Raiders Take 3-0 Record Into Week 4 Home Game Against Chiefs
The short version
- Las Vegas is 3-0 under first-year head coach Klint Kubiak after finishing 3-14 in 2025 and drafting Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza No. 1 overall.
- Four fourth-quarter takeaways — three fumbles and an interception — fueled a comeback win at New Orleans; Kirk Cousins threw four-yard touchdown passes to Cody White and Brock Bowers.
- The Raiders lead the NFL with nine takeaways while blitzing at the eighth-lowest rate (19.5 percent), per Pro Football Reference.
- Week 4: the 3-0 Chiefs visit Las Vegas on Sunday, the first of nine games before a bye that follows a Nov. 29 game at Cleveland.
Las Vegas overcame a two-score deficit in New Orleans behind four fourth-quarter takeaways and now faces Kansas City in a battle of unbeaten AFC West teams.
The Las Vegas Raiders, one of the NFL's most surprising unbeaten teams under first-year head coach Klint Kubiak, moved to 3-0 with a come-from-behind road win over the New Orleans Saints in Week 3. They are one of three AFC clubs without a loss, alongside the Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs — the team visiting Las Vegas on Sunday in a matchup of 3-0 AFC West rivals.
The start carries weight because of where the franchise was a year ago. Las Vegas went 3-14 in 2025, a record that secured the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, which the team used on Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza. Even with that addition, expectations stayed modest — analytics models gave the Raiders a 6.7 percent chance of winning their first three games.
General manager John Spytek worked with significant salary-cap space and invested it in high-priced free agents, among them center Tyler Linderbaum and linebackers Nakobe Dean and Quay Walker.
Victories over the Miami Dolphins and Los Angeles Chargers to open the season drew skepticism, with critics pointing to the struggling opposition. The trip to New Orleans offered a sterner examination, and Las Vegas dug itself a two-score hole largely through its own errors.
The fourth quarter decided it. New Orleans surrendered possession four times — three fumbles and an interception — and veteran quarterback Kirk Cousins answered with touchdown passes of four yards to Cody White and Brock Bowers on back-to-back drives, stretching the advantage to 35-27. Dean forced the final fumble, allowing the Raiders to finish off the Saints.
Addressing reporters Monday, Kubiak said the result hinged on those four fourth-quarter takeaways, praising his defense for repeatedly returning the ball to the offense and observing that protecting the ball and disrupting it decide outcomes. He stressed that the season is long, that each week brings a new challenge, and that the staff had already turned its attention to Kansas City.
Rob Leonard, also in his first season leading the defense, has his group atop the league with nine takeaways, two clear of the second-place Carolina Panthers. Las Vegas recorded 16 takeaways in all of 2025, which ranked 24th. The pressure has come without heavy blitzing: Pro Football Reference lists the Raiders' blitz rate at 19.5 percent (22 blitzes), the eighth-lowest figure in the NFL, while the Minnesota Vikings lead at 66.4 percent on 89 blitzes.
Kubiak said a two-score deficit taught him more about his roster than any comfortable win could, since leading late tests little. Falling behind, in his view, is when a team's toughness actually shows.
Sunday's game opens a run of nine contests before the Raiders' bye, which follows a Nov. 29 road date with the Cleveland Browns. After the Chiefs, Las Vegas travels to the New England Patriots, then hosts the Buffalo Bills and Los Angeles Rams in consecutive weeks to close October. Kubiak said every opponent deserves the same single-week focus, with added stakes whenever a division rival appears on the schedule.
Games to watch
