The Raiders had their most disappointing offensive effort of the season on Sunday, and it would appear that teams are starting to figure out a few of their weaknesses.
The Raiders’ pass rush hasn’t been good for a while, and the running game has been deteriorating since the first week of the season.
Kirk Cousins is second in the NFL in touchdown passes (12), but in the last two weeks, the Chiefs and Patriots were able to frustrate Cousins with aggressive blitzes.
The Athletic’s Ted Nguyen talked about Cousins this week and said the veteran quarterback needs to start beating cover zero blitzes much sooner than later.
“The Raiders have a cover zero problem and it’s a problem on both sides of the ball, [but] especially for the Raiders’ offense because once defenses and opposing teams see that you have a problem, they’re going to keep picking at it until you prove that you have a solution,” Nguyen said on the Just Win podcast.
“The Chiefs started blitzing Kirk Cousins first, and then the Patriots started doing it a lot because they probably watched film.”
Looking back to Sunday, there was at least one occasion where Cousins didn’t have the arm strength to make an off-platform throw against the Patriots’ cover zero, and it doesn’t help that Cousins is limited in terms of his mobility.
There have been questions raised about whether the wide receiver group was able to get open on Sunday, but there were opportunities on film where Cousins missed open receivers against the Patriots’ cover 0.
Without a doubt, head coach Klint Kubiak will put time this week into preparing for cover 0 looks from the Bills, who have blitzed at the 15th-highest rate in the league through the first five weeks of the season.
How long will the Raiders stick with Cousins?
That’s the question everyone was asking after week 5 and it was the question no one was asking after week 4.
Listening to some of the better-connected media personalities covering the team this week, Mendoza’s time is getting a little closer and not just because we’re another week into the season.
Don’t look for Mendoza to break through in the next two weeks, but the Jets in week 8 might be a game to keep an eye on.
After the Jets, the Raiders face three of the toughest defenses in the NFL in the 49ers, Seahawks and Broncos. So if the Raiders move forward with Cousins through those games, the Browns on November 29 might be the perfect landing spot for Mendoza to get his first NFL start.
x: @raidersbeat
