This Klint Kubiak Adjustment Has FIXED The Raiders Biggest Problem

I've been told that I have to correct myself, and look, if I make a mistake, I'll own it. I have to apologize. Kirk Cousins does not lead the league in touchdowns anymore. Joe Burrow does, because he had, like, six against the Tennessee Titans, who took him to overtime any given Sunday. Am I right? Kirk Cousins is now second with 19 touchdowns, which still, at 38 years old, is pretty insane. I've been saying, look. If you want to trade for Kirk Cousins, it's going to be a first-round pick. He's essentially the league leader in touchdowns at 38 years old. And if people say, well, he's 38 years old, that'd be crazy to give a first-round pick for a 38-year-old. I would say if he could do this at 38, then why can't he do it at 39? But then that makes you think, if he can do this at 39, is Kirk Cousins truly one and done? Just when I thought I was out, the Raiders pull me back in. A 38-point offensive showcase against the New York Jets. Jets aren't a great team, but coming up on the schedule is a great team. Maybe the most exciting game on the schedule because the former Oakland Raiders are headed into San Francisco. It's the Battle of the Bay. Now look, the 49ers. Are given an 80% chance to win this game on the Kalshi market. If you took the Raiders, you sprinkled 25 on there, you'd win $118.35. But I think the play here, the contract to purchase, is the 49ers not to cover. That nine and a half points that the market is being set at here because the Raiders have been the kings of the back door covering of the spread. So you have San Francisco 49ers to win by nine and a half. That's a lot of points. I think this is going to be a competitive game. So if you purchase the no contract and sprinkle 25 on there, it's $50.25. I think that's the responsible right purchasing of the contract in this game. Now look, if you're interested in checking out Kalshi, use code ALLTHEBOARD to instantly get 25 when you trade 25. And what makes Kalshi different and unique from your typical sports book is that With that traditional sports book, you're betting against the house. That's not what's happening with Kalshi. You are purchasing peer-to-peer, yes or no, contracts based off of the market that we set. You can do contracts for sports, politics, which is going on right now. It's election day. Movies, TV, entertainment, so much more. You want it? Kalshi's got it. You know, I think a lot of times when I make these videos... 99% of the comments are great, and then you get comments every now and again that go, you're crazy to say that you think this should happen. I think what gets misunderstood is a lot of times, what I like to do here is have thought experiments, okay? Let's talk about something that isn't out of the realm of possibility, and see if by the end of it, we feel one way or another. Because as I continue to talk about Kirk Cousins being a potential trade candidate, And saying, this is my price, I'm not budging because this is how good he's playing. There's really nothing that lends you to believe that what he's doing this year, he can't do next year. And nobody thought we'd be able to have the success offensively that we'd be having, especially without a competent, consistent run game, which you would think in year two of the Kubiak system, with another draft and more free agents, that could only get better. Now the contract is another thing to talk about. We're going to have to pay him 10 more million, who knows. But also, to balance that out, Kirk Cousins is back. Can you like... Kirk Cousins is officially back. First of all, look at the seats they get on these airplanes. Second of all, you know, this is silly, this is fun, but it leads me to my point of Kirk Cousins is playing maybe the best he's played since 2021, when I believe the Vikings won 13 games. He's talking about how Brock Bowers is comparable to Justin Jefferson. Clint Kubiak is firing on all cylinders, continuing to get this run game in better shape, which we'll talk about with a little bit of an adjustment here. But this is the first time we've had a very good offense, an offense that when I think we get the ball, we're going to score more often than not, pretty consistently. Now I know, we've only beaten four tomato cans. We played the Chiefs pretty well. We played the Bills pretty well. And I'm just throwing it out there. I'm asking the class, do you think whether you want to do it or not, Do you think it's possible that Mendoza not only sits for this year, but sits for some of next year? Now, presently constructed, I do not think that's going to be the case. I believe in my heart of hearts that the starting quarterback for the Raiders in 2027, next year, will be Fernando Mendoza. And partially why I believe that is because I do think that this Kirk Cousins thing has a time limit, has an expiration date. And these next three games are going to make or break whether Kirk Cousins has any chance of starting next year, because we got San Francisco in San Francisco, we got Seattle at home, and then we got Denver at Denver. Games that I all think in different ways we can be competitive in, if we continue to get the run game going, if Jack is healthier, maybe if we add somebody at the deadline, which I don't foresee happening at this current juncture. If we go 2-1 in these games somehow, it's not out of the realm of possibility if we beat the 49ers and the Broncos, right? Then you're sitting at, what, 4, 5, 6, and 5 with some easier games coming up. Titans, the Chargers, the Cardinals. Who's to say you don't sneak into the playoffs at 10-7? That they go, all right, Kirk, you gave us a hell of a year. You want to do it one more time. Because if we had a better defense... This Raiders team could be 6-2, 7-1 maybe? Our defense is horrific, and we'll get to Robbie Leonard in a second. But