Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins (8) not pleased on the sidelines as the Buffalo Bills score la ...
Raiders quarterback Kirk Cousins (8) not pleased on the sidelines as the Buffalo Bills score late to help put the game away during the second half of their NFL game at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday, October 18, 2026, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby (98) jokes a bit with Buffalo Bills safety Sam Franklin Jr. ( ...
Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby (98) jokes a bit with Buffalo Bills safety Sam Franklin Jr. ( ...
Raiders wide receiver Tre Tucker (1) celebrates a score against the Buffalo Bills during the se ...
What we learned: Raiders play another AFC contender down to the wire
Raiders running back Ashton Jeanty (2) gets stopped by Buffalo Bills defense during the first h ...
Stock up, stock down for Raiders after loss, including an emerging threat in passing game
Before the NFL season started, the thought was that, as the loses stacked up, calls for the Las Vegas Raiders to play Fernando Mendoza would mount.
That hasn’t been the case.
Despite a third straight loss following a 33-30 shootout against the Buffalo Bills, Cousins and the Raiders are garnering respect around the league as they are proving to be no pushover in the AFC, and instead, are a team navigating a season that is far from lost six weeks in.
Cousins is currently tied for the league lead with 14 passing touchdowns and ranks fifth in passing yards (1,582). The Raiders are the No. 4 scoring offense entering Week 7 with 162 points on the season, averaging almost twice as many points per game as last season.
“The Raiders have dropped three straight, but don’t hold your breath waiting for Mendoza to take over,” Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport wrote in the website’s latest power rankings. “For the second time in three weeks, the Raiders gave an AFC heavyweight all they could handle in Week 6. Cousins was a big reason why, lighting up the Bills for 313 passing yards. It’s going to come down to the Raiders’ priorities. Once the team’s unlikely postseason hopes have been dashed, then odds are we’ll see Mendoza take over. But given how feisty these Raiders have been to date, those playoff aspirations may be around a while longer than we thought.”
Many share a similar sentiment as the second month of the season is nearing its end.
Here’s a roundup of this week’s power rankings around the NFL:
Bleacher Report — 18 (18)
NFL.com — 18 (19)
“Another tough loss marked the Raiders’ third straight defeat, dropping them from a 3-0 start to 3-3 after six weeks. For some teams, this might be a sign of crisis. These Raiders, however, have proven competitive in two of those three losses, going blow for blow with two AFC titans in the Chiefs and Bills. This is part of the process of evolving from cellar-dweller to aspiring contender, in which the upstart learns how to win the close battles against proven teams. Las Vegas has received a couple of good lessons in this department recently, while Kirk Cousins continues to thrive. There are no moral victories, but there are degrees of losses, and this one appears more favorable than others.”
ESPN — 18 (17)
Fox Sports — 18 (16)
“The Raiders are just way better than I thought they were. They had to drop in the rankings this week because they’ve lost three straight, including a humbling blowout in New England. But I haven’t lost sight of the fact that the Raiders’ other two were three-point losses were to the Chiefs and Bills. QB Kirk Cousins is playing great. HC Klint Kubiak has done a masterful job as head coach. If the Raiders could only get more out of RB Ashton Jeanty, they might have something really good there.”
The Athletic — 18 (17)
Sports Illustrated — 19 (16)
CBS Sports — 22 (18)
“They’ve lost three straight games to fall to 3-3, but there is a lot to like about this team. They face a big one with the Rams this week.”