Raiders Coach To Start Cousins, Says There’s 'No Controversy'

Las Vegas Raiders coach Klint Kubiak said the Raiders would be “looking at everything” after their disappointing, non-competitive loss to the Los Angeles Rams, but apparently “everything” doesn’t included a quarterback change. 

Kubiak insisted there was “no controversy” behind his decision in a report from Ryan McFadden of ESPN, despite Cousin’s struggles in the first half, as he had less than 100 yards passing in the first half as the Rams ran up a 28-6 halftime lead on their way to a 35-21 win in Las Vegas on Sunday. 

The rest of Kubiak’s comments were familiar, albeit not all that illuminating. He noted that Cousins is playing “at a very high level,” and he followed up by saying the Raiders need to keep helping “all the areas around him.” He finished by saying that he’s “excited” for Cousins to play against the New York Jets on Sunday.  

The translation here is that Kubiak needs a win after four straight losses, and Cousins gives him the best chance to do that based on his experience. A win would get the Raiders back to .500 at 4-4 and put them back in the playoff conversation for at least another couple of weeks. 

The part about getting a win makes sense, as the Jets represent one of the few winnable games on their schedule until late in the season, based on the level of play the Raiders have put on the field for two of their last four games. 

Cousins has played well over all, and he’s at least third or fourth on the Raiders’ list of problems. Their interior defense leaked like a sieve against the Rams running game on Sunday, and their secondary was ripped apart by both Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills and Drake Maye of the New England Patriots in their two previous losses. 

That makes the playoffs a decided longshot pending additional roster reconstruction, but Kubiak is doing what he has to do. He said Mendoza is “going to play football,” but that football will also almost certainly come with rookie mistakes that would make wins hard to come by. 

Kubiak is apparently feeling some of the stress of being a rookie coach with a tough quarterback situation he has to juggle. as he also noted that the Raiders are “in the hunt” in another comment he made about Cousins. He obviously hasn’t been watching the same games the rest of us have been, and his message got a little scrambled after the loss to LA.