Raiders place kicker Matt Gay (14) hits a field goal against the Los Angeles Rams during the fi ...
Raiders place kicker Matt Gay (14) hits a field goal against the Los Angeles Rams during the first half of their NFL game at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday, October 25, 2026, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
The Las Vegas Raiders haven’t had much trouble getting inside the red zone this season.
Finishing those drives in the end zone has been a different story.
That was the case again on Sunday as the Raiders scored just one touchdown on five possessions inside the Rams’ 20-yard line.
Los Angeles converted all five trips into touchdowns, one of the biggest differences in a 35-21 Rams victory at Allegiant Stadium.
“It’s very disappointing, especially with the emphasis we’ve put on it,” Raiders coach Klint Kubiak said. “When it comes down to it, we have to make plays down there when we have our one-on-one opportunities. We’ve got to make the throws, we’ve got to make the catches and it didn’t happen.”
That’s nothing new for the Raiders, who had the fourth-most trips to the red zone in the league entering the game and were 21st in converting them into touchdowns.
They are now tied for second in trips, but dropped to 27th in conversions.
Quarterback Kirk Cousins said it’s difficult to pinpoint one overarching issue. A major factor is the Raiders’ inability to run the ball in general.
But there is plenty to clean up in the passing game, too.
“I think it’s really a team game, and we’ve just got to all kind of do our part,” he said. “I’ve got to hit throws when they’re there and there’s just any number of things that come up.”
The Raiders kicked field goals on each of their first-half appearances in the red zone.
Their first drive of the second half ended at the Rams’ 13 when Cousins was unable to hit Cody White on a fourth-and-2 play.
Cousins said the Rams took away his first read to tight end Brock Bowers, so he instead tried to take the one-on-one matchup with White.
“I wish I had given him a ball that he could have maybe just stopped and gone up for, as opposed to running underneath it,” Cousins said. “Those are some plays that I think end up looming large at the end of the game.”
He found Ashton Jeanty for a 15-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter, but threw three straight incomplete passes from the Rams’ 18-yard line before the Raiders kicked a field goal with 4:11 remaining.
“I felt at times we moved the football, but too many times the drives stalled, whether it was in the red zone or just outside the red zone,” Cousins said.
That included a fourth-down pass to Jalen Nailor in the third quarter from the Rams’ 25-yard line that was first ruled a catch only to be overturned to an incompletion that gave the ball back to Los Angeles.
“The one I really want back is the fourth down to Jalen down (near) the red zone where he dove for it, wasn’t able to come away with it,” Cousins said. “At first, they ruled it a catch but felt like that ball should have been thrown better to him. That’s the one right now that sticks in my mind but I think they played some pretty tight man coverage and made it hard.”
The Raiders just couldn’t solve the Rams when the field got shorter.
“I felt like we needed to once we got into field-goal range or on that fringe red-zone area or in the red zone, we needed to be able to find a way to stay on the field and to get six points,” he said. “And too many times, we got past midfield into field goal range, near the red zone, in the red zone, and then either came away with only a field goal or no points. That was disappointing. It felt like there were chances there to come away with points, and that would have made it a different game, especially the way defense played in the third and fourth quarter.”
Of course, the Raiders defense wasn’t able to match some of those red-zone stops and turn Rams touchdowns into field-goal attempts.
“There were a lot of big four-point plays that we had where we couldn’t get them off the field,” linebacker Nakobe Dean said.