It was a nightmare of a game for Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Geno Smith, who threw three interceptions in the 20-9 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on September 15 at Allegiant Stadium.
Smith completed 24 of 43 passes for 180 yards with his three interceptions. Moreover, the veteran quarterback couldn’t find the end zone in the challenging loss.
Rather than wanting to close this chapter and move on to Week 3, Smith told reporters postgame that he intends to learn from what went wrong in the Monday Night Football game.
“I’ve got to learn from it,” Smith said. “You know what I mean? This game is all about learning from your experiences. This is a game—again, I’ve had similar games in the past where the ball has bounced in an unfortunate way, or decisions haven’t [been] the best on a given play, or the best throw. That’s a part of the game.
“But you can never just say you can flush it. You’ve got to learn from it. 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, and we’ll be better as a team as well.“
Geno Smith Takes Responsibility for Three Interceptions
Along with stating that he will learn from the loss to the Chargers, Smith took the blame for the three interceptions as he explained the decision-making process that led to each pass.
“The first play of the game was a play that we designed,” Smith added. “We had an open guy, [I] led him a little bit too far off front. Ball gets tipped up, gets intercepted. Obviously, you want to have those plays back—you can’t. I mean, it’s the reality of it; I took a shot at Dont’e [Thornton Jr.] before the half. I thought he had a safety on him; I thought he had a shot, [and] I gave him a chance.
“Obviously, it didn’t work out in our favor. So again, 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, 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.”
Are the Raiders Asking for Too Much of Geno Smith?
Las Vegas struggled mightily on the ground in their matchup against the Chargers, and the offensive line didn’t do much to help open running lanes. Jeanty led the Raiders with just 43 rushing yards, followed by Geno Smith with 20, and Tre Tucker adding seven.
It was a rough night overall for the Silver and Black’s rushing attack, and clearly something they’ll need to address moving forward. Moreover, the loss highlighted a bigger issue—asking Smith to throw over 40 times wasn’t a winning formula against Los Angeles. That approach resulted in three costly interceptions from the veteran quarterback.
Nonetheless, the Raiders will be looking for a bounce-back performance as they head on the road to take on the Washington Commanders on September 21.
Raiders’ Geno Smith Sends Strong Message After Brutal Game