The silver linings for the Raiders, all things considered, came late in the fourth quarter. Dylan Laube found the end zone for the first time in his NFL career, seeing added reps with Jeanty banged up with a foot/ankle injury.
“Ultimately when I look back at my career, I think this will be an emotional one,” Laube said of the touchdown. “But at this time, we’re 3-2 and we got a long season to go.”
And it would be remiss not to mention Fernando Mendoza, who entered the game for the Raiders’ final offensive possession.
The 2026 No. 1 overall pick looked promising in his first NFL drive, going 6-of-8 for 48 yards. He showcased his mobility by extending a few plays with his feet while also nearly converting on fourth down with a three-yard scramble.
“It is good experience to have some regular season snaps to go off of, evaluate and get better from,” Mendoza said after his first NFL action. “So if in the future I am called upon, I have at least a little bit of experience, rather than none.”
Any search for silver linings ends quickly. The Raiders simply came out flat and out of sync in this East Coast trip.
The good news is they’ll return home for the next two weeks. The bad news is the Bills and Rams are next on the schedule. To avoid this loss becoming something larger, the Raiders must quickly recapture the identity that carried them through the season’s first month.
“We have everything ahead of us as a team,” Kubiak said. “We’re not happy with what happened today and we have to go do something about it. We’ve got to go fix it and move on.”