The Raiders have an identity crisis

Inglewood, CA (News4UsOnline) – The Las Vegas Raiders are not what they used to be. What the Raiders used to be was this storied franchise that represented Super Bowl champions, toughness and an aura of sinister majesty. They were the bad boys of the NFL. And they liked it. 

The problem now for today’s Raiders is that they don’t know who they are. Quarterback Geno Smith, playing in his 13th season in the NFL, appears not to be the guy to help this Raiders team find their identity.

The Raiders’ one-eye emblem of a logo displays the character in which the organization has thrived and has marketed on. They were once bad and successful as a football team. These days, they are neither. 

The Raiders don’t scare anyone any more. Their 2-10 record this season is reflective of that. There was a time when the Raiders would relish in their Silver & Black glory. They were mean. They were an ornery bunch. And they were good. The Raiders were the fun trouble team of the NFL. 

At this point in time, they appear to be relics of their successful past, a team desperately clinging on to yesterday’s glory. That was clearly on display in the Raiders’ 31-14 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers at SoFi Stadium.

The defeat marked the second time during the 2025 NFL season that the Chargers beat the Raiders, their longtime AFC West Division rivals. 

For a while, at least until the Chargers broke open a tie ballgame with two touchdowns in the third quarter, the Raiders actually played football the way that would have made team founder and Pro Football Hall of Fame executive Al Davis proud. 

During the Raiders’ prime under Davis, they were seen as fire-breathing demons on the gridiron, football players that played with controlled but reckless animosity towards their opponents. 

We saw a little of that when Las Vegas standout edge rusher Maxx Crosby gave Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert a cheap shot that put the LA star on his backside. 

“I think it was just an emotional game,” Herbert said after the game. “I was excited for the third down and he’d been getting after us all day and so I think it’s just one of those plays where emotions got the best of us. I’ve got a ton of respect for him as a player.”  

The old-school Raiders used to talk trash and then back up all that chirping with intimidating and nasty play. Crosby is the Raiders’ modern day gladiator with the physical play of those who came before him. He flapped his gums all game long, but Herbert just saw it as Crosby flexing his competitive juices. 

“Yeah, he’s a true competitor,” Herbert said. “We know how good he is and the plays that he’s been able to make over the past several years. We know they’re a good opponent. They’re much better than their record indicates and so for us to be able to come away with a win today, I thought that was big for us.”

Yeah, in regards to that win, this was a typical Chargers-Raiders clash. There was nothing extraordinary about it. For a while, the game looked like mush football with neither team doing much at all. 

The Raiders couldn’t generate a flea on the wall if they wanted to. This was an ugly game. But who says that winning a ballgame has to be cute? The Raiders, however, took their season-long anemic play to another level.

For the game, Las Vegas could muster only a dozen first downs. The total amount of yardage gained by the Raiders was an embarrassing 156 yards. 

Smith, who was brought in to the Raiders from Seattle, has turned out to be nothing short of a bust in his first season with the team. Against the Chargers, Smith completed a pedestrian 18 of 23 passes for 165 yards, two touchdowns and a pick. Not bad, but certainly nothing to write home about. 

“We all just got to play better,” Smith said. “I got to play a lot better. I’ve got to be better for the guys. That’s really it. We’ve got to be more consistent. I’ve got to be more consistent down in, down out.”

Pete Carroll, who coached Smith when both were in Seattle, is also in his first season with the Raiders. Carroll believes his team is close to turning things around, not just for the rest of this season, but beyond. 

“It just hasn’t happened yet,” Carroll said. “It feels like it’s just right there within our reach, maybe it doesn’t look like that to you guys, but that’s what it feels like. I can say that because of the mentality of the guys in the locker room. They continue to lead well, they continue to hang well, they continue to practice well and respond to the challenges of it. That part of it is ok, we have to play better.”

Cover Photo Credit: Melinda Meijer