A gritty performance pulled the Raiders to a 20-10 win, proving that sometimes winning just means playing smart and simple. They snapped their four-game skid, though it was far from pretty. Both teams combined for only 451 yards, and Geno Smith went 17-of-23 for 174 yards and a touchdown, highlighting the uneasy truth behind the win.

“Yeah, I mean, it wasn’t as clean as I would like,” Smith admitted in his post-game presser. The win, his first at Allegiant as a Raider, was deeply important, but the execution was still pockmarked. That “not clean” feeling? It was stamped on the stat sheet by Smith’s lone INT, a play he later chalked up to misfortune.

“Obviously, can’t throw an interception in that situation. I was trying to dirt the ball,” he confessed, adding with a touch of exasperated humor, “I told coach, I need to go jump in the lake or ocean or something. It’s just a lot of bad luck stuff happening to me but I’m in control of that.” Be it bad luck, improper execution of the offense, or the interception, Smith knows what the mistakes were.

Geno Smith wasn’t awful in Week 6, but his night wasn’t exactly clean either. He finished with 174 yards and tossed his 10th interception of the season a stat no quarterback wants. According to ESPN, he’s the first QB since Kirk Cousins in 2020 to hit double-digit picks in just six games, which says a lot considering how many shaky quarterbacks have started since then.

Last year, he threw 15 interceptions, ranking among the worst in the league, and right now, he’s on pace to top that. Still, the Raiders managed to pull through thanks to a defense that forced three turnovers and carried the load. The offense clearly has some things to fix, but if that defense keeps showing up, they’ll have room to figure it out.

The offense settled for a 50-yd FG on their opening drive after Jeffrey Simmons ruined a promising red zone possession with a sack. The unit that had allowed 40+ points in 2 of the previous 3 games was, as Smith put it, everything: “But when our defense plays the way that they play today, when Devin goes out there and makes the plays that he made, Maxx [Crosby] out there disrupting the game all game long. I mean, those guys flying around…”

Maxx Crosby and Devin White were, simply put, cooking. White, looking like the All-Pro finished with 9 tackles, a 1.0 sack, an INT, and a forced fumble, a stat line Pete Carroll couldn’t even put into context. “I don’t know anybody could put up more numbers than Devin White did today,” Carroll exclaimed. “Geez, it’s a stat line.”

In the Raiders’ history since 1999, only Khalil Mack and Trace Armstrong have matched that single-game trifecta. Crosby added 2 more sacks, extending his TFL streak to 9 games, a run that hasn’t been seen in Vegas since 2008. The relentless pressure resulted in a season-high 6 sacks against rookie QB Cam Ward, with defensive tackle Jonah Laulu also punching through for his 4th sack in 6 games. When the defense is the only thing working, as Laulu noted, they become “the heartbeat of the team.”

The lingering phantom in the red zone for Geno Smith’s team

Coach Pete Carroll, meanwhile, captured the sheer relief of the moment, noting that the team had been “talking like we want to play good football for a long time,” but it just “hasn’t come together yet.” The win mattered, Carroll insisted, because “The last time we won was such a long time ago, we can’t even remember it, but (the victory is) really important for us. These guys deserve to feel like they feel right now.”

The troubling news arrived ahead of Week 6 related to star TE Brock Bowers. Bowers, who put up a rookie record 112 receptions for 1,194 yds and 5 TDs last season, has been fighting a nagging knee issue since Week 1. The injury, initially sustained after a shot to the knee, has kept him under 50 yds receiving in every game since.

Carroll confirmed the worst, telling reporters that Bowers is set to miss another game due to the lingering knee injury. For a struggling offense with only 158 net passing yds, losing a playmaker who accounted for 225 yds in 2025 before being ruled out is cruel.