Graney: Raiders offense stinks up Allegiant Stadium in defeat

Things sometimes change in a short window of time.

Last week, we saw how far the Raiders had come as a football team. This week, we saw how far they have to go.

They were better than New England, but not near up to par with the Chargers, which leaves coach Pete Carroll’s team at 1-1. Deservedly so.

The Raiders lost to a superior Los Angeles team 20-9 Monday night at Allegiant Stadium, lost an AFC West game because of an offense that let its team down in most every way.

Lost because you can’t make the sort of mistakes the Raiders did and expect to find any level of success.

“What that really feels like is a missed opportunity,” Carroll said on his 74th birthday. “In general, we didn’t play well enough on the offensive side. We’ll get better. We have to go back to work.”

They really need to find some balance on offense.

No deep balls

Geno Smith followed a terrific outing in beating the Patriots to a forgettable one Monday.

The team’s new quarterback wasn’t near his efficient self, and the Raiders paid for it. Smith threw three interceptions while completing just 56 percent of his attempts.

He was awful when passing the ball deep, not completing a pass of 10 yards. Smith is now the only quarterback in the NFL since 2016 to attempt at least 10 downfield passes without a completion.

Last week, he threw for 219 yards on attempts over 10 yards.

This week: zero, zilch, nada.

“Things I have to learn from and put it on my shoulders,” Smith said. “I have to be better. No excuses. We have to be better.

“I have to learn from this game. It’s all about learning from your experiences, and this is part of the game. You can never say just flush it. You have to learn from it. That’s all I know. Find ways to get better next week.”

Smith will be fine. He has been an efficient quarterback for years. The real problem: The Raiders lack any sort of balance. They haven’t run the ball much at all.

They have the No. 6 overall draft pick in Ashton Jeanty at running back. He has 81 yards on 30 carries after two games. He went from 19 carries against the Patriots to 11 on Monday.

He’s not getting much help up front, shades of last season when the Raiders had the league’s worst run game. Shades of a front office that didn’t overly address the offensive line issues and might continue to pay for it.

“We’re just getting started (with Jeanty),” Carroll said. “He’s breaking into the NFL. He’s figuring it out. He’ll get more carries. We have to run the ball more effectively. We only got (68 yards), and that’s not enough. We need more than that. We’re bringing (Jeanty) along. More will come.”

The line is a major problem, but Jeanty also didn’t play particularly well. He went the wrong way on one called handoff and missed a block when he didn’t recognize a stunt that led to Smith being sacked.

It was just so bad all around. The Raiders were too impatient. Forced things. Never settled into a mode of taking what the defense allowed.

They averaged just 3.35 yards per play, the fewest for a Raiders team since that glorious 24-0 loss to the Saints in 2022.

That was when, with Derek Carr at quarterback, the Raiders didn’t advance the ball past midfield.

Defense can play

The thing is, this team might just have something going defensively. A team that held the Patriots to three second-half points again showed up across major points in the game.

It allowed a chunk play of 60 yards for a score when the Raiders busted coverage and Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert hit Quentin Johnston in stride. Herbert is really good and played like it.

But this wasn’t a loss in any way to pin on the defense. You can instead start with the quarterback.

“Geno is a 70 percent (completion) guy and just wasn’t tonight,” Carroll said. “He’ll be right back at it.”

Truth: It’s hard to be a missed opportunity when you’re so obviously outplayed by a better team.

And when you play offense like that, well, forget about it.

Ed Graney, a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing, can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on X.