what hasn't been horrific, and what's been surprising to say the least, maybe besides the Buffalo Bills game, is our newfound home field advantage. Now, we all know how crazy it was in Oakland. There's only one nation, and it's the Raider Nation. And the Chiefs game was, you know, it was like 65% Raider fans, which is a little better than we thought. But this Jets game. At some point, I think Geno had to go silent count because there was a false start on his own lineman in MetLife. I knew multiple people that were at that game that said it was wild how many Raider fans were there. And there's an article in the New York Post that talks about how the Raider fans flipped MetLife Stadium into a road game for the Jets. A sportsbook site sits across the parking lot from MetLife Stadium, but East Rutherford didn't feel like Las Vegas until the Raider fans took over the building in the second half. The crowd of essentially 70,000 had its share of black and silver jerseys at kickoff, but it was never clear that the Jets were playing a road game at home in their 38-33 loss Sunday than when left tackle Olu Fashanu committed a false start on a third and five as Raiders fans made it difficult for Geno Smith barking out signals. It's on me. Pashun said, okay, we don't care. The Raiders hadn't visited the Jets in a non-COVID-19 restricted game since 2019, So local fans. Of the one of the NFL's national teams waiting a long time for Sunday, and Raider Nation's excitement surely increased after a surprising 3-0 start to the season, and it didn't dissipate after a four-game losing streak. They had some fans in the building. We have to handle it, Garrett Wilson said. It's a home game regardless. Protect our home turf. We're sitting there at 2-6, blah, blah, blah, blah. We have to operate regardless of the noise. Look at the Raider gorilla. We love it. Raiders cornerback Eric Stokes was flapping his arms in the fourth quarter to urge fans to get louder. They compiled and drowned out the home crowd. The silver and black was out, head coach Klukwyck said. We heard them, and they were loud, and they supported us from pregame, through the game, and especially in the fourth quarter. That was really special, so I'm grateful for our fans. How hard was it to operate on offense when you're expecting silence at home? There's only 22 people on the field at the end of the day. The fans are always going to be there, blah, blah, blah, blah. It was a pleasant surprise, Kirk Cousins says. I got hit on one of the touchdowns and didn't know Jalen Hurts scored, but I could hear our Raider fans. I'm trying to discern whether we scored or not by looking up at the crowd because I'm on my back and I see the Raiders fans cheering. I'm like, I guess we scored. It just sucks. It just sucks the life out of the whole building because I thought our fans were in it. I thought they had a great job of creating momentum for all of us. The Raiders and their fans seized it away. This is a very important linchpin moment, a canon event in this season because it shows that Raider fans have trust in the direction of this team. They didn't think it was a waste of money to go watch them play the Jets. They thought they had a chance to win this game. And I would argue that the Raiders fans had a say in who won this game because that third and five false start was a huge moment in the game. Flipped a lot of the game. And when you're down nine and you have the support away from your own stadium, that could rejuvenate a player. And we thought that if the Raiders held a competitive team, If every Sunday we truly believed we had a chance to win this game, that we would show up, and we thought that maybe Vegas was a bad spot to be in, it was just going to always be a touristy town. But I think that Jets game proved that Raiders fans not only will travel, but they will support you if you put a competent roster out there. And I'm very, very curious to see what it looks like in Candlestick, or it's not Candlestick anymore, whatever, the 49, the substation, we'll call it. I'm very curious to see what that stadium looks like, because we know 49ers fans are just as crazy as us. They're probably going to have a pretty good home field advantage, but I wouldn't be surprised if Raider Nation shows up there, and then in Seattle, or not in Seattle, against Seattle. You know, Seattle fans travel well. We'll see what happens, but I think for right now, that was a very important building block for the future of this team, and it has a lot to do with Clint Kubiak, and he is trying his darndest to get this run game going, and Ezekiel, our guy Ezekiel on Sports Illustrated via Yahoo here. Found a little bit of a wrinkle, highlighting a major impact of a subtle wrinkle that Clint Kubiak made, okay? So a second half turnaround is what they talked about. The Raiders look like a different team in the second half than they did in the first half. Whatever buttons the coaching staff pressed appeared to work. Head coach Clint Kubiak said a light on what happened in the locker room. We definitely had discussion at halftime. We made adjustments. I can't comment on what they did, but I do know that the resiliency of our team showed up. ...of our defense showed up, and we finished the game, Kubiak said Monday afternoon. Offensively, we would have loved to have finished that four-minute drive with the ball and get another first down. I was pleased with the couple first downs we did get, but we got the finish. Matt Gay made a clutch kick, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All right. During the Raiders' first offensive possession after halftime, which we were horrible in the third quarter until this game, they produced a 10-play, 65-yard touchdown drive. It was the first points of any kind they had scored on their first drive after halftime this season. On that drive, Washington ran