Raiders Rally from Double-Digit Deficit to Top Saints, Prepare for Chiefs Challenge

NEW ORLEANS — The Raiders opened with victories over the Dolphins and Chargers, turning a team that won three games last season into one with a 2-0 start.

Yet skepticism lingered. After decades of postseason futility, a promising beginning often feels temporary.

Sunday threatened to confirm those doubts. The Saints seized control in the Superdome, and the Raiders faced an 11-point deficit with 5:46 left in the third quarter.

The familiar script seemed poised to unfold.

“I just remember in past years, being down 11, it’s kind of like, the game’s over with,” said Raiders wide receiver Tre Tucker.

“Not for us,” Tucker replied.

The Raiders forced turnovers on the Saints’ final four possessions, scored 19 unanswered points, and secured a 35-27 victory that challenges prevailing assumptions about this franchise.

“You just keep playing,” said quarterback Kirk Cousins.

Simple advice from a quarterback demonstrating its validity.

Cousins is proving he is more than a placeholder for prized young quarterback Fernando Mendoza. There remains life in his arm, wisdom in his decisions, and a steadiness that can settle a sideline when a game threatens to unravel.

Sunday, he helped the Raiders turn panic into poise, then poise into victory.

“Playing through the smoke,” Cousins said. “Which is inevitably what’s going to happen in this league.”

You do not travel to New Orleans, fall behind by double digits in the second half, and reclaim the entire afternoon without carrying something meaningful forward.

Something beyond a third victory.

Something that prompts the question of whether a franchise with only two playoff appearances since Rich Gannon guided it to the Super Bowl in 2002 might finally be constructing a foundation worth believing in.

The Chiefs arrive next week.

The archrivals and recent tormentors come to Las Vegas just as the Raiders make it increasingly difficult to dismiss their start as a pleasant September diversion.

That conversation can wait. First, appreciate how they earned this moment.

On an afternoon when the running game struggled for traction, rookie Mike Washington Jr. broke free for a 36-yard touchdown that cut the deficit to 27-22.

One opening. One burst. A reason to believe again.

“A huge run,” said Cousins.

Malcolm Koonce then sacked Tyler Shough and knocked the ball loose, with Maxx Crosby securing the recovery.

Cousins converted that opportunity into a touchdown pass to Cody White, the practice squad receiver whose third touchdown in two games underscored that contributions can emerge from anywhere.

Rookie cornerback Zeke Masses followed with his third interception in two games. Cousins capitalized with a 4-yard touchdown throw to Brock Bowers, and the Raiders took a 35-27 lead.

“The defense just kept showing up for us in the second half,” said Cousins.

The defense was not finished, however.

Jeremy Chinn delivered a strip sack that Taron Johnson recovered. Nakobe Dean then knocked the ball loose from Juwan Johnson and scooped it up himself.

Four consecutive Saints possessions ended with the Raiders taking control of the football.

Four separate reminders that this team had no intention of cooperating with an expected collapse.

Dean embodied that refusal.

His sideline-to-sideline presence gave the defense a player capable of influencing the game wherever the Saints attempted to take it. When a final stop was needed, he supplied both disruption and recovery.

“We knew we had to rally back,” Dean said. “We had to start back to playing our football.”

Those are the plays that transform offseason additions into foundations.

Cousins provides another.

There is value in having a quarterback whose experience can lower the temperature when everything around him is heating up.

An 11-point deficit in the Superdome can make every possession feel terminal. It can tempt a quarterback into trying to win the game with a single throw.

Cousins gives the Raiders someone who understands there is still a next play.

His value extends beyond delivering the ball. It is the steadiness he brings to the teammates waiting for him to deliver it.

“He’s poised, he’s confident. He just commands,” said Tucker. “There’s not enough words to describe him.”

Sunday, Cousins had a familiar difference-maker available for the first time this season.

Bowers returned from knee surgery and immediately caught 10 passes for 116 yards and a touchdown.

The Raiders had figured out how to win without their best pass catcher. His return demonstrated how much more they can become with him.

He gives Cousins an answer when a play demands one, commands attention that benefits everyone else, and makes the offense more difficult to contain.

But Sunday mattered because the answers extended well beyond Bowers.

They came from a rookie running back, a rookie cornerback, a receiver working to establish his place, and defenders taking turns making the decisive play.

That is how belief becomes tangible.

Players stop waiting for someone else to rescue them. They begin expecting the next contribution to come from anywhere, including themselves.

Flaws remain, certainly.

The running game requires consistency. Falling behind by double digits and forcing four consecutive turnovers is no sustainable weekly formula.

Klint Kubiak has plenty to address.

But there is a difference between explaining why a team lost and correcting what nearly cost it a victory.

The Raiders keep earning the latter conversation.

Now they face the opponent that can give all of this another dimension.

Beating the Chiefs would not settle every question. Losing would not erase what happened here.

But the Raiders have earned the right to approach that game with something more substantial than hope that their rivals have an off day.

They have evidence of their own resilience, their own depth, and their own ability to change a game.

That is real progress.

The first two weeks made them interesting.

Sunday made one wonder how far this might go.

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