Las Vegas coach Klint Kubiak defended his veteran quarterback's three-touchdown performance, downplaying a pair of costly turnovers as the Raiders surged to a decisive season-opening victory.
There were a lot of firsts for the Las Vegas Raiders in their 27-13 win over the Miami Dolphins at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday.
It was the first game with Klint Kubiak as the head coach, and veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins got the nod under center with No. 1 overall pick Fernando Mendoza watching from the sidelines.
For Miami, there were also a lot of firsts. It marked the first regular-season game for Jeff Hafley as Miami's coach, and the first start for Malik Willis in a Dolphins uniform after he cashed in during free agency.
At the end of the day, the Raiders cruised to the 14-point win, and Las Vegas scored all 27 points before the fourth quarter.
After the game, Kubiak spoke about the performance by Cousins.
"I thought he came ready to play," Kubiak said, via Levi Edwards of Raiders.com. "I thought he had a great start to the game. Two decisions that he's [going to want] back, that's the nature of the position. That's something that we're going to get fixed, get cleaned up, but overall he played winning football."
Cousins final line was 21-of-30 for 160 yards with 3 touchdowns and a pair of interceptions, and those are the "two decisions" that Kubiak said the QB wants back.
The first one came right after halftime on Las Vegas' second play of the third quarter.
Simply put, it was a bad throw.
The second one came in the start of the fourth quarter when Dante trader Jr. picked off Cousins.
The second one was a play where Cousins stood around for some time, but he threw right into the middle of the field with a pair of Dolphins defenders around.
Luckily for Cousins and the Raiders, nothing came of it, and they were able to win either way despite the pair of interceptions.
Kubiak said he "played winning football," and that is the case, although it came against a young, inexperienced Miami team.
At the end of the day, it's a win, and Cousins had plenty of impressive plays, so Kubiak will take it for the first game of his head coaching career.
The Raiders face the Los Angeles Chargers in LA in Week 2, although Chris O'Leary's first game as Chargers DC didn't go well as the Arizona Cardinals won 26-14 in a stunning upset.
Fernando Mendoza watch will be on every week for Las Vegas, but so far, Cousins did nothing to lose the job.
