The Las Vegas Raiders are clearly a work in progress. The team didn’t do anything well in the Week 3 loss to the Washington Commanders.
The defense couldn’t stop anything, and the offense couldn’t consistently move the ball. That’s not to mention that special teams gave up a huge return to start the game and then allowed a punt to be returned for a touchdown later.
There are plenty of people to blame for this loss. Quarterback Geno Smith likely isn’t one of those people. While he wasn’t great, he did throw three touchdowns and didn’t turn the ball over. He was also under pressure almost every time he dropped back to pass.
Despite the fact that he was far from the Raiders‘ worst player or coach in Week 3, he made sure to take the blame for the team’s struggles on offense.
“I felt like we made our plays throughout the game, it just wasn’t consistent enough,” Smith said Sunday. “That’s where I felt like we spuddered throughout the game. And then we had some big plays, and then we had some drives that didn’t look great. I put that on me, I put the onus on me, and I gotta get better and be better for my guys.”
Smith Not Pancking
The Raiders are now 1-2 with back-to-back ugly losses. It’s easy to start feeling like Las Vegas might be a bad team.
That said, the team does have a lot of new faces this year, so it could just be taking a little longer for everybody to get adjusted. Smith doesn’t sound too concerned yet and wants to keep focusing on the work.
It’s Week 3 in the NFL and we’ve got a long season ahead of us,” Smith said. “It’s never easy to lose a game, you want to win all of them but that’s not the reality. The reality is that we’re faced with a battle in front of us. As a quarterback, as a football player, I look forward to the challenges. We’re embracing that as a team and as a locker room.”
Raiders Run Game Need to Improve
The Raiders had the worst running game in the NFL last season, and through three games, they have the third-worst this season. However, the team didn’t have a top-10 draft pick at running back last year.
Ashton Jeanty had his best game yet, but he still only averaged 3.7 yards per carry. It’s clear that the Raiders‘ bigger problem is offensive line play. Smith acknowledged that being better at the line of scrimmage would open up a lot of things for the offense.
“That’s football in a nutshell. If you can win the line of scrimmage, you can win a lot of games,” Smith said. “If you can win the line of scrimmage, you can control the turnover battle, get first downs, convert in the red zone, be great in situations, and you can win a lot of games. There [are] a lot of things that we can do better, but I look forward to getting it right.”
Geno Smith Assigns Blame for Raiders’ Offensive Struggles