Raiders Talent Gap Got Badly Exposed Against New England

The Las Vegas Raiders sure had a fun September, didn’t they? They got to win a few games and play well, and they even got to play a feisty game against the Kansas City Chiefs that showed that they can compete against anyone when they’re hitting on all cylinders. 

But reality hit back hard against the New England Patriot, who used superior talent to get a blowout win. 

You didn’t have to watch many series to see how this worked. The difference at the line of scrimmage was profound — New England had runners who were barely touched at the line of scrimmage and wound up running free after that. 

Quarterback Drake Maye had a clean pocket for most of the day, which gave him time to go through his third and fourth readers and pick out not just the open receiver, but the one who was the most open.

The Raiders, meanwhile, had no running game at all, and quarterback Kirk Cousins had rushers in his face all day long. He only has one weapon, Brock Bowers, and New England gave him no time to wait for other receivers to come open, assuming they were even capable of doing that.

None of this was the least bit surprising — in fact, it feels inevitable now that it’s finally happened. We knew there were talent gaps up and down this roster between the Raiders and the top teams, and now we’re getting a better idea of exactly where they are.

Coach Klint Kubiak thought he could scheme his way out of this, but he was wrong. The Raiders played close, tight formations for most of the game, largely because that’s simply the only way they can win on most plays. There are still a lot of holes all over the field, which makes the Raiders margin of error very slim. 

The next two games will be even more telling. The Raiders will probably lose to the Buffalo Bills and the Los Angeles Rams, but it’s the way they lose that will be the most important thing

Two more bad losses, and it will be time to rethink this season. There’s talent here, but it’s barely enough to be in the conversation for a playoff berth, and that’s if everything goes right. If things go wrong as badly as they did against the Patriots, it will be time to focus on the second phase of the Raiders roster rebuild.