Raiders report card: One aspect shines while all others fail

How the Raiders performed in a 34-10 loss to the Giants on Sunday at Allegiant Stadium:

Offense: F

Some of the final stats looked fine on paper.

Tight end Michael Mayer had a breakout game in Brock Bowers’ absence and Geno Smith completed 20 of 28 pass attempts.

But Smith threw two awful interceptions and the run game was completely bottled up even though a late 24-yard surge by Ashton Jeanty in garbage time gave him 60 yards on the day.

The Raiders really only had one good drive. Against a Giants team that had lost nine straight.

Yuck.

Defense: F

Perhaps the only thing worse than the Raiders’ pass rush Sunday was their pass coverage.

Or was it their run defense?

The Raiders couldn’t find anything they could do well and the result was to make the Giants look like the most explosive offense in the league.

Oh look, Wan’Dale Robinson is wide open again.

Special teams: F

Another big return allowed in the kicking game as the Raiders gave up a kickoff return for a touchdown in the third quarter.

It was a particularly crippling moment because they had actually just seized some momentum and cut the deficit to 10 points with a drive in which the offense converted three times on fourth down and capped it off with a touchdown.

There were positive moments and a big hit by Tommy Eichenberg, but you just can’t have those lapses.

Coaching: A+

There was one objective Sunday and the Raiders accomplished it by losing the tank off and maintaining the inside track at the No. 1 pick in the draft.

Job well done.

Pete Carroll may hate this and insist the only goal is to win games, but that would have been disastrous for the organization’s future.

Did the Raiders lose the game on purpose? Probably not.

But could they have really done anything differently if they were trying to lose?

Refusing to cover Robinson? Nice.

Completely wasting a challenge in the first quarter you had no chance to win and subsequently leaving yourself no timeouts to potentially get an extra possession late in the first half? Next level.

Good work, sir.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.