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HENDERSON, Nev.—The Las Vegas Raiders (3-4) head to Gotham this weekend to face the New York Jets (2-5), led by terrific head coach Aaron Glenn, who has built a bad franchise.
Glenn is a defensive genius, and his Jets D reflects his tough nature.
The perennial struggling franchise has seen a myriad of coaches and players jettisoned only to have success elsewhere, sadly for Glenn.
The Las Vegas Raiders' 15-year veteran QB Kirk Cousins is playing the best football of his life, leading the NFL in touchdown passes and third in passing yards through seven weeks of the season, and he looks to get the Raiders back to their winning ways on Sunday.
Topping Glenn’s defense won’t be easy, but Cousins knows that as long as the Raiders remain in the NFL Playoff hunt, his job is secure, so snapping the Silver and Black four-game losing skid is important.
Cousins knows how tough a challenge Aaron Glenn's defense is this weekend, and he didn’t hesitate to say so.
“Another top 10 defense. I think they’re fifth in the league in yards against the pass, and top 10 overall. They’re doing a great job forcing fumbles. I’ve played against Aaron Glenn’s teams going back to Detroit, he did a great job there, and last year I played against him when I was with Atlanta. So, I have a lot of respect for him, their team, the scheme and the players."
"I know a few guys on that defense, so it’s a good challenge for us. We’ve got to be able to go on the road and find a way to get a win. I’ll take any questions you have.”
Cousins has seen a lot in his career, and until the Raiders' running game gets going, teams will keep their entire defense focused on stopping him. But he says he doesn’t think defenses are changing much.
“No, I wouldn’t say that. Each team has had a little bit of a different approach, and each team has maybe had its own flavor or wrinkle of how it wanted to defend us. Some of that may be specific to how they felt they wanted to attack us, but a lot of it is also their personnel, what they feel comfortable doing and how they feel they’re built. So, it isn’t just us sometimes. The team has to feel comfortable with what they’re doing.”
Ashton Jeanty talked about communication with the offensive line this week, and the Raiders' signal caller shared what that looks like from his perspective.
“I think it’s everything from owning the plan to talking through the checks and making sure everybody knows the technique. Ultimately, we’ve just got to all be on the same page, knowing where we’re targeted, and just making sure we are all on the same page.”
One advantage of a veteran like Cousins leading your team is that he has a field-level view of what is actually happening. He understands that while fans may call for major changes when teams seem focused on their identity, adjustments aren’t always easy or right.
“I don’t think there’s any science or formula. You never really know until you look back on the outcome and how it went. You’ve got to go with your gut and what you feel is best, and it’s never one or the other. I think the extremes are where you can get out of whack.”
He added, “I think it’s trying to finding a balance of we’ve got to stick to who we are, our identity, what we’re comfortable with, what we own, and not be too complicated. That’s an important part of any offense being successful. I think you also have to say we need to have wrinkles, we need to have changeups, we need to throw curveballs and keep the defense guessing. So, you do both and find that middle balance. I think that’s the healthiest place to be.”
The NFL is well aware of the Klint Kubiak offensive system, and Cousins has run it in Minnesota. He took time to reflect on how he would describe that offensive identity.
“I think we want to be disciplined. We want to run a great operation. We want to protect the football. We want to be explosive and playmakers. I think how you get there can vary week to week, but no matter what, you want to be an offense that’s explosive and can beat people a variety of ways and be very multiple.”
A colloquialism that is often tossed around the NFL world is to be fat: Faithful, Available, Teachable - something that, after knowing Cousins for 22 years, I can tell you is part of his DNA. He is a relentless hard worker who can take and give coaching.
He shared insight into when a team is struggling, the importance of staying teachable, and the value of an open mind to constructive criticism.
“Everybody’s coachable. I think guys have good habits, I don’t think you get to this level unless you have good habits, are coachable, communicate well and listen well. Guys are coming in to work every day ready to get better and today was no different.”
Cousins has been with Kubiak before, but not with the Las Vegas Raiders. He is learning what kind of locker room he is in right now, and he loves the statement, “Tough times don’t last, tough people do.” So does he think his locker room reflects that mindset?
“I think so. The game of football will weed out people who aren’t resilient. You got a lot of years of Pop Warner, middle school, high school and college to weed people out. You get to the NFL it’s kind of the toughest of the toughest. So, there are a lot of tough-minded guys in that locker room. And I think that’s the way it is across the league, which is what makes the league so great, is you’re going against the best.”
Dont’e Thornton Jr. was activated this week, and Cousins gave an honest assessment of the young man everyone likes.
“He’s got a great attitude as well. He’s kept a positive attitude all the way through the process and works hard in practice. He’s got a great motor and is doing a nice job getting back in there.”
We told you last week there was a chance Jack Bech could return on Sunday, and Cousins added his thoughts on his return as well.
“Jack [Bech] has quickly come back. He keeps a positive attitude. It’s good to have him back out there today. You have to keep going in this league no matter what happens around you, but it’s always fun to get guys back who you’re like, Oh yeah, that was great to have them in there’ after they haven’t been around for a few weeks. I love getting guys back like that.”
On Monday, I asked Kubiak about Trey Zuhn III getting reps on the OL this week, and he said succinctly, “Yes.” Cousins talked about the maturation of his Texas A&M Aggie rookie teammate.
