Kirk Cousins turned in a solid game in the Raiders’ season opener, but even after throwing three touchdowns against the Miami Dolphins, the rumblings for Fernando Mendoza haven’t gone away.
If anything, they might have picked up a little.
For all the veteran leadership Cousins brings to the team, Raider Nation Radio host Q Myers said it was obvious in week 1 that Cousins no longer has the arm strength to stretch the field.
“The one thing I learned that was very obvious to me in that game on Sunday [is] that Kurt Cousins is not going to be stretching the field,” Myers said on the Locked on Raiders podcast on Monday.
“Whenever he really tried to push the ball down the field, that’s when he got in trouble. That’s when he made his two mistakes, when he threw two interceptions, and they were just bad, bad throws. They were just poorly thrown. He just doesn’t have that fastball anymore… Now, short, intermediate, fine, right? He’s really good at that, very accurate.”
Two more hosts agree…
Vince Sapienza and Vinny Bonsignore said they both want to see if Cousins will be able to have success when opposing defenses force the Raiders to beat them downfield.
These were Sapienza’s comments on the Morning Tailgate…
“I think it’s a real conversation that needs to be had. Being one of six on throws over 10 yards is a problem and that is not sustainable over the course of a 17, 18-week NFL season. You have to be able to connect on some of those passes. Now, it’s just one game and for all the reasons we sit there and say, ‘Hey, the Raiders did good, but it’s one game.’ I’ll sit there and say the same thing about the negative with those passes with Kirk Cousins.
The difference is the look. The difference is the pure, non-statistical, you can’t put it in a box, it’s just you see it and it’s like, ‘That didn’t look good.’ His throws did not look good. His ability to get the ball didn’t look good on those throws. Again, small sample size in one game. Six of those throws. But the ones we did didn’t give me confidence to sit there and say, ‘Oh, he’ll get the next one.’ That’s the issue.
As I look ahead in my brain, I sit there and I can already hear Klint Kubiak saying ‘Fernando gives us the best chance to win this week.’ And one of those reasons we may be pointing to is his ability to push the defense back with his arm. Connect on those passes beyond 10, 15 yards in the air. The back shoulder throws on the sidelines, the deep posts over the middle.
Again, I might be getting ahead of myself on a day where we’re going to hear from Kirk Cousins later today, this afternoon, because he is still QB1. But it is something to monitor if, if one game turns into two games. And if it’s something that is keeping the Raiders from being able to stay in games, win games, it’s going to be a problem and it’s going to create a new conversation.”
Bonsignore said he agreed with Sapienza’s thought process, adding that he noticed Cousins’ arm strength left something to be desired in training camp…
“It’s kind of a carryover from what we saw in training camp, as well. That was apparent to me, noticeable to me, I should say.
But and you can win games and I wrote [that] you can win games with Kirk playing that way. The question is A, how many?
And B, how long before teams kind of figure that out and start really designing defensive game plans to reflect what they understand could be some limitations in Kirk games and how sustainable is that?
Hopefully for the Raiders, they figure it out on a weekly basis and it all works out… It’s a small sample size. But it is a carryover as well in addition to that, not just the one game. I saw that in training camp where he was in terms of all that. That’s the question that I have is, what happens when teams start getting wind and start really preparing for a Raiders team whose quarterback is playing that kind of football?”
When will the Raiders turn to Mendoza?
Only Tom Brady, John Spytek and Klint Kubiak know what they are looking for from Mendoza before he will be handed to keys to the offense, but the FOX broadcast crew offered a few clues on Sunday.
Play-by-play analyst Chris Myers said he talked with Spytek and Kubiak, and both told him there isn’t a concrete plan to get Mendoza into games this year.
“We asked both the Head Coach and General Manager of the Raiders, ‘Do you have a plan to work in Mendoza?’ and they both said ‘Not necessarily. As long as Cousins is rolling with the team and we’re winning, we’ll stay with that,’” Myers said during the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game.
For Mendoza’s part, the broadcast team said Mendoza told them he is willing to be on the sideline as long as the coaching staff thinks he needs to be there.
x: @raidersbeat