Raiders are still learning how to win

LAS VEGAS — For the Raiders, days like Sunday’s are the kind of gut punches teams struggle to recover from.

A chance to win, an opportunity to get to .500 and use as a launching pad for the second quarter of the NFL season slipped away at Allegiant Stadium Sunday as miscues by the quarterback and a terrific play by the opponent’s special teams sealed the Silver and Black’s fate in losing to the Chicago Bears 25-24.

The Raiders had a chance to pull it out late but Daniel Carlson’s 54-yard field goal try with 38 seconds remaining was blocked by the Bears’ Josh Blackwell as Chicago improved to 2-2.

You can use the “We’re a work in progress” line if you wish but the reality is, these 1-3 Raiders are still learning how to win. And until they figure things out and put all three phases of a football game together over 60 minutes, they’ll have more disappointing afternoons such as Sunday.

Your quarterback simply can’t throw three interceptions. Your special teams can’t have field goal tries blocked. And you can only ask your defense to make big plays and get stops so often.

Yet the Raiders nearly managed to overcome all of that.

The offense, led by rookie running back Ashton Jeanty, put points on the board. Jeanty had his best day as a pro, rushing for 138 yards, averaging 6.6 yards a carry and scoring on a 64-yard romp that saw him break a couple of tackles along the way. Jeanty also caught a couple of passes including a nine-yard TD in the third quarter.

But Geno Smith was intercepted three times and while Smith accepted responsibility for the errant throws and said he has to do better, we’re talking about a 14-year NFL veteran here. He’s not some rookie QB. He needs to execute better or offensive coordinator Chip Kelly has to devise safer plays that are lower risk for his quarterback.

And we’ll see how the Raiders fare as yet another offensive lineman went down. This time it was tackle Kolton Miller who left in the fourth quarter, carted off the field with a sprained ankle. How long he’ll be out is anyone’s guess.

The defense, led by Maxx Crosby, prevented a slew of touchdowns from being posted. Chicago, like most teams, struggled to contain Crosby, who was in full-blown Mad Maxx mode. He set the tone early, harassing Caleb Williams, the former USC Heisman Trophy recipient, chasing him down, deflecting passes, even intercepting one, forcing a fumble and making life miserable enough that the Bears finally figured out by the third quarter that it might be better to not run the ball in Crosby’s direction.

It’s rare that Crosby has a bad day. But on Sunday, he showed why he’s an elite defender, a feared adversary for teams trying to move the ball against the Silver and Black. Chicago had no choice but to account for him whenever it decided to run a play, be it on the ground or through the air.

“He was incredible (Sunday),” Raiders coach Pete Carroll said of Crosby, who had five solo tackles. “He’s a guy who just shows up, whether it’s practice, preseason or regular season. He’s just a spectacular football player.”

Crosby, while appreciative of the praise, said: “I want to go out there and wreck everything. I feel like I do that at a very high level. But it wasn’t enough today.”

And yet, it wasn’t just Crosby. It was Devin White. It was Tyree Wilson. It was Isaiah Pola-Mao. They followed his lead and while the defense allowed 271 yards to the Bears offense, it managed to come up with enough big plays to keep the Raiders in the lead until the Bears found their mojo late to go up 25-24 with 1:34 left on a smartly-engineered 69-yard, 11-play drive which consumed 5:11.

And when the Raiders failed to respond in the end, it left their fans among the 62,642 that were in the building with an empty feeling. Their team is 0-2 at home and while Sunday felt like a road game at Soldier Field West with the overwhelming number of Bears fans, there may be more days like this unless the mistakes are corrected, the play execution becomes crisper and smarter and this team learns how to finish off its opponents.

“We had our sights set on getting this thing started (Sunday) and
 we didn’t quite get it done,” Carroll said. “”But it’s still out there for us.”

Perhaps. But teams that start 1-3 in the NFL usually don’t make the playoffs. And add to the fact the Raiders are in a tough division in the AFC West, that hill just got a little steeper to climb.