Raiders instant grades: Mendoza, offense struggle against Texans backups

HOUSTON — How the Las Vegas Raiders performed in a 22-20 win over the Texans in Thursday’s preseason game at Reliant Stadium:

Offense: C-

This should have been a great opportunity for top pick Fernando Mendoza in his first preseason start to build some confidence against a defense that was resting all of the starters from one of the best units in the league.

Instead, he got a lesson in how to deal with adversity.

Mendoza threw a pick-six on his first offensive possession and led the offense to just three points as he played the entire first half. He had some nice throws in addition to a pivotal drop and another near completion that was knocked loose at the last second, but there was more bad than good.

That’s fine. It’s only his second preseason game, but it was a reminder that despite all the talent and accolades, he is still a rookie.

Aidan O’Connell rallied the group in the second half to salvage the grade and backup running back Mike Washington Jr. once again looked like he deserves a role on offense.

Defense: B-

It wasn’t a great start to the group as the Texans went right down the field for an opening-drive score with a group that featured a couple starters, including quarterback C.J. Stroud.

But to the credit of Rob Leonard’s group, they were able to settle down and limit the Texans reserves.

The Raiders depth pieces made some big plays.

Patrick Johnson had a strip sack that was recovered by the Raiders and Jahfari Harvey had one the Texans recovered. Thomas Booker IV, who figures to be a big part of the rotation, also made some big plays.

The defense has a lot of work to do. But they showed some grit.

It’s something to build on, especially after getting a stop to give the offense the ball back with 1:37 to play and a chance to win the game.

Special Teams: D-

This is a difficult grade to deliver because the Raiders did some very good things on special teams.

But the penalties erased all of them.

Perhaps the most egregious was the decision by Decamerion Richardson to down a punt inside the 5-yard line with no Texans players in the area despite having already stepped out of bounds.

The blunder resulted in the ball coming out to the 20-yard line and wiped out what would have been a 60-yard punt.

It didn’t stop there as it was one of five costly penalties committed by the special teams group. That’s just too many.

Then Kansei Matsuzawa missed two extra points and the Raiders allowed a 19-yard return late in the game to bail the reeling Texans offense out of what would have been awful field position.

Cole was tremendous. Matt Gay connected on a 52-yard field goal and the Raiders had some nice returns. It should have been a very good day for Joe DeCamillis’s group. Those mistakes have to get cleaned up.

Coaching: C+

The penalties weren’t limited to the special teams.

Klint Kubiak’s team committed nine overall for 83 yards and put the Raiders in tough spots all game.

They even got called for too many men on the field on the opening defensive drive.

It was a similar story to the opening week and Kubiak’s staff has to get that cleaned up. They also got dominated on third downs on both sides of the ball. While this was a game played almost exclusively by backups, this team is not good enough to overcome those kind of mistakes and they reflect on everyone.

Kubiak managed the clock well in the closing minutes and helped put the offense in a position to win the game, but it may be fair to wonder if Kubiak may be rethinking his decision to sit the starters considering his team may have needed extra reps after getting beat in Tuesday’s joint practice.