Regardless of the injury, he managed to go 4 of 4 for 49 yards on that possession, which marked the Raiders’ longest of the night with a net of 42 yards. However, a sack and a false start contributed to the Raiders punting it back to the Broncos from midfield.

Smith spent Denver’s next drive in the blue tent, as well, but again rushed back into action after cornerback Kyu Blu Kelly‘s second interception of the night set the team up five yards into Broncos territory.

“He wanted to go back in in the worse way,” Carroll said. “He wanted to go finish the game for his teammates. He got whacked in the quad. He got a quad bruise or something, contusion, whatever it is. He got smacked. That’s just him fighting.”

Smith was fighting, but he also might’ve been stiffening up. He moved around even more gingerly than before and was relegated almost entirely to handoff duty on the ensuing drive. The Raiders ran it with Ashton Jeanty four straight times despite trailing in the latter half of the fourth quarter. Smith didn’t attempt a pass until Las Vegas’ fifth play on third-and-6, which fell incomplete.

Daniel Carlson then missed a 48-yard field-goal attempt that would’ve knotted the score on the next snap, returning the ball to the Broncos with 4:26 remaining.

As Denver began to milk away the clock, Las Vegas declared Smith questionable to return.

“He would not have been able to answer the next time out,” Carroll said. “He wasn’t going back. But he tried.”

Any backup heroics by Pickett were not to be. The Broncos found a groove that had eluded both teams for most the night amid a defensive struggle, picking up three first downs to ensure the Raiders lost without seeing the ball again.

The defeat dropped Las Vegas to 2-7 on the season, one loss away from the team’s second four-game losing streak of the year.

Smith has not played up to the standard he has set in the back half of his career, starting with his 2022 AP NFL Comeback Player of the Year campaign he put together as a Seattle Seahawk under Pete Carroll.

Traded to Vegas for a reunion with his old coach, Smith has thrown for 1,844 yards, 11 touchdowns and a league-leading 12 interceptions through nine games. He now has a quad bruise to overcome during the team’s mini-bye in order to play — and hopefully start playing well — against the Cowboys on Monday Night Football on Nov. 17.

It’s luckily not a major injury, but it’s yet another setback for a Raiders squad struggling to establish success in Carroll and Smith’s first year in Sin City.