The Raiders Were Exposed in Foxborough

The Raiders left Gillette Stadium 3-2 and looking exactly like the team the rest of the AFC has been waiting to see. New England beat them 45-17. Drake Maye threw for 374 yards and four touchdowns, ran for another, and finished with zero turnovers. The Patriots put up 536 yards. Las Vegas scored 17. That is not a bad day. That is a team that had a chance early and then got run out of the building.

The chance was real for about one quarter. Kirk Cousins hit Brock Bowers for a 13-yard touchdown to tie the game at 7. Bowers finished with eight catches for 110 yards and that score. Cousins went 19-of-28 for 243 and no picks. Ashton Jeanty had 10 carries for 27 yards. The Raiders forced a fumble near the end of the first half and had a chance to cut the deficit. Matt Gay’s 49-yard attempt hit the left upright. Maye answered with an 11-yard score to Hunter Henry with 24 seconds left in the half. New England took a 21-7 lead into the locker room. After that the game was over. The Patriots scored 24 points in the second half. Las Vegas managed a field goal and a late touchdown once Fernando Mendoza entered. The defense never got off the field. The run game never existed. The special teams donated three points that would have at least kept the math honest.

This is the exposure. Two weeks ago the Raiders hung 27 on the Chiefs in a three-point loss and looked like a wild-card team. Cousins threw for 365. Bowers produced. The building sold the idea that the caretaker and the tight end were enough until December. Against a Patriots team missing both starting cornerbacks and a top receiver, the same offense scored 17 and the same defense allowed 45. Maye looked like the 2025 version. The Raiders looked like a team that needs the opponent to play poorly to stay in the game. When the opponent played well, the holes showed up in order: no run game, no answers once the score got past 14, and a special-teams miss that turned a one-score window into a two-score hole.

Klint Kubiak can say they will fix it and move forward. That is the only available line after a 28-point loss. The problem is the tape. Jeanty is not getting the volume or the space that makes the offense more than Cousins throwing to Bowers. The defense cannot generate enough pressure or force enough mistakes to keep a good quarterback under 30 points. The missed field goal was the moment they still had a chance to make it a game. They missed it. New England did not miss the next five drives.

Heading into Week 6 the Raiders are 3-2 and no longer a secret. They have one impressive loss to Kansas City and one ugly loss to a Patriots team that was 2-2 and coming off an upset of Buffalo. The difference is what the opponent does with the ball. When the other quarterback is ordinary, Cousins and Bowers can keep it close. When the other quarterback is Maye playing clean, the Raiders do not have a second gear. They were exposed. The next game will show whether that was one bad afternoon or the ceiling.