Ed Graney: We'll learn a lot more about Raiders come Monday night

Ed Graney, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Sep 14, 2025

Published in Football

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LAS VEGAS — To a player, they’re all saying it’s just another game that happens to fall on Monday night. That they consider all matchups to be of equal quality.

Nothing different than any other game.

But it is for the Raiders.

It’s a definite step up in competition.

We’ll learn a whole lot more about them this week.

The Raiders meet the Chargers on “Monday Night Football” at Allegiant Stadium and you can bet things will be tougher than last week.

As impressive as the team’s 20-13 win at New England was, Los Angeles is a whole different animal. The Raiders will face some serious challenges.

The Chargers opened their season with a 27-21 win over the Chiefs in Brazil. Los Angeles never trailed. Each time Kansas City cut into the lead, the Chargers answered.

It was so un-Chargers like. They faced similar situations several times in recent years and never seemed to make enough clutch plays. But they did last week.

The Raiders also had plenty to be proud of in Week 1. They limited Patriots quarterback Drake Maye and held the Patriots to three points in the second half. Their defense kept finding ways to get off the field.

Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, who completed 25 of his 34 passes for 318 yards and three touchdowns against the Chiefs, will provide a much more formidable test.

Plenty of skill

“He is such a factor that they’ve really played to him,” Raiders coach Pete Carroll said. “He’s got great skills to really make it difficult on the defense. A normal play can be defended, rushed well and all that.

“And then something else happens, whether he’s scrambling to throw it or (scrambling) to run it, and that factor is the most difficult factor in football to control. And so that’s why they’ve been successful, and they have a great chance to continue that.”

Carroll liked how his defense tackled against New England. Liked how it chased the football. Liked its effort. How guys knocked piles back. It’s what he hopes to see more of Monday.

That’s on one side of the ball.

The other needs to discover more of a run game.

It’s what the Raiders couldn’t do against the Patriots. Quarterback Geno Smith made up for it through the air — he threw for 362 yards with a touchdown and an interception in his debut with the team — but nothing came easy on the ground.

The Raiders had some successful play-action passes against the Patriots, but those plays could stop working if the team can’t run the ball.

It starts with getting more from rookie running back Ashton Jeanty, who finished with 38 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries in New England. He also needs more help from his offensive line. That group needs to be better Monday.

Just another game

“Yeah, I mean, I don’t think I was too fired up,” Jeanty said. “I mean, it’s football. You are always going to get fired up. But I think just in terms of the game, just making reads that I’ve always made and just being better, honestly. I mean, I didn’t play my best in the run game, and I’ll be working this week to be better.”

They say it’s just another game. That it’s only Week 2 of a long season. But this is an AFC West matchup against a Chargers team that made the playoffs last year and just beat Kansas City, which has won nine straight division titles.

“Monday Night Football” will be a key hurdle for the Raiders. They did well to win on the road in New England last week.

But we’ll learn a whole lot more about them against the Chargers.

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