The Las Vegas Raiders didn’t play well on Monday night against the Los Angeles Chargers, with Geno Smith being the primary problem. After Smith had a record-setting day for the Raiders in Week 1, he responded with one of the worst performances of the early season in the NFL. Throwing three interceptions in a game is never a recipe for success, and something he simply has to figure out over the next few weeks.
If not, the Raiders won’t be in the position they were hoping for entering the season.
When speaking to reporters after the game, however, there were some positive takeaways from what Smith had to say. Some quarterbacks would come out and blame the offensive line, which was brutal for the Raiders on Monday night, the wide receivers not getting open, and much more. Instead of doing that, Smith had all of the right things to say. If anything, this should make some fans happy about the future of Smith in Las Vegas.
“Those are things that I got to learn from and be better at. Anything that doesn’t look right out there, you put that on my feet, you know, put that on my shoulders. I feel like I got to be a lot better for our guys. I know I have to, and I will be,” Smith said to reporters on Monday. “I’m never going to make any excuses about anything. I’ve got to be better. We got to be better, and we got a short week to improve on that.”
Pete Carroll Talks Geno Smith’s Poor Performance
While those comments are important for the Las Vegas Raiders, as they show that he isn’t giving up on himself or worrying too much about his lack of success early in the year, it’s something the Raiders will ultimately have to figure out.
They can’t continue to have him go out there and throw interceptions at the level he did, as it won’t win games. When speaking to reporters after the game, Pete Carroll didn’t have too many promising things to say, but added that it might not have all been Smith’s fault, backing his quarterback.
“I’m not supporting some of the choices there,” Carroll said. “I need to see what happened, though. I want to see if he had other options.”
“I know that the picks are a big issue, but that’s not my concern,” Carroll said. “My concern is why we didn’t get the bulk thrown and caught underneath, and we wound up taking those shots.”
Geno Smith Will Look to Improve for Raiders
Smith and the Las Vegas Raiders will look to bounce back in Week 3, hoping to get a win against a talented Washington Commanders team. Over the past season and a half, the Commanders have been one of the more under-the-radar teams in the NFL.
If Smith continues to do what he did in the Week 2 loss in Washington, the Raiders are likely not going to come away with the win.
“No, I’ve got to learn from it. You know what I mean? This game’s all about learning from your experiences. This is a game, again, I’ve had similar games in the past where things, you know, the ball has bounced an unfortunate way,” Smith said.
“That’s a part of the game, but you can never just say you can flush it. You got to learn from it. So, I’m going to be super hard on myself, extremely hard on myself, because that’s all I know. I’m going to get better this week. I’m going to find ways to get better from this film, and we’ll be better as a team as well.”
Raiders’ Geno Smith Gives Blunt Words After Loss to Chargers