“Yeah, we’ve moved him around quite a bit. Part of the reason you move a guy around is because you feel like he can handle it. He’s high capacity. You can make it harder on a guy when you ask him to move around a lot, but it’s also a sign of respect. You do it because you trust him and you say, ‘We’re going to put more on your plate, but we feel like you can handle it.’ He’s done a nice job, worked hard, does whatever he’s asked, and when you do that, your role can keep growing.”
It is no secret that with the team selling out to stop superstar TE Brock Bowers, Tre Tucker and his play have not only put GM John Spytek in a corner, but also given his QB a security blanket.
“Tre’s done a great job. Even more importantly, the chemistry is good. It’ll keep getting better. But I think just expanding his role and allowing him to do more and more. As we’ve given him more, he keeps showing he can do it. I’m encouraged by it and would love to see him keep doing more up ahead.”
Cousins elaborated on his willingness to work hard and earn more opportunity.
“Well, we’ve given him more to do, more routes, more ways to contribute, and he’s taken advantage of those opportunities. The traits were always there. Sometimes when you’re really, really fast, it’s tempting to only have him do the fast things and have the slower guys do the slower things. There’s nothing wrong with having Tre do those things too and wear different hats. He’s shown he can do a lot. He doesn’t just need to be the fast guy.”
A lot has been made of Tucker’s unbelievable conditioning, and count his QB a big fan.
“Going back to training camp, going back to OTAs, he was a guy who could run, run, run, and when other guys started dragging, he still kept his speed up. He was still getting open and still separating in coverage, and he’s shown that on game day as well. But similar to Trey Zuhn [III] moving around, we ask a lot of him.”
He continued to praise the rookie by adding, “When a guy’s really well-conditioned, we tend to punish him for it. We say, ‘Well, you’re so well-conditioned, we’ll just make you do it again.’ It can be tough, because you still have to understand he’s human, and even though he’s really well-conditioned, let’s not run him into the ground either. So, you try to find that balance, but he can go for a long time.”
The Raiders have been very blunt about their need to produce more offensively outside the fourth quarter. Cousins has done his homework and talked about how to improve that.
“It was an interesting statistic. I could be wrong, but we’re something like first in the league in fourth-quarter points scored or fourth-quarter point differential. I can’t quite remember what it was. So, clearly we’re doing something right in the fourth quarter. But if we were doing that in the other three quarters, we’d be undefeated. We know we can do it. We’ve just got to do it over 60 minutes, and that’ll be a challenge for us and an opportunity for us this Sunday.”
But despite the earlier in-game lows, one thing you can’t deny is that Cousins and his teammates don’t quit; even after some lows before the final quarter, this team is all fight.
“I think it points to a lot of things, conditioning, fight, and coaches having a plan where, as the game goes on, they make adjustments that give us a great opportunity to succeed in the fourth quarter. So, there's a lot of things I can point to that are positives. But when you lose four in a row, your mind's more going to how do we get better, and what are the things that aren’t a positive. But there’s no doubt that there is things we can point to that have been really productive.”
I remember when Kirk Cousins was a true freshman on the glorious campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. Within a few weeks, teammates wanted to vote for him as team captain. That wasn't allowed, but his work ethic immediately impacted a rebuilding Spartans program, and that same attitude still holds today.
Cousins is his harshest critic and is quick to identify what he and his teammates can do better.
“We can be better in the red zone. We can be better on third down. When plays are there to be made, you’ve got to make them. It’s a fine line between winning a game and losing a game. It can be one play. It can be one throw. You can say, ‘I’m playing great, having good production, things are going well,’ but if you miss one throw and you lost the game, you missed one throw and you lost the game.”
He went deeper, taking the fans inside his helmet, “You play with that tension and you prepare with that tension. I think that's where you say absolutely you can be doing better, because not playing perfect, and the only time you get away with not playing perfect is if you’re winning. Other than that, you either need to be playing perfect or you need to be winning. So, there’s plenty of room for improvement.”
GM John Spytek spent nearly $36 million on WR Jalen Nailor to help Cousins, and the two have not yet developed a go-to connection. Cousins talked about what it will take to develop that connection.
“When you watch the tape, you see him separating. I’ve told him, ‘You’re doing a lot of good things. We need to, I need to give you opportunities to make you right,’ if that makes sense. I think of a route he ran against the Bills late in the game, I overthrow him, but he’s winning. He’s separating. There were a couple other examples of that in the game on Sunday where you’re like, he’s winning, he's separating, he’s beating his guy. That’s all he can do. Then it’s our job to give him opportunities to make plays.”
With that experience, Cousins talked about what he can draw on to help this team refocus, or even stay focused through their current losing streak.
“I think just stay the course. Your work ethic has to stay at it. Just go back to work, put in the work, have good habits and trust that if you do that, you’re going to give yourself your best chance on Sunday. If I'm quickly changing everything I’d been doing, I would question more of my habits previously more than I'd be questioning what I’m doing now. It’s about I got to have good habits and then let's plug and play those habits.”
No one knows better than Cousins that a great friend to a struggling running game is a successful passing game, and he said the pass can help the Raiders reestablish their rushing identity.
“Well, when you convert third downs, you stay on the field and give yourself three more plays, which could be three more runs to get the run game going. If you can score early, you can get ahead on people. Now you give yourself a chance to play from a lead, which allows you to run the football, which goes back to the red zone and four-point plays and things. It all fits together. That’s why football is such a unique and great game."
"There’s not a single part of your team that doesn’t benefit. We fake a punt, and that’s another example of that helped our offense. It gives us a chance to be on the field longer and move the ball. So, special teams can really help. It all feeds into each other.”
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