We continue to take a look at the Raiders' two-point loss to the Texans in week 16, 23, 21,

plus the other one-score losses that they suffered this season.

That plus more on Tuesday's edition of the Lockdown Raiders podcast for December 23rd, 2025.

You are Locked-on Raiders, your daily Las Vegas Raiders podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome me at Raider Nation to another edition of the Locked-on Raiders podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your number one sports podcast network. We're very proud of that. We're also very proud of the fact that this show continues to grow each and every day, regardless of the record of the Silver and Black, even though they are 2 and 13 and right a nine game winning or losing streak, you continue to support this show each and every day. So we definitely appreciate that. We shout you out, Raider Nation. We shout out my man Ari. He does a great job behind the scenes, making sure we look good and sound good by way of the YouTube page. He's on Twitter at Ari Produces. you can hit me up as well at your boy Q254. And if you want to be a part of the show, as many of you do,

we got the Lockdown Raider. by way of the YouTube page. He's on Twitter at AriProduces. You can hit me up as well at your boy Q254.

And if you want to be a part of the show, as many of you do, we've got the Lockdown

Raider podcast voicemail line for you. 707-654-4693. We'll close out the show hearing from you, calls, text, a lot of great feedback. We got that coming. And segment number two, we'll take a look at the other one score losses that the Raiders suffered this year.

We'll hear from Kirk Morrison, longtime NFL linebacker, long-time Raider linebacker, part of the Raiders' broadcast. And he brings up a good point about the Raiders and their close losses that they suffered this year and how they really easily could have gone the other way. Ultimately, you are what your record says you are, and that's Raiders got to live with that. They've got to own that this season, as they are 2 and 13, but we would definitely be talking about this team in a different light if they were able to pull out some of these one score losses. We'll talk about them coming up in segment number two. Segment number one, news and notes of the day. We'll jump into that after I tell you about the title sponsor of this show, and that's Fanduel. If you want to be right in the middle of the action all season long, go to fandole.com and place your NFL live bets. More on them later on in the show, but let's go ahead and jump into it. Again, the Raiders lose to the Houston Texans, 23, 21. The Texans are now riding a seven-game winning streak, where the Raiders are riding a nine game losing streak, but it wasn't a walk in the park. It wasn't easy for the Texans. A lot of folks, especially after the way that the Raiders lost to the Eagles, thought that the Texans were going to run through them, especially with that defense, number one defense in the league and their offense starting to come together after they put up 40 points on the Cardinals the week before, but that was not the case.

Matter of fact, the Raiders defense made it very difficult for C.J. Stroud and company to win that game and put up enough points to get it done. And their head coach, D'Amico Ryans, spoke about that Raiders' defense following the game. I feel like the Raiders are a good defensive unit that don't get they don't they don't they haven't gotten enough credit for how good this unit is

coach graham's done a great job of coaching his defense defensive unit that don't get they don't they haven't gotten enough credit for how good this unit is

coached graham's done a great job of coaching his defense they're really good players and it

we knew it would be a challenge all week right and i tell our guys there aren't any easy wins in

this league just because you look at a team's record that's not indicative of who that team is everybody Everybody's going to come out. They're going to play hard. We knew we would be up against a challenge. So it's no surprise. We knew we had to work for the yards. We just got to do a better job of trying to control the line of scrimmage and sustain drives. So I thought that was a nice little tip of the cap to the Raiders defense and the way that they made life difficult on the Texans. And I know some will say, oh, it's just coach speak. That's what they're supposed to say after the game. But I think anyone who watched the game and really paid attention to it and broke it down realizes that the Raiders defense gave the Texans everything that they could handle when it came to, you know, making it very difficult. They're very resistant. They got off the field. You know, there was a few breakdowns here and there. And obviously, this Raiders team is not good enough to overcome some of these breakdowns. There was still a few missed tackles. Lonnie Johnson Jr. had a couple. Max Crosby continues to give all the maximum effort and including on plays where Lonnie Johnson doesn't wrap up and doesn't

make the tackle and you see max 20, 30 yards down the field making plays. But I thought that

that was something that stood out to me. Also what stood out to me is what their young

defensive end, Will Anderson Jr. had to say about Ashton Genti who had himself a great game,

24 carries, 128 yards and a touchdown also had one catch for 60 yards and a touchdown as well. 25 touches, something Kirk Morrison talks about all the time. Genti needs 25 touches. Give him 25 touches. Good things are going to happen. That did happen. And this is what Will Anderson had to say about Ashton Genti when he

asked about him in the Texans locker room following the game. I've never been in the game. And actually, like, Charlotte was like dang like this man, a ton of respect for him, man. He's going to be a really good player in this league. Tough back, tough runner, hard to bring down, man. So he's going to do a lot of great things in this league. I have a ton of respect. So look, Will Anderson is nothing to shake a stick at.

This dude went to Alabama.

He did it at the highest level. So for him to say that he had never had a game where he just stopped and was like, that dude is a dog. That lets you know the respect that Ash and Genties got from his peers across the league. And this season has not been what he expected it to be. It's not been what I

expected it to be. It's not what a lot of Raider Nation expected it to be. But you can see that he has it. You can see that he's still got the skill set. He's got the ability to be a difference maker from the run game. The Raiders have to do their part too. They have to assist him. They have to put together an offensive line. They have to have a quarterback that's worth assault, right? And we all

thought that, at least I thought, that Gino Smith was going to be that guy that was at least going to be consistent enough to keep defenses off balance. But instead, he hasn't been that guy, right? With the lead leading, what, 15 interceptions he's thrown on the season. Him and two are up there fighting for the number one spot when it comes to interceptions.

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