty good.

Week after week, the pocket holds up pretty well even if the run blocking remains a struggle.

Here’s a closer look at what we learned about the team after rewatching the game:

Putting it into perspective

Nothing about the game was pretty.

The defense got run over once again in the first half and when the 49ers did pass, the only thing more glaring than the lack of a pass rush was all the open receivers.

Cousins threw the three picks and both tight ends fumbled, including Michael Mayer getting stripped just short of the goal line.

The Raiders made enough plays to be competitive, but enough mistakes to make sure they were not.

It was just a reminder of how much of a work in progress the roster still is at this point. The Raiders are still short-handed at wide receiver, the offensive line, defensive line and to some extent the linebacking corps and secondary.

Even the positions that feature sound players in the lineup lack depth.

It shows up all over the film and it’s pretty clear the organization has watched the same tape.

That’s probably a big part of why such a big move was made at the deadline to turn the page to next season.

Star of the game

Rookie safety Treydan Stukes continues to impress.

He had been stepping up consistently on third downs for several weeks, but is starting to make his presence felt on early downs as well.

Speed certainly helps. Stukes is able to get to any spot on the field to make plays in both the passing game and running game.

But his instincts are really starting to show up now that he has such confidence in his role and his understanding of the scheme.

“Playmaker, instinctive,” Kubiak said of Stukes. “Just been really a shot of adrenaline to our operation.”

Stukes almost always ends up around the ball or ballcarrier and he was able to bait Brock Purdy into an interception while throwing to what he thought was going to be a wide-open George Kittle.

Drive of the game

After an inexcusable interception that was returned for a touchdown on the first play of the second half, Cousins rallied the troops for a very impressive march down the field to answer the score.

The Raiders went 69 yards in nine plays over 5:14, capped by a 21-yard touchdown strike to Brock Bowers down the middle.

Cousins picked up a pair of third downs through the air, one to Ashton Jeanty and the other to Bowers to keep the chains moving.

The Raiders passed seven times on the drive with Mike Washington Jr. carrying the ball twice for just 4 yards.

Play of the game

A missed assignment on defense was probably the most talked-about play.

Christian McCaffrey got wide open on a simple route to the left sideline and caught a 12-yard touchdown pass from Purdy to put the 49ers up 21-7 in the second quarter.

It looked awful live and the tape wasn’t kind.

A great deal has been made of the fact defensive tackles Adam Butler and Tonka Hemingway dropped in coverage on the play. When it works out as poorly as it did, that is going to draw a lot of attention.

But it wasn’t their fault the play went so poorly. And the mockery of defensive coordinator Rob Leonard for this particular blown assignment is probably a bit misguided.

Dropping linemen is really nothing new. It can be incredibly effective in creating confusion for quarterbacks and clogging shallow crossers, particularly on a blitz when a quarterback may be looking to make a hot read.

But it can also look silly at times, which is what happened. But the act of dropping defensive tackles alone isn’t a problem. It was the execution.

It appeared Quay Walker was supposed to peel with McCaffrey and instead abandoned his zone to rush Purdy. While Kubiak wouldn’t throw Walker under the bus, he confirmed someone was supposed to peel with the back out of the backfield.

Walker, after the game, mostly declined comment.

“I can’t really go into detail about that, honestly,” he said. “We just have to be better. That’s all I can say.”

What were they thinking?

Kubiak could have challenged that Bowers had crossed the goal line on a 33-yard completion in the fourth quarter that was ruled out of bounds inside the 1-yard line.

Replays appeared to show Bowers had scored, though the officials may not have ruled it was conclusive.

Either way, Kubiak probably figured his team would score on a first-and-goal from inside the 1. But Fred Warner went over the top of the line to force a 2-yard loss on a quarterback sneak and then Mayer was called for offensive pass interference after catching a pass in the end zone.

Cousins was then intercepted and the threat was over. The Raiders could have got back within two scores there with plenty of time remaining, but the sequence essentially ended the game..

Observations

■ The lack of a running game and usage of Jeanty as a receiver out of the backfield really caught up with the Raiders.

San Francisco had it very well scouted every time Jeanty went to run a route.

The result was five catches that went for grand total of minus-5 yards.

He just couldn’t get free. The same goes for Washington as it looked like every time he was on the field, the 49ers played it like it was a guaranteed run and left him no room at all.

Washington lost 3 yards on six total carries in the game.

The Raiders need to do a better job of mixing up their running back usage.

■ While the offensive line is still a work in progress, Trey Zuhn III looks pretty good at right guard.

He’s not a finished product by any means and left the game to be evaluated for a concussion, but there are flashes of a solid starter.

On the other side, Spencer Burford appeared to take a bit of a step back after a couple very good games. He still really needs to find some consistency..

■ Jermod McCoy is starting to look pretty good.

Those who have consistently brought up his 2024 college tape, including in this very column each week, are starting to see reminders of what made him projected as a top-10 pick before the injury.

McCoy broke up both targets that came in his direction.

“Just a player that’s ascending,” Kubiak said. “That’s making us play multiple DBs because he’s covering at a high level, he’s improving. Again, is a guy that we all didn’t know if he’s going to play football this year, and he’s not missing practice. He’s playing in games. He’s staying healthy. He’s progressing, getting better with reps.”

Contact Adam Hill at [email protected]. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.