Kirk Cousins leads the NFL in touchdown passes. Four games in a row now, and the Raiders are 3-4.
Read those two sentences back to back and tell me this roster is “close” to anything good.
Cousins has been legitimately great. He’s thrown 16 touchdown passes through seven weeks, the most in the league, and he’s third in the NFL with 1,877 passing yards. That’s an MVP-caliber stat line on a team with a losing record. It means absolutely nothing for where this season is going.
The Rams put a bow on the whole problem Sunday, winning 35-21. Cousins and the offense put up 21. Four quarters, and the defense never got Matthew Stafford off the field.
28.1 points allowed a game. Four losses deep, that’s officially a pattern now.
And the run defense is beyond broken. 3.0 yards per carry allowed. The Rams ran it whenever they wanted, however they wanted, and Maxx Crosby came out of the locker room sounding like a guy who just watched his own team’s tape for the first time.
Maxx Crosby on the Rams loss
“We couldn’t stop the run & didn’t play the game we wanted to. We’ve been through worse & it sucks, trust me, It makes me wanna throw up. We’re gonna get better and I know we’re gonna respond” pic.twitter.com/IO1jfUl8XI
— ShifftttyyyQB1✞🏴☠️ (@raiders1022) October 27, 2026
“Makes me wanna throw up.” That’s not a soundbite. That’s a defensive captain telling you the truth.
Before anyone gets cute about the stat line, the splits matter too. Cousins threw 6 touchdowns on 84 attempts with a 103.6 rating in the first half this season. In the second half? 10 touchdowns, but his rating drops to 91.7.
Kirk Cousins leads the NFL in TD passes and ranks 3rd in passing yards. Stats need context, because they're lying to you a bit.
In the 1st half, Cousins has 6 TD passes on 84 attempts, with a 103.6 passer rating.
In the 2nd half? 10 TDs on 77 attempts, but his passer rating… pic.twitter.com/z6LH8afLoo
— Raiders History (@Oaklraiders1976) October 27, 2026
He’s not evenly great. He’s getting hot late while the defense is busy handing out touchdowns of its own. Add those two trends together and you get a quarterback who looks like a Pro Bowler on a team that can’t get off the field.
There’s chatter about Klint Kubiak “thinking about everything” at quarterback, which in this town means Fernando Mendoza speculation. Ignore it. Benching the guy leading the NFL in touchdown passes to fix a run defense giving up 3.0 yards a carry is like trading your car because the house needs a new roof. Wrong problem, wrong fix.
Fixing this starts with the front seven and the offensive line, and Vegas at least has a short memory test coming up. Ashton Jeanty sounds like he’s ready to go find out against the Jets next week.
#Raiders RB Ashton Jeanty on facing the #Jets defense this week:
"Yeah. I think we can definitely get the run game going. Get back on track. … A couple guys out there that don't really want to tackle, but I'm not going to say names." 😳 pic.twitter.com/ySSn53MpMC
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) October 29, 2026
Jeanty didn’t name names, but his exact words were blunt: “a couple guys out there that don’t really want to tackle.” You already know who he means if you watched Sunday.
The Raiders activated Dont’e Thornton Jr. off IR and waived Jonah Laulu this week, which is a roster tweak, not a fix for giving up 28 points a night. Cousins is going to keep padding that touchdown number. Nothing about the record changes until the other side of the ball shows up.
Check out more NFL coverage while you wait for that to happen. Might be a while.
