Raiders 14–27 Cardinals: how it happened
Arizona's quarterbacks literally didn't miss in the first half, while No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza's debut gave Las Vegas its first real look at the future.
The final score from Allegiant Stadium on Thursday night — Cardinals 27, Raiders 14 — will be forgotten by Labor Day. What happened inside it won't be, because the Raiders' preseason opener delivered the two things Las Vegas actually needed from August: a first live look at Fernando Mendoza, the No. 1 overall pick, and an uncomfortable reminder of how far the roster around him still has to travel. Arizona, playing mostly its second and third units on offense, put on one of the more surgical halves you will see in an exhibition game.
Arizona didn't miss — literally
The Cardinals' quarterbacks did not throw an incompletion until after halftime. Jacoby Brissett went a perfect 5-of-5 for 44 yards, capping his night with a 7-yard touchdown to Marvin Harrison Jr., and Gardner Minshew picked up where he left off: together the pair went 15-of-15 for 123 yards and three touchdowns in the first half, with Minshew stretching the streak to 16 completions early in the third quarter. The efficiency ran deeper than the passing line. Arizona finished 6-for-6 on third down and 3-for-3 in the red zone, scoring touchdowns on its first three trips inside the 20. Preseason defenses are vanilla by design, but perfection is perfection.
Cousins opens, Mendoza inherits
The Raiders' script went exactly as new head coach Klint Kubiak drew it up — for one drive. Kirk Cousins played a single series and made it count, going 5-of-6 for 50 yards and hitting tight end Michael Mayer for a 13-yard touchdown on third-and-3. Ashton Jeanty converted a third-and-1 along the way. Cousins, reunited with a play-caller whose voice he already knew, put it memorably afterward: "It's going to sound weird, but I enjoyed hearing his voice again. He's very urgent, very intentional."
Then came the main event. Mendoza played four series (not counting a kneel-down) and finished 10-of-16 for 97 yards and a touchdown, a 6-yard throw to Jack Bech that was set up by Mike Washington Jr.'s 53-yard burst — the Raiders' longest preseason run since 2017, per Sportsnaut. The debut had its flashes, including a 19-yard dart threaded to fellow rookie Malik Benson between three defenders, and its rookie moments too — Mendoza admitted the game "felt a little sped up because of so much anticipation," while calling the night "an invigorating experience." Kubiak's assessment was measured: "I thought he led a good scoring drive as far as getting in and out of the huddle and commanding the group." Mendoza graded himself harder: "Unfortunately, I let my teammates down today. But it's a growing experience, and I feel like we're all growing."
Where it turned
The gap between the teams wasn't talent so much as discipline. Las Vegas committed eight penalties for 75 yards spread across offense, defense and special teams, and its young cornerbacks — Jermod McCoy and Darien Porter — were the nearest defenders on Arizona touchdowns. Combine that with the Cardinals' third-down and red-zone perfection, and a game that was 7-6 in spirit became 27-14 in fact. For Arizona, the night was a clean audit of its quarterback depth; for the Raiders, it was a list of correctables that Kubiak did not sugarcoat: "We've got a lot of growth to do as a team. It starts tomorrow."
What to watch next
Two position battles sharpened. The kicking competition tilted toward veteran Matt Gay after Kansei Matsuzawa missed from 38 yards and compounded it with a short kickoff — the kind of night that shortens a challenger's runway — and Washington's 53-yarder complicates the running back depth chart behind Jeanty in the best possible way. There is also a redemption arc worth following in the secondary: Jermod McCoy, working his way back onto the field, will get better nights than this one. The schedule offers a quick rematch with reality: the Raiders host the Texans for a joint practice on Tuesday before facing them at Allegiant on Thursday. Joint practices are where starters do their real August work, so that Tuesday session may matter more to Kubiak's evaluation than the game that follows it. Mendoza's series count on Thursday — and whether the penalty count comes down — will say more about September than this scoreboard did. Arizona, meanwhile, leaves Las Vegas having answered its only real question of the night: behind the starters, the quarterback room is in working order.