EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ – The Raiders earned something Sunday beyond a badly needed victory in their 38-33 win over the Jets.
They earned the right to keep believing their season can amount to something.
Nobody should confuse beating the Jets with solving the problems that created a four-game losing streak. The Raiders allowed far too many points against a bad offense and spent far too much time flirting with another damaging loss.
Against this opponent, it should not have been so difficult.
But this is a results business.
And by finding a way to win, snapping their slide and getting back to 4-4, the Raiders bought themselves time.
Time to address the defensive breakdowns. Time to find more consistency on offense. Time to determine whether the team that opened the season with three consecutive victories can reappear.
That matters with the 49ers and Seahawks looming.
The Raiders now approach that stretch with their season still offering a reason to press forward.
It also gives them room to assess their quarterback plans and trade-deadline approach without treating every decision as an emergency response to another defeat.
The concerns remain legitimate. So does the skepticism.
But winning gives a team something losing never can: a chance to build on a result.
Now comes the harder part.
Some thoughts:
Another bad day for the defense
The Raiders are making history on defense.
The kind nobody wants attached to their name.
They have become the first NFL team to allow at least 30 points in five consecutive games since the Lions did it across the 2020 and 2021 seasons. The only other time the Raiders endured such a stretch was in 2004.
That is the company they are keeping.
And somehow, that does not fully capture how helpless they looked at times Sunday against the Jets while giving up 166 yards on the ground and 439 overall.
New York scored on its first six possessions. The only other time since 2000 the Raiders allowed an opponent to do that was their 52-0 loss to the Rams in Week 13 of the 2014 season.
Nobody needs a reminder of how bleak things were then.
Nobody should be comfortable seeing those comparisons surface now.
And remember, these were the Jets.
Not some offensive powerhouse capable of overwhelming even a good defense. This was an opponent the Raiders needed to contain to give themselves a chance to stop their slide.
Instead, they provided a runway.
Six possessions. Six scores. An entire defense searching for an answer that never seemed to arrive.
This has moved beyond a bad matchup or an isolated breakdown. Five consecutive games allowing 30 or more points is a pattern, and the Raiders have offered little evidence they know how to interrupt it.
Up next: the 49ers and Seahawks.
If the Raiders cannot slow down the Jets, what reason have they given anyone to believe relief is coming?
Dynamic duo at tight end
For everything the Raiders still need to fix, finding dangerous tight ends is not on the list.
They have two.
And Brock Bowers and Michael Mayer are providing a glimpse of how much damage they can do together.
The pair combined for 12 catches, 145 yards and two touchdowns Sunday against the Jets, giving Kirk Cousins two formidable targets and the Raiders an offensive strength worth building around.
Bowers has been a man among boys since arriving in the NFL. Every Sunday seems to bring another reminder that defenders can know exactly where he is and still have no good answer for him.
Too strong for some. Too quick for others. Too good to contain consistently.
That part is established.
Mayer’s emergence is what makes the combination particularly intriguing.
Drafted a year before Bowers, Mayer is finally coming into his own with an offensive-minded head coach in Klint Kubiak and a capable, experienced quarterback in Cousins.
A tight end can find an opening, present a target and do everything his assignment requires. But someone still has to create opportunities for him, and someone has to deliver the football.
Mayer is finally benefiting from that combination.
He does not have to be Bowers to make this work. He has to be a dependable, physical receiving threat who makes defenses pay for devoting too much attention to his teammate.
Sunday illustrated the possibilities.
Lean toward Bowers, and Mayer becomes a problem. Account for Mayer, and there is less help available against one of football’s most difficult covers.
The Raiders have plenty of unanswered questions.
At tight end, they have two convincing answers.
Great homecoming for Raiders special team ace
Dylan Laube came home Sunday and made a case for another trip.
This one to the Pro Bowl.
The Raiders’ special teams standout entered the game leading the NFL in kickoff return average among qualified returners at 31.1 yards, then added an emphatic highlight to his résumé: a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against the Jets.
It was the NFL’s first kickoff return for a touchdown this season, and a pretty convincing reminder that Laube belongs in the conversation about the league’s best special teams players.
The setting made it even sweeter.
Laube grew up in nearby Westhampton, New York, and attended Westhampton Beach High School. Returning to the area as an NFL player was special enough.
Taking a kickoff 95 yards to the end zone?
That is how you make a homecoming unforgettable.
But focusing only on the touchdown would sell Laube’s contributions short.
He has also been valuable on coverage teams, embracing the less glamorous assignments that help determine field position. Against the Jets, he nearly added a blocked field goal to his afternoon.
Those plays matter, too.
The touchdown will get the attention, as it should. But Laube is building his Pro Bowl argument through the full range of his special teams work.
On a Raiders team searching for dependable answers, he keeps providing one.
Sunday, he just happened to deliver it close to home.
