FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Fernando Mendoza made his NFL debut under unceremonious circumstances on Sunday.
The top pick in this year's NFL draft took over at quarterback for the Las Vegas Raiders in the fourth quarter of a 45-17 loss to the New England Patriots. The Raiders trailed by the final score with 6:06 remaining when Mendoza replaced veteran Kirk Cousins, who endured his worst game of the season for a Las Vegas squad that has dropped two straight after opening the season with three straight wins.
Mendoza finished 6 of 8 passing for 48 yards and an 89.6 rating. He helped the Raiders pick up two first downs but came up 1 yard short on fourth-and-4 with Las Vegas in the red zone.
“I need to work on my speed because I wasn’t fast enough to get the edge, but I need to stand in there and throw the ball over the middle,” Mendoza said.
Cousins entered Sunday with a league-best 11 touchdown passes, and Las Vegas hadn't scored fewer than 26 points in each of its first four games. But the 38-year-old got hit, harassed and frustrated all afternoon by New England’s defense, which sacked Cousins three times.
With the outcome decided, Raiders coach Klint Kubiak decided go give Mendoza some playing time. Before Sunday, the last time Mendoza took snaps in a meaningful game was the College Football Playoff national title game on Jan. 19, when he led Indiana to a 27-21 win over Miami.
This time, the man the Raiders hope will be their franchise quarterback handled mop-up duty.
“It wasn’t a great experience because of the overall outcome. I wanted to do my part, any way I can help the team. I was called upon and I appreciate all of my teammates, especially some of the starters going out there and having that fighting effort,” Mendoza said. “Entering in what you would call your NFL debut, it’s a good experience. Every rookie has it at some point. It was just that time.”
Cousins' play has allowed the Raiders to bring Mendoza along slowly. In the common draft era, the only quarterbacks to be selected first who waited longer than Mendoza to make their debut were Jared Goff (10th game, 2016), JaMarcus Russell (12th game, 2007) and Carson Palmer, the top pick in 2003 who didn't play until his second season.
Kubiak said Cousins is in line to start next week when the Raiders host Buffalo. Mendoza expects to be ready the next time he's called upon.
“I’m going to keep controlling the controllables,” Mendoza said, “but it is good experience to have some regular-season snaps to go off and evaluate and get better from.”
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