Raiders fall 35-21 to Rams for 4th straight loss, Kubiak won't rule out Mendoza

The Raiders lost 35-21 to the Rams at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday, and the first half settled it. Los Angeles scored touchdowns on four consecutive possessions and led 28-6 at the break, per the team's own recap. Las Vegas is 3-4, four straight losses after a 3-0 start.

The line items are not complicated. The Rams ran for 199 yards. The Raiders ran for 49. Los Angeles scored on all five red zone trips, Las Vegas on one of five. PFF had the total yardage closer, 413 to 355, which tells you the Raiders moved the ball and then stopped moving it where it pays. They have not cracked 100 rushing yards since Week 3.

Kirk Cousins went 26 of 44 for 295 yards and two touchdowns and was pressured 19 times. Tre Tucker had five catches for 103 yards, including a 37-yard score early in the fourth quarter, and Ashton Jeanty caught eight passes for 61 yards and a 15-yard touchdown while averaging 1.9 yards on eight carries. KTNV noted that Matthew Stafford needed only 195 yards and three touchdown passes to pass Roman Gabriel for the Rams franchise record, now 155 career touchdowns.

Klint Kubiak was asked afterward whether Fernando Mendoza, the No. 1 overall pick, might start. "We have to go watch the film," he said, adding that the staff is "thinking about everything to fix our problems" and listing the red zone, the third quarter, personnel and scheme. On the run game he was blunter. "You can't win in this league having to throw it as much as we are throwing."

Cousins didn't fight the premise. "Nothing changes in the sense that if I'm not the best option then I don't want to be out there, either," he told reporters. "I want our football team to have the best chance to win games." He still leads the NFL with 16 touchdown passes. He's also the quarterback of a team that has been buried for a month: since Week 4 the defense has allowed 35.8 points and 416.5 yards a game, which is not his ledger at all.

Opinion, and it's only that: the quarterback question is the loudest one here and close to the least urgent. A rookie behind a line that can't run block, playing in front of a defense giving up nearly 36 a game, produces the same result with worse film.

Next is a trip to the Jets on Sunday, Nov. 1 at MetLife Stadium, a game Las Vegas is supposed to win. Watch whether Kubiak names a starter this week, and whether anything at all changes up front.