Expectations were high after Fernando Mendoza’s performance against the Arizona Cardinals in the Las Vegas Raiders’ preseason opener. However, he failed to carry that momentum against the Houston Texans on August 20. During the post-game presser, head coach Klint Kubiak tried to humble the rookie quarterback a little. 

“I think it’s plenty to clean up, plenty to get better at,” shared Kubiak when asked about his review of Mendoza’s performance, as posted by Raiders beat writer Sam Gordon. “Plenty that we can do better for him as coaches, plenty that he can learn from. But with a great heart that we showed in the second half, the whole team, offense, defense, really proud of our guys.”

Against the Arizona Cardinals, Mendoza went 10-of-16 on passes for 97 yards and threw a touchdown. Even though the Raiders lost 27-14 against the Cardinals, the fans had something precious to take home: seeing Mendoza living up to his hype. 

Cut to Thursday, even though the Las Vegas Raiders won 20-22, Mendoza’s execution on the gridiron might have left a sour taste for fans. He started strong and played the entire first half of the game but finished with 8-of-15 passes for 86 yards and an interception. 

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The play that caused Mendoza to warrant those comments was the Raiders’ opening drive. The rookie quarterback began the drive with an impressive second-and-15 22-yard completion to Jalen Nailor, only to undo it with a poor decision moments later. On a 1st-and-10 pass from Mendoza, Houston’s Wade Woodaz stepped in to intercept it and returned the ball for an 80-yard pick-six. The pick-six left Las Vegas trailing 14-0.

However, the quarterback tried to fix things after that. He found Dylan Laube for a first down, delivered a completion to Connor Heyward while taking a hit, and later connected with Ian Thomas to set up a 52-yard field goal by Matt Gay.

The mixed bag from Mendoza during the preseason leads to the obvious question: When might Fernando Mendoza finally start for the Raiders? Kubiak had an answer for it. 

“We got another week,” said the head coach when asked about the timeline to name the Raiders starter. “I don’t want anyone to be comfortable in their job.”

It was Mendoza’s perfect chance to shine. Las Vegas rested most of their starters against Houston, including Mendoza’s biggest competition, Kirk Cousins. It is assumed that the latter will be the eventual starter for the Raiders, but Mendoza had the chance to earn some meaningful reps if he had performed well vs the Texans.

He was under pressure, getting sacked once and taking several additional hits against Houston’s second unit. In five series, he guided Las Vegas to just one field goal.