The Las Vegas Raiders have lost three straight games, and one of the prominent issues that has hit the Silver and Black during this losing streak is their inability to close out games.
In two of the three losses, the games came down to the final quarter to determine the winner, and the Raiders have failed to close out games by making a key stop or forcing a big-time turnover. It’s plays like these that allowed Las Vegas to jump out to a 3-0 start.
Nonetheless, that’s something that has shown up, especially in the losses to the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills. After the 33-30 loss to the Bills on Oct. 18 in Week 6, Maxx Crosby shared his thoughts on the team’s inability to close out games.
“Simple as that,” Crosby told reporters. “We got to look at the film and figure out what we need to do better in the second half. I feel like the first few games, we did really good in the second half. The last couple of games, we haven’t. We got to obviously watch the film first, but we’ll see what that looks like. The effort, the energy, everything was there. I felt like today we just got to get better from it.”
Maxx Crosby on Raiders’ Mindset Amid Losing Streak
Moreover, Crosby noted what the team’s mindset is amid their three-game losing streak as the Raiders now have to turn the page and focus on the Los Angeles Rams, who are 2-4.
“I’s tough every time,” Crosby added. “You want to win every single game, and we got to be better. We have to find ways to get better right now, and that’s the challenge; we know we still got to play a lot of good teams, so we have to find ways to improve fast. We know we’re a really good team [and] we just got to finish games better for sure.”
Kirk Cousins on Three-Game Losing Streak After Loss to Bills
Meanwhile, Raiders QB Kirk Cousins completed 23 of 41 passes for 313 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, finishing with an 86.7 passer rating. Despite battling until the end in two of their three straight losses, the Silver and Black still came up short.
After the game, Cousins spoke with reporters about his message to the team as they try to turn things around amid the three-game losing streak.
“All I know to do is go back to work, to have candid conversations on Monday that make us better as a football team, to have your process, the habits that get you ready to play well, and then to go through that process to not change anything when you’re winning, to not change too much when you’re losing,” Cousins told reporters after the loss to the Bills.
“I think the only part you change is when you go back and see where we got to be better, and you emphasize that during the week. But we just got to go back to work and put the work in and expect that if you do that, the breaks will fall your way.”
Maxx Crosby Makes Feelings Clear After Raiders Loss to Bills