What the Raiders Proved Despite Their Week 4 Loss to the Chiefs

The Raiders lost. Rich does not care. Not in the way that matters, anyway.

"Raiders fans, I know you didn't get the win. I know you tasted it," Rich said on The Rich Eisen Show the morning after Las Vegas fell to Kansas City. "But I think this team answered the question that everyone's been asking. Are the Raiders for real? They're for real, man. They're for real. Because they are playing meaningful football and they are going toe-to-toe with the Chiefs."

That is the headline, and Rich backed it up with the tape. Las Vegas led 13-10 at halftime, and that was still the score heading into the fourth quarter. Then came a final period with 34 points on the board, and as Rich put it, "you knew Kansas City was going to throw punches at them," and "you were right there with them."

The weapons are real too. Kirk Cousins "finally didn't throw for three touchdowns, but he threw for two." Brock Bowers is back, and Rich's scouting report was short: "He's a problem." Ashton Jeanty, he said, is "looking much better than last year," with 58 yards on the ground plus six catches for 68 more through the air. "He is a weapon."

Rich laid out the matchup headache that creates. One weapon coming out of the backfield, another coming mostly off the offensive line, or Bowers split out wide, "daring people to figure that problem out." Add a coach who can dial it up, Maxx Crosby "playing his head off," Nakobe Dean playing "outstanding," and Quay Walker doing his job. "A bunch of young kids doing their jobs."

And, Rich added, "a head coach is learning a little bit on the job." That was the one moment that had him yelling at the television.

Up 13-10 on the first drive of the second half, Las Vegas faced fourth and seven and kicked the field goal. Then a penalty on the Chiefs set up fourth and two, and Klint Kubiak took the points off the board to go for it. Rich admitted he is "not a big horror movie guy," but that is exactly what it felt like from his couch: "the guy with the chainsaw and the hockey mask is right behind you. Run." His advice, screamed in real time and not with hindsight: "Take the points. Keep the points on the board. Don't do it."

He understood the logic. Against the Chiefs, a 20-10 lead is much better than 16-10. But Rich's view was simple: "You're up six, just keep adding points."

Kubiak owned it afterward. "I took three points off the board and we're going to be aggressive going in the game. I don't regret it. I regret not getting it," he said, before taking blame for a late-game illegal shift too. "I'm not getting the play in fast enough. Total missed opportunity. So, you know, I blew it."

"I appreciate him taking responsibility for that," Rich said.

Then there was the halftime exchange with Tracy Wolfson that lit up social media. Asked about 17 rushing yards in the first half, Kubiak answered: "Not good enough. Got to be better. But you know what? We're winning. We're going to win the game." Asked about it after the loss, he said, "That's how I felt. So I just said what I felt."

Rich loved it. "I love the moxie." He just wanted the points to go with it.

The bigger takeaway is about the quarterback room. Since Indiana won the national championship and Las Vegas "wisely" signed Cousins, the question has been how soon Fernando Mendoza starts, with Cousins cast as a placeholder. Rich flipped it: "The question is now, why would Mendoza start?"

"Right now, it's all working," he said, "and the most important thing very well could be for Mendoza to witness Cousins going about his business throughout the week and then on the field." You do not walk into a locker room full of guys who are balling and announce a change.

The schedule makes it even more interesting. A trip to New England is next, where the Raiders won in week one last year with Geno Smith. Then Buffalo comes to town in week six. "There's no reason to think if they're so close against this Chiefs team and that defense, why wouldn't they be able to beat the Bills at home?" Rich asked. Then the Rams.

"Some great games for these fans who have just been taking it in the chin and the chops to show up and believe," he said. "There's belief in that locker room."

Borrowing from Sean McDermott's visit on Friday's show, Rich noted that winning makes the buy-in explode exponentially. That explosion did not happen in Kansas City. But for a team that just went toe-to-toe with the Chiefs, Rich's verdict was "good enough."