Raiders QB Geno Smith Gets Strong Message From Jakobi Meyers
The Las Vegas Raiders are off to a 1-0 start after their Week 1 win over the New England Patriots on Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium. Moreover, Jakobi Meyers returned to face his former team and put up numbers to get off on the right foot.
Meyers recorded eight receptions for 97 receiving yards to have an impressive performance. Meanwhile, Geno Smith completed 24 of 34 passes for 362 passing yards and one touchdown.
After the win and his impressive performance against the Patriots, Meyers made sure to put a spotlight on Smith’s performance.
“He’s just a dog, man,” Meyers told NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero. “He just wanted to win by any means, and that’s a guy you could get behind. Big salute to Geno. He played hard today. I appreciate him so much.”
Raiders Coaches Also Get Love From Jakobi Meyers
Meyers isn’t only giving Smith love; the Raiders’ wide receiver also shared what it’s like to give Pete Carroll his first win as head coach of Las Vegas. Moreover, at 73 years and 357 days, Carroll became the oldest coach in NFL history to record a victory.
“It’s just all the hard work that we put in this offseason,” Meyers added. “Shout out to Pete. Shout out to all the coaches, Baby, all of them. Chip [Kelly], man. Thank you for getting us ready.”
After a challenging 2024 season, the Silver and Black are keen on having a bounce-back campaign with Carroll leading the way.
Geno Smith Hit the Ground Running
The veteran quarterback’s only touchdown came on a 26-yard pass to Tre Tucker in the first quarter. Moreover, Smith targeted tight end Brock Bowers five times for 103 yards, but Bowers left the game in the second half with a knee injury.
Late in the fourth quarter, Smith also threw a 36-yard pass to rookie Dont’e Thornton, helping the Raiders secure the win. If there were any questions surrounding Smith, he answered them. After the victory, Smith spoke to CBS Sports to share his thoughts on beginning his tenure in Las Vegas on the right foot.
“Just one win,” Smith said. “We’ve got a long ways to go. Happy we got to win, but we got to work tomorrow. I’m ready for work… I think we just stuck with the game plan. I thought we did execute it better in the second half. It’s a four-quarter game. They’re a good team as well. I mean, it’s the NFL. They’re going to win some as well. But we stuck with it, no one panicked, and we kept going, and we figured it out.”
Las Vegas must now turn the page to Week 2 as it faces the Los Angeles Chargers in an AFC West showdown. Furthermore, both these teams are entering the Week 2 clash off a win. The Chargers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
As a result, whoever wins this match on Monday Night Football at Allegiant Stadium will begin the 2025 season 2-0, which is the ideal start that any team wants.
Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell are going to face heavy criticism for their offseason choices after Lions' loss to the Packers, 7 more big takeaways
Well, that was not what everyone was hoping to see in Week 1. The Lions went out to Lambeau Field and did not look anything like the 15-2 team they were last year. They looked like a team that wasn’t ready for this game. That’s why they lost 27-13.
If you’re asking me, reacting to exactly one game of a 17-game season is not the way to go, but there will be a ton of criticism. Specifically, on the way the defense played. The Lions didn’t look like one of the top defenses in the league like they were last year. The bulk of the complaints will come in the edge rusher department.
This is all that Lions fans wanted this offseason, and the Lions did downplay it quite a bit and made no effort to get anyone in outside of Ahmed Hassanein in the sixth round of the draft. He’s currently injured. Fans will be hitting the comment sections, the radio guys will be doing their thing, and that one writer will write something about how someone could get fired, and the national media will blame it on Aaron Glenn not being around.
Again. I think it’s way too early to get this way because it’s Week 1, and this roster isn’t even fully formed yet. Detroit is getting some solid players back from injury soon, and things will begin to gel more with time. Throwing Za’Darius Smith at this wasn’t going to change much.
The Jared Goff report
His accuracy was fine. He only threw eight incomplete passes, with an interception being one of them. But the offensive line failed to hold up for him, and Goff spent a good amount of the day being moved off his spot and having to check down.
There just wasn’t much the Lions could do on offense. Part of that was because of the pressure being allowed, and part of it was because the game plan was overly conservative.
Why are edge rushers in coverage on third down?
Kelvin Shepperd talked about keeping the Lions’ defense pretty similar to what it was under Glenn, but said there would be some tweaks. Putting Marcus Davenport in coverage on third down was not the tweak anyone probably had in mind.
The Lions should be bringing pressure with their edges, not dropping them into coverage on third down. You do it sometimes, and it makes sense. The multiple times it happened did not make a lot of sense. Davenport wasn’t the only one who did it. Aidan Hutchinson did it, too. It never worked.
John Morton’s offense felt a bit Jim Caldwell-ish
Look, I know there was this big belief that Ben Johnson was drawing up 38 trick plays a game, but that was not the case. He had his moments, just like this, where you wondered why he was being so conservative.
There is a gelling period, and that was always understood, but this felt like training wheels were on. Even scarier, it felt kind of Jim Caldwell-ish. Like, these are good players you have. You don’t have to hold them back for any reason.
Offensive line struggled more than anyone thought it would
We knew this would happen to a degree, right? The Lions’ offensive line just lost nearly the entirety of their interior with Frank Ragnow’s retirement and Kevin Zeitler leaving for the Titans. Everyone had a bad day. Penei Sewell included.
He allowed three pressures in this game. That was the most on the team. Goff got sacked four times, and they all came from the interior. Growing pains were expected, but such a flat start was not.
An all-around bad day for Terrion Arnold
Arnold looked great in camp, and every coach on this team has been selling everyone on how good he has looked. That did not translate into this game. It might have been because he got hurt.
He went out with a groin injury, and before that, he was targeted six times and allowed four catches for 86 yards and a touchdown. He did have one touchdown-saving PBU early in the game, but otherwise it was a pretty bad day for him.
There was a positive: the Lions’ defense did regroup
No Lions fan wants to hear it, but the Lions’ defense played a lot better in the second half. Yes, it allowed 10 points, but in all fairness, the touchdown the Packers scored came when the Lions had to punt out of their own end zone, and the Packers started basically in the red zone. Otherwise, the Lions were much better. So you take the little wins and move on to next week and build upon it.
