‘No good today:’ Raiders get blown out at Commanders

Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris brazenly guaranteed victory a couple hours before kickoff Sunday, saying on NFL Network that his team was, ‘going to be 2-1,’ after facing the Las Vegas Raiders.   

Washington went on to make victory look even easier than Harris made it sound. The Commanders crushed the Raiders 41-24 at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Md., in a game where they never trailed.

Las Vegas has now lost two games in the last six days, both of them wholly uncompetitive.

The Raiders followed a 20-9 loss to the Chargers on Monday Night Football at Allegiant Stadium where they trailed by two touchdowns after three quarters with the embarrassment at the Commanders where they were down by 24 points after three quarters.

“It looked like we were off,” Raiders coach Pete Carroll said in his postgame news conference. “It’s not scheme wise. I think it was physically I didn’t get them right. I’m disappointed in myself because I didn’t see it coming.”

Some positives at least came out of the Chargers’ game, most notably Raiders coach Pete Carroll praising how his defense played well except for a couple breakdowns. Silver linings were far fewer against the Commanders.

The Raiders were annihilated in every area.

The Week 3 matchup looked a great opportunity for Las Vegas to get back on track with Washington playing without reigning Offensive Rookie of the Year Jayden Daniels at quarterback.

Marcus Mariota instead got the start, but the backup had no problem picking apart his former team. Mariota, who played for the Raiders serving as a backup to Derek Carr in 2020 and 2021, scored on a third-and-goal scramble on the Commanders’ opening drive to give the home team control of the scoreboard.

Washington asserted its dominance on Las Vegas from the beginning as Deebo Samuel returned the opening kickoff 69 yards to just outside of the red zone before safety Tristin McCollum made a touchdown-saving tackle.   

That was only the first special teams gaffe of the afternoon. Even more costly, Commanders wide receiver Jaylin Lane returned a punt for a 90-yard touchdown in the third quarter.

“If you give up new plays, you’re no good,” Carroll said “We were no good today.”

That put Washington up 27-10, and Las Vegas responded by giving up two of a total five sacks on the day on its next possession. The Commanders scored again in two plays with Mariota hitting Terry McLaurin for a 57-yard pass that looked like a touchdown but was ruled down short of the goal line.

Washington coach Dan Quinn, bloodied on the nose from taking a hit along the sideline from a rushing-out-of-bounds Mariota, didn’t even bother challenging. The Commanders so thoroughly dominated the line of scrimmage all afternoon that the team just lined up and let rookie running back Jacory Croskey-Merritt punch in a one-yard touchdown.

The Raiders’ more heralded rookie running back, Ashton Jeanty, was mostly ineffective for a third straight game with 63 rushing yards and 17 carries — most of the production in garbage time with his team down multiple scores.

Las Vegas’ offensive line gave him little chance at success.

Every level of the Raiders’ defense meanwhile was a major issue.

The Commanders’ run game logged 32 rushing attempts for 202 yards, including a 60-yard touchdown run from Jeremy McNichols in the second quarter. McNichols broke tackles from arguably Las Vegas’ top three defensive leaders on the run — edge rusher Maxx Crosby, linebacker Elandon Roberts and safety Jeremy Chinn.

Two Commanders’ scoring drives were extended by personal foul penalties on the Raiders, a face mask on edge rusher Malcolm Koonce and a targeting call on safety Isaiah Pola-Mao.

Washington operated much cleaner defensively with linebacker Bobby Wagner — who made his name on Carroll’s Seattle Seahawks teams where Smith was a teammate — particularly tormenting the Raiders with 11 tackles, two sacks, two tackles for loss and another quarterback hit.  

The Commanders repeatedly picked on Raiders’ second-year tackle D.J. Glaze and veteran guard Alex Cappa.

Smith played better than in the defeat to the Chargers, but his statistics line of 289 passing yards and three touchdowns while completing 19 of 29 attempts was largely hollow. It was predominantly accumulated when the game was already out of hand.

Third-year wide receiver Tre Tucker was Smith’s favorite target and became the first Raider in eight years with three touchdown receptions in a single game. Tucker also totaled 145 yards on eight receptions.  

“We need to go back to the drawing board and change some things,” Tucker told Raiders.com after the game, taking no solace in his big afternoon.

The Raiders had a lot of momentum coming out of training camp into their Week 1 victory at the Patriots, but it’s halted in a big way after their disastrous week. They’ll look to improve across the board and break the first losing streak of Carroll’s tenure in a Week 4 game hosting the Chicago Bears at 1:25 p.m. next Sunday at Allegiant.

“We need to get this thing rolling because we know we’re a good team,” Tucker said.