Raiders running back Mike Washington Jr. (4) sets up behind offensive tackle Kolton Miller (74) ...
Raiders running back Mike Washington Jr. (4) sets up behind offensive tackle Kolton Miller (74) during the first half of an NFL football game against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, in East Rutherford, N.J. (Heidi Fang/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @HeidiFang
The losing streak has finally come to an end.
After four-consecutive defeats, the Las Vegas Raiders found a way to end the skid with a 38-33 road win over the New York Jets at Metlife Stadium on Sunday.
Here’s a closer look at what we learned about the team after rewatching the game:
Putting it into perspective
It wasn’t pretty, but there are no style points in the NFL.
Coach Klint Kubiak’s team got a great performance out of his special teams, more than enough offense and timely stops from a much-maligned defense in a very important victory.
They went into Gotham, or at least somewhere in the swamplands just outside of the city, and came home with a win in what may not have been the most important game on the NFL’s Week 8 slate, but one that had a great deal of relevance for how the rest of the season could play out.
A loss would have essentially ended their push for relevance in the wild-card race and pushed the organization into making some decisions about the future. Instead, they remain focused on the possibilities for the final nine games.
Star of the game
Dylan Laube certainly has a case. He became the first player in the NFL to run back a kickoff for a touchdown this year. It wasn’t the only play he made on special teams as he also had a big tackle on a kickoff, made a smart play on a kick out of bounds and nearly blocked a field goal.
That doesn’t even include the touchbacks he created from the Jets avoiding him. But more on him later.
Let’s go with Kirk Cousins here after he threw for 247 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for another.
While he has been passed for the league lead in passing scores by Joe Burrow, Cousins has been incredibly productive for a team that just doesn’t have the weaponry on the outside as some of the other top offenses and is supported by no running game whatsoever.
He was particularly valuable on Sunday at keeping the team settled despite falling behind and rallying the Raiders to the win with timely scores.
Drive of the game
The Raiders put together several impressive drives in the game that found the end zone, but the most impactful may have been one that resulted in just three points.
That’s because they finally showed they can run the ball in a situation where the ground game was an absolute necessity.
The Raiders got the ball at their own 35 with a 35-33 lead after the Jets kicked a field goal with 4:31 remaining. Mike Washington Jr. ran the ball three times for 17 yards before Cousins took advantage of that success on the ground with a perfect play-fake and found Michael Mayer for a gain of seven. Cousins picked up a first down on the next play with his third successful sneak of the game.
Washington gained just five yards on the next three carries, but the Raiders had forced the Jets to burn all three timeouts and still took the clock down to 31 seconds.
“Offensively, we’d love to finish that four-minute drive with the ball and get another first down,” Kubiak said. “I was pleased with the couple first downs we did get, but we’ve got to finish. We’ve got to finish that game (taking) a knee.”
Still, the drive essentially clinched the game after Matt Gay connected on a 53-yard field goal.
It was a good sign for the Raiders’ run game.
Play of the game
It was either one of several ridiculous catches by Brock Bowers or Laube’s kickoff return.
Laube gets the nod here because it was the first in the NFL this season. It also wasn’t overly surprising as he has been leading the league in return average all season. He was one final move away on several occasions and finally got it on Sunday.
While he rightly credited his teammates for some great blocks, which they did make, Laube also deserves plenty of praise for his individual effort. His shoulder dip fake to freeze the coverage and get to the sideline around the 25-yard line really made the play.
Dareke Young, the other returner, came all the way across the field to make the key block. Cian Slone and Connor Heyward also cleared out coverage players.
Then Ian Thomas absolutely wiped out the last potential tackler. Special teams coach Joe DeCamillis had to be thrilled.
What were they thinking?
This will be a controversial take.
There is a school of thought out there that if a decision works, then it was correct. That’s very simplistic and ignores the randomness of results.
Proper situational decision-making doesn’t guarantee the best result in each individual situation, but it gives you the chance to be right more often than not over the long haul.
All this is to say Kubiak’s decision to have Gay kick a 53-yard field goal with 31 seconds on the clock and the Raiders leading by two was very questionable.
Ideal strategy, especially with a punter like AJ Cole, would be to let him try to pin the ball around the 10 or even inside there and make the Jets drive the length of the field with only about 25 seconds and no timeouts. It’s incredibly unlikely even if you were to put the best offense in the league against the worst defense, which was not the case Sunday.
