October 18, 2026 - 5:03 pm

How the Las Vegas Raiders performed in a 33-30 loss to the Buffalo Bills at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday:

The Raiders still couldn’t run the ball, even against a Bills defense that usually struggles in that area.

That has to get fixed.

Kirk Cousins still found a way to lead six scoring drives and finished with 313 yards and two touchdowns.

They finally got a big game from a receiver as Tre Tucker went for 97 yards and a pair of scores.

Michael Mayer and Brock Bowers both had strong games at tight end, with Mayer going for a career-high 95 yards on seven catches.

The Raiders held their own for much of the day, but the Bills offense just had too much firepower.

They didn’t allow Josh Allen to get out of the pocket and beat them downfield with his legs, though he did scramble to extend plays in the passing game and pulled off a sensational highlight-reel touchdown pass.

Those things are just going to happen against the Bills. But it was always going to be a shootout and the defense kept the Raiders in the game.

The Raiders did hold the Bills to 4 for 10 on third downs. The one thing they couldn’t do was create a turnover.

The Raiders allowed a 40-yard return of the opening kickoff that led to a field goal, but covered kicks very well the rest of the day.

It was a similar story on punts as Greg Dortch got them for a 22-yard return and little else.

A key holding on the kickoff return after the Bills went up 30-23 with 4:36 to play set the Raiders up in bad field position at a pivotal time in the game. Then special teams ace Segun Olubi, who had committed the holding penalty, was called for a face mask on the ensuing punt return for the Bills.

That was not a good stretch.

Matt Gay had a very good day kicking and AJ Cole was typically solid punting the ball.

But those mistakes helped take away any chance to win the game down the

Klint Kubiak should be given credit for having his team ready to bounce back from an ugly loss and go toe-to-toe with one of the league’s best teams.

There were some questionable moments, though.

The Raiders once again had 12 men on the field on defense in a key situation in the first half and had to burn a timeout that may have been valuable on a drive that ended in a field goal just before halftime.

They then tried to get way too cute with the Connor Heyward-push play they have been using in short yardage. Heyward went in motion, then stopped behind center Tyler Linderbaum and tried to quick snap the defense. The chaos helped create a penalty.

That play has really only been stopped by Raiders penalties and it happened again Sunday.

Then there was a very bad decision to challenge an incomplete pass call late in the third quarter. The call was upheld as incomplete after review and even if the Raiders had somehow won the challenge, the result would have just been turning third-and-10 into third-and-7.

It didn’t make sense and the Raiders could have used that timeout to stop the clock again late.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.