Ready or Not: Fernando Mendoza Takes the Wheel

The Las Vegas Raiders beat themselves in San Francisco, then traded Kirk Cousins. Now Fernando Mendoza faces Seattle and Denver. Here’s what’s next.

The Raiders did not lose to the San Francisco 49ers because the other team was better in every phase. They lost because they kept handing the game away in the second half. Five turnovers after the break turned a competitive afternoon into a 38-17 final at Levi’s Stadium. Kirk Cousins threw a pick-six on the first play of the half. Brock Bowers fumbled after a defensive takeaway. Michael Mayer lost the ball at the goal line. Cousins added two more interceptions late, and the Raiders never recovered from their own mistakes.

That collapse is the story of the loss, but it also marks the end of the Cousins era in Las Vegas. The Raiders traded him to the Minnesota Vikings for a 2027 third-round pick. Fernando Mendoza will make his first start of the season this week against the Seattle Seahawks. The timeline moved forward whether the team was ready or not.

Brock Bowers is as advertised…

Brock Bowers caught seven passes for 111 yards and a 21-yard touchdown that briefly cut the deficit to 28-17. No. 89 continues to be the player defenses have to account for on every snap. He creates separation in the middle of the field, wins contested catches and turns short throws into longer gains. Even on a day when the offense could not protect the ball, Bowers produced. That is the standard he has set all season.

The fumble, however, was costly. After Treydan Stukes intercepted Brock Purdy and gave the Raiders the ball near midfield, Bowers caught a short pass and lost it. The 49ers recovered, and a drive that should have kept the momentum alive died instead. Fumbles happen, but they hurt more when they come right after a turnover that flipped the field.

Bowers’ talent is still undeniable, and he is the most reliable skill player on the roster. The offense will need him even more once Fernando Mendoza takes over. One mistake does not change the body of work, but it does show how thin the margin is when the rest of the team is already giving the ball away.

Special teams came to play…

Dylan Laube continues to be a threat every time he fields a kick. A week after returning a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown against the Jets, he averaged more than 28 yards per return against the 49ers and broke one for 54 yards. That return put the Raiders in opposing territory and gave the offense a short field. Special teams have not been perfect all year, but Laube has given them a spark that was missing for a long time. The coverage units held up well enough, and the return game is no longer an automatic three-and-out for the other side.

That matters for a team that has struggled to move the ball consistently. A long return changes field position and can change the energy of a drive. Laube has earned the right to be trusted with the ball, and the rest of the special teams unit has responded. On a day when the offense turned the ball over five times and the run game managed only 24 yards, the return game was one of the few areas that did not make the situation worse.

The Raiders are now 4-5 and have lost five of their last six games. The second-half turnovers against the 49ers were the clearest example of a team beating itself. The defense forced a turnover and stopped a fourth-down sneak, and the offense answered with a touchdown. Then the mistakes arrived in a cluster, and the game got away. That pattern has shown up too often this season. The talent is there in spots, but the consistency is not.

Now the roster looks different at the most important position. Kirk Cousins is gone, and Fernando Mendoza will start against the Seahawks, who have one of the better defenses in the league. The Denver Broncos are next on the schedule. That is a difficult welcome for a rookie who has spent most of the year on the sideline. Mendoza has the arm talent and the size, but he has not yet faced a full NFL defense that is game-planning specifically for him. Seattle will test everything, and Denver will test it again the following week.

The pieces around him are the same…

Bowers will be the primary option; the run game still has not arrived and the offensive line is still learning the scheme. Special teams can still flip a possession with a long return. None of those things change because the quarterback is different. What changes is the margin for error. A veteran can sometimes overcome a turnover with a clean series later. A rookie in his first start against a top defense will have less room to operate if the ball hits the ground or lands in the wrong hands.

The trade itself makes sense for the timeline the Raiders set. Cousins played well enough to keep the offense functional while Mendoza developed, and he leaves with a third-round pick coming back. The bridge job is finished.

The question now is whether Mendoza is ready for the speed and complexity of the league in consecutive weeks against good defenses. The answer will not come from one game. It will come from how he handles the first mistakes and whether the players around him can protect the ball better than they did against the 49ers.

A loss is a loss, and the Raiders beat themselves in the second half. Still, the bright spots were real. Bowers produced, and Laube gave them field position. Those things will still matter next week, but the difference is that the player taking the snaps has never started an NFL game. The Seahawks will not ease him in, and neither will the Broncos. The rebuild continues, and the quarterback change has made the next two weeks the clearest test of where it stands.