Kubiak elected to kick the field goal, which is a tremendous decision if you make the kick. If not, it’s a disaster as the Jets would have been one first down from field-goal range to win the game.
“I just see him kick in practice.” Kubiak said of his confidence in Gay. “I’ve seen the clutch kicks that he’s made. We were at the line that we had confidence in on that yard line, and we’ve got to get the ball closer for him offensively. But we had confidence in that.”
Gay said after the game he was hoping Kubiak would decide to let him kick.
“I was just ready,” Gay said. “I wanted to kick it. I just stayed ready and when they gave me the signal, I was confident. Great snap, great hold and then the guys gave me a clean pocket to kick from and it went through.
“I was hitting the ball well all day. I wanted that moment and I was excited they had the confidence to put me out there in that situation.”
The Raiders are very happy it worked out.
Observations
■ Rookie Trey Zuhn III became the third player to start at right guard this year as the Raiders look for a long-term solution at the position.
He played fine.
Like Jackson Powers-Johnson and Caleb Rogers before him, Zuhn had both good and bad moments in the game.
He appeared to be better in the run game than in pass protection, which is a big difference from the other two. But the Raiders line as a group had its best pass blocking day of the year.
“I thought he was calm in there,” Kubiak said of Zuhn. “I thought he was well-prepared. That was not a surprise, but I thought he played well. I think there’s things that he’s going to want to improve on. But I was pleased, along with the coaching staff, with the effort that he put on the field and what his future looks like for us.”
Kubiak acknowledged Zuhn earned further opportunities with his performance, which was particularly impressive considering he’s learning every position and had played very little right guard in his life.
■ There really aren’t enough glowing words that can be said about Bowers at this point.
He’s simply amazing at his job.
Bowers makes catches that just shouldn’t be possible and makes them look routine.
The production is one thing. Bowers breaks records pretty much every time he steps on the field. He’s on a historic pace at the start of his career.
But it’s just some of the catches he makes that still raise eyebrows and cause heads to shake in disbelief.
Cousins said he’s one of few players he has seen in his NFL career who doesn’t need to be open for the quarterback to throw in his direction. Just give him a chance and you have a good chance for a completion.
It’s absolutely remarkable to watch.
■ Defensive tackle Tim Keenan III may be playing his way into more of an opportunity.
He made good use of his second-consecutive callup from the practice squad on Sunday.
Keenan projects as more of an asset against the run, but he also recorded a sack against the Jets.
“Another guy that showed up in practice,” Kubiak said. “A guy that has really good practice habits. I think his overall attitude, he’s got winning attributes. He’s a good teammate. He’s got good energy. He’s playing hard. He’s earning his opportunities.”
■ Mike Washington Jr. definitely added a spark to the run game, but he really struggled in short-yardage situations, particularly inside the 10-yard line.
The rookie had six carries for zero yards inside the 7.. Perhaps Ashton Jeanty will start to earn some of those looks, along with his passing game work. But it’s not like he was incredibly effective either.
Maybe that’s why Cousins had his number called to run three sneaks.
■ It really was stunning to see how often the Jets went after Eric Stokes, a strategy no other team has tried against a Raiders secondary loaded with young players.
He faced 11 targets, giving up seven catches for 81 yards and a touchdown..
“I think Stokes also made some really big plays for us,” Kubiak said. “He had a tough assignment. They made some plays on him, but he also made some really big plays for us, especially in the red zone. He’s been a great competitor for us.
“I’m really glad we have No. 5 (Stokes).”
Kubiak has rotated players at the other corner position as the competition for playing time has continued halfway through the regular season, but said he never considered taking Stokes out of the game.
“When you play defensive back in the NFL, you’re going to get beat,” he said. “But how do you respond when that happens? And when a defensive back gets beat, everybody knows about it. If a guard loses in the run game, it’s not discussed as much. So, you’ve got to have thick skin. You’ve got to be able to move on to the next down.”
Kubiak said Stokes did a good job staying engaged all the way through the end of the game.
Jermod McCoy, in his most extensive action, showed flashes of his immense talent. He was pretty inconsistent, though, and got a bit grabby at times. He has to keep building his confidence after missing nearly two years due to a knee injury.
■ This is getting pretty long-winded so we’ll shut it down here and save it for next week because there is just so much to go into on the defensive side.
The run fits were awful in the first half, but the coverage and pass rush weren’t far behind.
Credit Rob Leonard’s group for coming up with some stops late, but the Raiders can’t wait that long to get going.