The Las Vegas Raiders suffered a devastating 20-9 defeat at the hands of their AFC West rivals, the Los Angeles Chargers, on Monday Night Football in Week 2. They now have a 1-1 record during the 2025 NFL season, and they sit tied for second place in the division.
Veteran quarterback Geno Smith was a big component of the Raiders' primetime loss, as he completed just 24 of his 43 pass attempts for 180 yards. He also threw three interceptions and 15 passes defended, so his decision-making was questionable at best.
This was a frustrating outcome for Smith, the team and Raider Nation, as all three parties expected him to play even better at home against the Chargers than he did in a rainy outdoor game in Week 1 against the New England Patriots.
Geno Smith took full acountability for Raiders' loss to Chargers
Smith is an experienced player, however, and he has fought through unbelievably low points in his career to even get here in the first place. After Monday's game, Smith said to reporters exactly what the fan base wanted to hear when talking about his miscues.
"Those are things that I got to learn from and be better at. Anything that doesn't look right out there, you put that on my feet, you know, put that on my shoulders. I feel like I got to be a lot better for our guys. I know I have to, and I will be," Smith said. "I'm never going to make any excuses about anything. I've got to be better. We got to be better, and we got a short week to improve on that."
As helpless as Raider Nation felt watching that game unfold, Smith's words should instill some confidence back into the fan base. Not shying away from your shortcomings is the surest way to improve, and Smith has his eyes set on just that.
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When asked in the same press availability if he intended to flush that game away and forget about it, or if he planned on watching the film and choosing to learn from it, Smith had an obvious answer in mind.
"No, I've got to learn from it. You know what I mean? This game's all about learning from your experiences. This is a game, again, I've had similar games in the past where things, you know, the ball has bounced an unfortunate way," Smith said. "That's a part of the game, but you can never just say you can flush it. You got to learn from it. So, I'm going to be super hard on myself, extremely hard on myself, because that's all I know. I'm going to get better this week. I'm going to find ways to get better from this film, and we'll be better as a team as well."
Raider Nation is hoping that Smith's words become a reality because the veteran signal-caller will need to be much better if the team wants to stay afloat in a tough AFC this season. His next chance to right the ship will be on Sunday morning against the Washington Commanders.