Raiders lose 33-30 to Bills for third straight defeat, fall to 3-3

The Raiders lost 33-30 to the Bills at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday, a third straight defeat that drops them to 3-3 after a 3-0 start. Buffalo is 5-1.

It stayed close to the end. Tre Tucker's touchdown tied the game at 23 in the fourth quarter before James Cook ran in a 3-yard score with 4:43 left and Tyler Bass added a 38-yard field goal with 1:56 to go, per ProFootballTalk. Kirk Cousins hit Tucker again for 44 yards with 1:32 remaining, then Matt Gay's onside kick sailed too far and Khalil Shakir caught it in the air.

Read the ledger and the loss isn't mysterious. Las Vegas outgained Buffalo 378 yards to 345 and converted 7 of 12 third downs, by the box score, and still lost, because it went 2 for 5 in the red zone, forced no turnovers and ran for 65 yards at 3.3 a carry. "We're 2-for-5 in the red zone and that's unacceptable and that starts with me," Klint Kubiak said in the team's own recap. Mike Washington Jr. and Ashton Jeanty were each stopped at the goal line, and Cody White dropped a third-down pass in the end zone.

The takeaway machine that carried the 3-0 start has stopped. "We were taking the ball away early in the season a lot, we haven't done that the last couple of weeks," Maxx Crosby said. The only turnover Sunday went the other way: Dorian Williams picked off Cousins in the third quarter and Buffalo scored on the short field.

Cousins finished 23 of 41 for 313 yards, two touchdowns and that interception. Tucker had five catches for 97 yards and both scores, Michael Mayer a career-high 95 yards on seven catches, Brock Bowers 70 on four. Jeanty carried 10 times for 22 yards with his first touchdown since Week 1, and Bleacher Report's box score shows Mike Washington Jr. outgained him, 43 yards on nine carries.

Opinion, and it's the only one worth having this morning: the passing game is solvent and the run game is the recurring charge against it. Effort isn't the problem here. A team that can't gain two yards on the ground at the goal line is going to keep losing games by three.

One side note: Bills safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson was ejected before halftime for unsportsmanlike conduct after appearing to spit toward Raiders players, and apologized afterward. The Rams come next Sunday. Watch the goal-line package, and watch whether Jeanty's carries hold at ten a game.