Kirk Cousins threw two of his three touchdown passes in the second half and ran for another score to lead the Las Vegas Raiders to a 38-33 comeback victory over the New York Jets on Sunday afternoon in East Rutherford, N.J.
Cousins completed 19 of 26 passes for 247 yards as the Raiders (4-4) stopped a four-game skid, erasing a pair of nine-point deficits by scoring 17 of the game’s final 20 points. Las Vegas ended a streak of 12 straight losses when trailing at halftime.
Cousins threw two of his TDs to Brock Bowers, including a 2-yard score a little over five minutes into the third quarter. He also tossed a 2-yard TD to Jalen Nailor that gave the Raiders a 35-30 lead with 11:33 left in the fourth.
Cousins also scored on a 1-yard plunge up the middle with 4:14 left in the third to cut the Raiders’ deficit to 30-28 and answer Braelon Allen’s 21-yard TD run with 8:20 left.
Bowers had seven catches for 92 yards while Mike Washington Jr. contributed 83 rushing yards on 25 carries.
The Jets (2-6) scored on their first six possessions but frequently stalled in the red zone. Jason Sanders kicked three of his four field goals in the first half as New York held a 23-14 lead by halftime.
Sanders kicked his fourth field goal on fourth-and-10 with 4:31 to play, after Adonai Mitchell’s 47-yard grab got them to the Las Vegas 13, making it 35-33.
The Jets burned their three timeouts by the 3:26 mark and the Raiders secured the win when Matt Gay cleanly made a 53-yard field goal with 27 seconds left. The game was iced when Jeremy Chinn intercepted Geno Smith’s desperation heave at the left edge of the end zone.
Dylan Laube returned a kickoff 95 yards to put the Raiders ahead 14-13 before the Jets built their nine-point lead on Mitchell’s 12-yard catch and Sanders’ third field goal.
Smith finished 20-of-32 for 290 yards and two touchdowns. Isaiah Williams caught an 18-yard TD to Isaiah Wiliams early in the second.
Allen finished with a career-high 147 yards on 21 carries while Mitchell had seven receptions for a career-high 142 yards. Garrett Wilson contributed six catches for 83 yards for the Jets, who dropped their third in a row.