After concerns about the offense — and more specifically, the quarterback play — all offseason long, the Las Vegas Raiders had the start to the season fans feared they might in a 22-10 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 1.
The Raiders only managed to find the end zone once, and it came on a dump-off to running back Alexander Mattison, who did all the work en route to finding pay dirt.
Quarterback Gardner Minshew certainly wasn't terrible, but he wasn't great, either. The veteran signal-caller completed 25-of-33 passes for 257 yards and one touchdown to one interception.
He also lost a fumble when he mishandled a snap and still tried to throw the football. The Chargers ended up turning the turnover into three points.
While he wasn't great, Minshew wasn't the biggest problem the Raiders had, as the offensive line was not good in pass protection, leading to Minshew getting sacked four times and getting hit six times in total.
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There was also a turnover from running back Zamir White, and kicker Daniel Carlson missed one of his two field goal attempts.
Adding to those issues, head coach Antonio Pierce couldn't make up his mind between being aggressive or conservative on a pair of fourth-and-1 situations after going for it on fourth down in his own territory in the first quarter before opting to punt in Chargers territory in the fourth quarter. Neither decision was well-received.
Minshew didn't use all the slack on his leash in terms of the starting job, but one would assume it's at least a bit shorter than it was entering the Week 1 contest considering the Raiders couldn't get in the end zone more than once.
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If Minshew can avoid being the biggest problem the Raiders have on offense, he's not going to lose the starting job right away. But if we see more Minshew blunders and he holds the offense back, it won't be long before we see Aidan O'Connell.
