Raiders Capitalize On 'Jets Being Jets‘ To Get A Big Road Win

The Las Vegas Raiders won a tough road game they had to have to break their four-game losing streak, but don’t be fooled. The Raiders offense played well in their 38-33 win over the New York Jets, as the score implies, but the defense was awful, and this win was as much about the Jets as it was the Raiders.

Enter safety Minkah Fitzpatrick to sum it all up. The Jets scored on their first six possessions, had a two-score lead at halftime and rolled up 439 yards of offense, per Rich Cimini of ESPN, and they still found a way to lose. 

"I think we had some bad penalties, bad mistakes," Fitzpatrick said. "Jets being Jets."

Coach Aaron Glenn has been trying to eliminate the matra that Jets fans have been using for years, but it didn’t work. Instead it was the Raiders who managed to overcome their inept defense as quarterback Kirk Cousins threw three touchdown passes, two to tight end Brock Bowers, to get the comeback win as the Jets once again beat themselves. 

The game did feature some major changes, though. Coach Klint Kubiak sent a sharp message to running back Ashton Jeanty, demoting him to receiving back after Jeanty commented about how he saw multiple Jets defenders who “didn’t want to tackle” last week. 

Instead it was rookie running back Mike Washington Jr. who was breaking tackles and providing the Raiders with some semblance of a ground game, especially late in the game when the Raiders needed to control the ball to get a late field goal and secure the win. 

The Jets had a field day on offense, especially in the first half. Running back Braelon Allen had a 118 rushing yards in the first half, and he wound up with 147 yards, while Adonai Mitchell got 142 receiving yard with Garrett Mitchell adding 83 more. 

In the end, none of it mattered. It looked like the Jets could have found the end zone on all six of those scoring trips, but three of them wound up being field goals from under 40 yards out as the Jets couldn’t deliver in the red zone. 

The Raiders will now live to fight another day, although their upcoming trip to visit the San Francisco 49ers now looks especially scary after what the defense put on the field on Sunday. But the win exceeded last year’s win total in Week 8, while the Jets dropped to 2-6 as they gave their long-suffering fans more of the same.