the ball six times for 30 yards. I thought overall, outside of Mike, the offensive line did a really good job. The tight ends blocked well. Mike ran well. So it gave us a spark in the run game. But I don't think it was a one-man show. It was a group effort. The impact of his runs was seen when the Raiders scored a touchdown as Las Vegas was able to not only get the Jets defense to bite on the possibility of Washington getting the ball, Las Vegas rolled Cousins out of the pocket to play on the right side of the field. It was only a two-yard touchdown pass, but it pointed to something bigger. Rolling Cousins out of the pocket utterly confused the Jets' defense as it almost never happens. It was a small sample size, but paired with the mobility he showed in the fourth quarter against the Chiefs, it is telling. Specifically, both the touchdown against the Jets and Las Vegas' fourth quarter against the Chiefs showed how much the Raiders' passing attack can open up when the quarterback shows even a little bit of mobility. Look at the passing lanes open on the touchdown play and how many players were open. Las Vegas offense has play calls to compete against the best. However, a little more ability at quarterback can go a long way for the Raiders. Kubiak's offense has another level it can reach. Even small chances to the game or changes to the game plan can have a big impact. So there's a lot to talk about there. Not only does it help that, you know, Kirk Cousins has showed a little bit of mobility, got Brock Bowers wide open. The Jets had no idea what to do. They were afraid maybe he was going to run it in. But also, it shows what level... This offense with Kubiak can reach whenever Mendoza finally gets in there. That's why I've been begging them to put in a red zone package. I'm sorry I keep bringing it up, but it's how I feel. And also, Mike Washington, the threat of him running the football, opens things up. I said this yesterday or two days ago, people saying Mike Washington was in the game and didn't do any better than Jenty, did not watch the game, he was clearly better than Jenty. There were some holes that opened up for sure, that maybe Jenty wasn't able to pop through too, and we'll see, I think it's going to be more split 50-50 now going forward, it's not going to be all Mike or all Ashton, Ashton's clearly better in the passing game, he was awesome in blitz pickup, which he wasn't good at last year, so he is improving, the offensive line looks better with Trey Zune. And the play-action game in the red zone can now open up because we put a little bit on film, which is huge. Now, the film, in terms of what's going on with the defense, is not good. Now, I don't think they have the best personnel out there, but that don't matter because the Jets scored in their first six possessions. And I've seen a lot of people calling for Robbie Leonard's head. They're not going to do that in the middle of the season. They're just not. And if I was a betting man, I'd say he's going to get another year in this scheme with year two with Clint Kubiak, because everybody has growing pains. Everybody needs a chance to work these things out, okay? And we're four and four, and it's about perspective. We had the first pick in the draft last year. We got a lot of young guys playing. But I saw a tweet here that was interesting. Some of the best defensive coordinators in football are former head coaches who didn't work out. Dennis Allen, Vic Fangio, Steve Spagnuolo, Raheem Morris. If the Raiders move on from Robbie Leonard, I'd love to see them explore that route. Dan Quinn, Robert Sala. Robert Saleh's not going to get fired. Jim Schwartz are a few names I'd keep an eye on depending on availability. I'm not a huge Dan Quinn guy. He's a good defensive coordinator. He probably would be an upgrade over Robbie Leonard. Jim Schwartz is very interesting. He got that defense really rolling in Cleveland. He was pretty devastated that he didn't get the Browns job, so he didn't take any job right now, which is why the Browns have the rights to him. I don't know if the rights expire once the new year starts, but another guy I would throw out there is Todd Bowles. If Todd Bowles doesn't last in this Tampa Bay season, now they're having a little bit of a comeback and they're playing hard for him. I would consider Todd Bowles or Jim Schwartz over Robbie Leonard, but for right now, I'm not entirely comfortable. with axing him. I know the defense has been horrible, but in back-to-back games in the second half, they have made some pretty good adjustments to be able to get the defense back on the right track. They are forcing turnovers at a clip that is not Raider-specific over the last few years, and they are creating a little bit of pressure. With, you know, decent offensive linemen. You know, Max is great, we know. Tonka is up and down right now. And alongside of Max, Quiddy Pay and Malcolm Koonshave been a little bit of a disappointment. Although no one thought they were going to be Pro Bowlers this year. I would like to see them blitz more. I thought early in the year we were having better success when we were blitzing people. Now Brock Purdy, you got to be careful because he's a very smart quarterback, a very mobile quarterback. They're going to score a lot of points on us next week. We're just going to have to match them. It is what it is. I'm not expecting the Robbie Leonard defense to really show up next week because it is such a tough opponent, but it's a lot of bend, no break, and we scored in the red zone this week, this past Sunday, and the Jets didn't, so if we can do that in this game, I'm okay with giving Robbie Leonard a little bit of time to grow. I would allow you, allow you, I would implore you to join the Discord, which is completely free. We're always talking in there. 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