I have spent a lot of Septembers braced for the Raiders to invent a new way to lose. Not this one, this one was a fun one. Las Vegas opened 2026 with a 27-13 win over Miami, led from the first quarter to the last, and for once I got to enjoy every minute of it (NFL.com, ESPN).
Not a classic game, and it didn’t need to be. A win is a win. Miami are the youngest team in the league and were always likely to be outmatched. But a comfortable home win, with a new quarterback settling in and the defence setting the tone, is exactly the start I wanted. I will take that any day!
How the Raiders first game went down
The Raiders never trailed. Scoring first, they led 17-6 at the half, stretched it to 27-6 through three quarters, then let Miami close the gap to the final margin once the game was already decided.
| Quarter | Dolphins | Raiders |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 | 0 | 7 |
| Q2 | 6 | 10 |
| Q3 | 7 | 10 |
| Q4 | 0 | 0 |
| Final | 13 | 27 |
The Raiders sacked Miami quarterback Malik Willis five times, with Maxx Crosby credited for a share of them, and Willis spent most of the afternoon throwing before he wanted to (ESPN).
A sack is simply tackling the quarterback behind the line before he can get rid of the ball, and it does two things at once: it loses the offence yards, and it rattles the person the whole thing depends on. Do it five times and you are not really letting the other team play. If you want the rest of the ways a defence takes a game over, I have the defence, decoded.
The key number: 300
Kirk Cousins, playing his first season in silver and black after arriving from Atlanta, completed his first ten passes and finished 21 of 30 for 160 yards and three touchdowns. Somewhere in there he threw the 300th touchdown pass of his career, only the fifteenth quarterback in NFL history to reach that mark, nudging one clear of John Elway (ESPN).
A touchdown pass is what it sounds like, a throw the receiver catches in the end zone for six points, and 300 of them is a career, not a season. To put the scale on it: the league has been played since 1920 and fewer than fifteen men have ever got there. It is the kind of number that tells you what a steady quarterback is worth, which is most of what the Raiders were buying.
He also threw two interceptions, so let us not get completely carried away, but the efficiency was the point. If you want to know why completion percentage and the numbers around it matter more than they look, QB stats, decoded lays it out.
The key Raider Nation takes
Jack Bech caught the first touchdown of his career, and the Raiders were quick to mark it.
Cat's out of the bag 🐅#MIAvsLV | 📺 FOX pic.twitter.com/TxQYCG8F7E
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) September 13, 2026
Then the milestone that had Raiders social buzzing all night: Maxx Crosby became only the third player in franchise history to reach 70 career sacks (ESPN). Seventy sacks from a defensive end is a decade of Sundays being the problem, and he is doing it in silver and black.
Menace to society 🏴☠️ #RaiderNation pic.twitter.com/l0bXaHnQP3
— Las Vegas Raiders (@Raiders) September 14, 2026
I was not the only one who liked what I saw. Sports Illustrated’s Raiders desk ran three “overreactions” to the win, and their headline one is Ashton Jeanty, the second-year running back who looked like a genuine workhorse behind a rebuilt offensive line (Sports Illustrated).
That is their read, framed as an overreaction on purpose, and I would only add that an offensive line going from a punchline to a strength is the quietest, most important thing that happened on Sunday.
Where they sit now after NFL Week 1
Raiders are 1-0 and, for a change, the AFC West is easy on the eyes. Kansas City did Kansas City things and beat Denver 31-10, but the Los Angeles Chargers, the team most people fancied to push the Chiefs, were upset at home by Arizona.
| AFC West | Record | Week 1 |
|---|---|---|
| Las Vegas Raiders | 1-0 | beat Miami 27-13 |
| Kansas City Chiefs | 1-0 | beat Denver 31-10 |
| Denver Broncos | 0-1 | lost to Kansas City |
| Los Angeles Chargers | 0-1 | lost to Arizona |
It is one week, and the division still runs through Kansas City until somebody proves otherwise, which is a story as old as the Chiefs and Raiders themselves. But there was a nice outside marker too: Pro Football Network’s Defense Impact metric for Week 1 put the Raiders fifth in the league, inside a top ten it shared on Monday (PFN). Read that for what it is, one analyst’s summary of a single afternoon that already happened, not a forecast. If you want to know how a record turns into a playoff place come January, the NFL playoffs and seeding explains where 1-0 actually gets you, and the AFC and NFC covers why the division matters most of all.
The rest of the league
The Raiders were one of sixteen games, and Week 1 had a 96-point shootout, an overtime rule earning its keep and two games decided by a two-point conversion. I wrote all of it up in the full Week 1 roundup across the league.
Before I get carried away
Week 1 lies, and it lies to Raiders fans as readily as anyone. A comfortable win over a rebuilding team is a good day, not a guarantee of the season ahead. The real test comes next Monday morning UK time, when Las Vegas travel to face the Chargers on the road in a division game that will tell us far more than this one did.
For now, though, I am allowed to enjoy a 1-0 start. Well done Raiders. See you next week.
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