The Raiders' Three Wins Came Against Teams That Are 1-14. Week 5 Exposed What That Means.

Eight days ago, the Las Vegas Raiders were 3-1, holding the AFC's second wild-card spot, and Kirk Cousins was playing the best football of his career. That version of the story is gone. What replaced it arrived Sunday in Foxborough in the form of a 45-17 demolition at the hands of the New England Patriots — the Raiders' largest margin of defeat this season and their second straight loss.

The ugly part isn't just the score. It's what the score confirms about a 3-2 record that looked far sturdier a week ago.

The 3-1 start was built on the NFL's floor

Go back through the wins. Miami is 0-5. The Los Angeles Chargers are 0-5. New Orleans is 1-4. The Raiders' three victories came against teams with a combined 1-14 record. The two losses came against Kansas City (4-0) and New England (3-2).

That's not a fluke of scheduling — it's a dividing line. Las Vegas has handled the dregs and been handled by anyone with a pulse. And the schedule doesn't offer relief: Week 6 brings a 4-1 Buffalo team to Allegiant Stadium that averages 32.8 points and 407.8 yards per game.

The defense is the real alarm

The Raiders had been winning with a ball-hawking, bend-don't-break defense. Over the last three games, that unit has allowed 34.0 points and 452.0 yards per game. New England moved the ball at will, and the numbers now read 25.8 points and 393.8 yards allowed on the season — with the recent trend pointing sharply the wrong way.

Maxx Crosby remains the engine (2.0 sacks, 13 quarterback hits), but the pass defense has slid toward the bottom of the league rankings, and the pressure that masked coverage issues early isn't arriving fast enough anymore.

Cousins is fine. The supporting cast isn't.

Cousins has thrown for 1,269 yards with 12 touchdowns, four interceptions and a 100.7 passer rating on 65.1 percent completions. He's the reason this team won three games. But the offense around him is one-dimensional in the worst way: Las Vegas averages just 82.0 rushing yards per game, and Ashton Jeanty is grinding out 3.3 yards per carry with zero rushing touchdowns on 88 attempts.

Now the run game may get thinner still — Jeanty is listed as questionable with an ankle injury and didn't practice.

The receiver room is a bigger problem. Jalen Nailor (concussion) and Dont'e Thornton (hamstring) are both ruled out, and Jack Bech is already on injured reserve. That leaves Tre Tucker (274 yards, one score) and a tight-end-heavy passing game led by Brock Bowers (312 yards, three touchdowns) and Michael Mayer. Klint Kubiak's scheme leans on 12 personnel, but "leaning on it" becomes a necessity when the receiver depth chart is this bare.

The trajectory number

The power-rating models felt it immediately. Las Vegas dropped six spots to 21st this week, a 5.3-point slide in a single week — one of the steepest moves in the league. The underlying profile is shaky: a roughly neutral EPA differential and a defense allowing nearly 26 points per game.

None of this means the season is lost at 3-2. But the club now faces the exact question every overachieving start eventually answers: was the 3-1 record a product of a soft stretch, or was it real?

Buffalo at home will offer a hard answer. The Bills can run the ball (158.0 yards per game) against a Raiders front that has surrendered chunk plays all month, and they score in bunches. Las Vegas has the quarterback to keep pace — but only if Cousins gets protection and the remaining pass-catchers win their matchups.

The Raiders spent September beating up on the NFL's basement. October is asking them to prove something else entirely, and the first two tests have gone badly.